KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MI
GENEALOGY & LOCAL HISTORY
COUNTY HISTORY PAGE 2
| The Mound Builders ( Hopewell ) were the pre-historic inhabitants of southwestern Michigan. They were all of one race living in community groups and maintaining trails for travel. These same trails were later used by the Indians and still later by the pioneers. The trail from Detroit now is to the Mississippi probably crossed Kalamazoo. This pre-historic race built many mounds, hence the name 'Mound Builders' - the one one in the Bronson Park, so familiar to us all, being much smaller than most of those found further south. In addition to the mounds, early American Indians left other earthworks in southwestern Michigan and north central Indiana, what settlers called "Indian Gardens", although there is no proof the earthworks had anything to do with agriculture. |
Large garden beds were found in the Indian
Fields, now the Kalamazoo airport as noted in a historical marker:
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A bronze marker on the southwest corner of Prairie
Home Cemetery in Climax: When The First Settlers Arrived In Climax There Stood On THis Spot An Elliptical Prehistoric EarthWork. The Length Was Three Hundred And Thirty Feet And The Breadth Two Hundred And Ten Feet. It Was Surrounded By A Ditch Of Three Deep And Twelve Feet Wide And Was Known To The Pioneers AS The Fort. Erected By The Climax Womens Study Club 1924 |
More Information about the Mound and Garden Bed Builders:
Diagrams of ancient garden beds found in Kalamazoo during archeological excavation of mounds. - Michigan's mysterious Indian mounds by Vivian M. Baulch, Detroit News
Garden-Beds in History of Kalamazoo County, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers. By Samuel W. Durant. Philadelphia, Everets, 1880
"These curious evidences of prehistoric occupation do not appear to have been plentifully found outside Michigan. They are mentioned in notices of antiquities of Wisconsin and we believe, have been found sparingly in Indiana. They abounded in the valleys of the Grand, St. Joseph, and Kalamazoo Rivers, and covered sometimes hundreds of acres. They have been quite appropriately named "garden beds," from a real or fancied resemblance to the garden beds of the present day. They are of various forms, - rectangular, triangular, circular, elliptical, and complex, - and evince, in many instances, a remarkable degree of mechanical skill, as well as cultivated as cultivated taste. A large number of those observed in Kalamazoo County are laid out in regular parallelograms, precisely as a gardener of modern days arranges his beds for onions and beets. The questions naturally arise, Were they actually garden beds for the cultivation of vegetables? Could they have been extensive plats where flowers were raised for the supply of some great city on Lake Michigan or in the Ohio Valley? Were they botanical gardens" The accompanying diagrams illustrate some of the varieties which were found in various parts of Kalamazoo County. They have all, or nearly all, disappeared under the white man's cultivation.
Henry R. Schoolcraft was probably the first writer to give accounts and descriptions of these peculiar relics of an earlier race in Michigan. They were mentioned in a French work as early as 1748.
Schoolcraft gave drawings and careful descriptions of them in 1827 and speaks of them as "forming by far the most striking characteristic antiquarian monuments of this district of the country."
In 1839, John T. Blois, a citizen of this State, published in the "Gazetteer of Michigan" detailed descriptions, with descriptions, of one variety of the beds.
Bela Hubbard, Esq., of Detroit, divides the beds into eight, which he describes as follows:
"1. Wide convex beds, in parallel rows, without paths, composing independent plats. Width of beds, twelve feet; paths, none; length, seventy-four to one hundred and fifteen feet.
2. Wide convex beds, in parallel rows, separated by paths of same width, in independent plats. Width of bed, twelve to sixteen feet; paths, the same; length seventy-four to one hundred and thirty-two feet.
3. Wide parallel beds, separated by narrow paths, arranged in a series of plats longitudinal to each other. Width of beds, fourteen feet; paths two feet; length, one hundred feet.
4. Long, narrow beds, separated by narrower paths, and arranged in a series of longitudinal plats, each plat divided from the next by semicircular heads. Width of beds, five feet; paths, one foot and a half; length one hundred feet; height eighteen inches.
5. Parallel beds, arranged in plats similar to Class 4, but divided by circular heads. Width of beds, six feet; paths, four feet; length, twelve to forty feet; height, eighteen inches.
6. Parallel bed, of varying widths and lengths, separated by narrow paths, and arranged in plats of two or more, at right angles ( north, south, east, and west ); to the plats adjacent. Width of beds, five to fourteen feet; paths, one to two feet; length, twelve to thirty feet; height, eight inches.
7. Parallel beds, of uniform width and length, with narrow paths, arranged in plats or blocks, and single beds, at varying angles. Width of beds, six feet; paths two feet; length, about thirty feet; height ten to twelve inches.
8. Wheel shaped plats, consisting of a circular bed, with beds of uniform shape and size, radiating therefrom, all separated by narrow paths. Width of beds, six to twenty feet: paths, one foot; length, fourteen to twenty feet.
The area covered by these cultivated plats varied, in different localities, from five to as many as three hundred acres. * These remarkable gardens were found by the first settlers about Schoolcraft, on Prairie Ronde, on Tolands Prairie, near Galesburg; on the burr oak plains of Kalamazoo village, and elsewhere.
Henry Little, Esq., states that they covered as many as ten acres lying to the south of the Kalamazoo mound.
Among these last were specimens of wheel form. They were overgrown with burr oak trees, of the same size as those scattered over the surrounding plain.
On the farm of J. T. Cobb, section 7, town of Schoolcraft, the beds were quite numerous as late as 1860. There must have been fifteen acres of them on his land. The sets would average five or six beds each. Neighbors put the number of acres covered with them in 1830, within the space of a mile, at one hundred. +
Hon. E. Lakin Brown corroborates these statememts.
The circular one in the diagram is from information furnished by Henry Little and A. T. Prouty of Kalamazoo. The triangular pointed one is from a drawing by H. M. Shafter, of Galesburg. Roswell Ransom, James R. Cumings, and A, D. P. Van Buren have also contributed interesting information upon this subject. The diagrams are copied from the American Antiquarian for April, 1878, in an article contributed by Bela Hubbard, Esq.
Mr. Van Buren furnishes some account of the beds first found on section 13, Comstock township, on lands purchased by C. C. White for William Toland, the first settler in the township. The beds in this locality covered some five acres, and were of the same general description as those before spoken of, and included parallelograms, circles, and triangles. Mr. Van Buren says J. R. Cumings remembers plowing some of these gardens, and says that the beds were so high above the intervening paths that the plow in crossing the latter ran out of the ground. He estimates the height from bottom of paths to top of bed, or ridge, at eighteen inches.
The antiquity of these garden beds is a question about which there are different opinions. They were found in several instances covering the ancient mounds, an from this circumstance some writers have arrived at the conclusion that they were the work of a people who occupied the country long after the Mound Builders had disappeared. This hypothesis may be the correct one, but is not necessarily so. There are people living today who have seen the burial places of white men, if not cultivated at least abandoned and turned into pasture lands for sheep and cattle. The burial ground of the Strang Mormons at Voree. ++ Walworth Co., Wis., was occupied, in 1873, as a barnyard. Even if the mounds were the sacred burial places of those who erected them, its quite possible that within a few generations they may have have been occupied for purposes of agriculture, in common with the surrounding fields. But it is quite within the bounds of probability that the people who cultivated the garden beds may have known as little of the builders of the mounds as the red Indians who succeeded them.
Both classes of antiquities date far beyond the knowledge of the savages, and were evidently the works of a civilized race.
In examine human skulls taken from mounds near Spring Lake, Ottawa County, Michigan, Professor W. D. Gunning advanced the opinion, from the forms of the skulls, the accompanying relics ( copper hatchets, needles, broken pottery, etc. ). And from other evidence, that these remains date back two thousand years or more.
Mr. Bela Hubbard advances the opinion, in reference to the garden beds, that they may have been cultivated until within three or four centuries of the present time, as that period would have sufficed for the growth of the largest forest trees found upon them. It is altogether probable that the mounds were first constructed, and their age is not overestimated by Professor Gunning. Nothing resembling the garden beds has ever been found, or certainly ever described, in the region where the mound building architecture reached its culm
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Following the Hopewell, reports of the earliest European explorers and missionaries tell of intermittent Sioux presensce in southwest Michigan followed by the Mascoutin or Mascouten, Miami and lastly by the Pottawatomi.
Mascoutin
The name Mascouten apparently comes from a Fox word meaning "little prairie people." In its various forms: Mascoutin, Mathkoutench, Musketoon, Meadow Indians (George Rogers Clark's journal), and possibly Rasaouakoueton (Nicollet). Aside from Nicollet, the earliest mention of the Mascouten was by the French which used their Huron name, Assistaeronon (Assitaehronon, Assitagueronon, Attistae) which translates as Fire Nation (Nation of Fire).
Linguistic affiliation and early French accounts indicate that, prior to contact, the Mascouten occupied the southwestern part of Lower Michigan. Attacked by the Ottawa and Neutral tribes in the 1640s and the Iroquois during the decade following, the Mascouten by 1660 had abandoned their Michigan homeland and joined other refugee Algonquin tribes in Wisconsin.
Map showing tribal distribution in 1750 |
Pottawatomi
At the time of the first European contact, the Pottawatomie, a branch of the greater Algonquin people, were the predominant Indian nation in Kalamazoo and western Michigan.
According to the online Indian Histories the Pottawatomie were engaged in agriculture:
"The Pottawatomie originally provided for themselves as hunter/gatherers because they were too far north for reliable agriculture. Like the closely-related Ojibwa and Ottawa, their diet came from wild game, fish, wild rice, red oak acorns, and maple syrup, but the Pottawatomie were adaptive. After being forced by the Beaver Wars (1630-1700) to relocate to Wisconsin, they learned farming from the Sauk, Fox, Kickapoo, and Winnebago. When the French arrived at Green Bay, Pottawatomie women were tending large fields of corn, beans, and squash. They even took their agriculture a step further and in time were known for their medicinal herb gardens. Agriculture was an extension of the women's role as gathers, but other than clearing the fields, the men remained hunters and warriors.
By 1660 the Pottawatomie were agricultural, and their movement south (to the Kalamazoo and SW Michigan area) after 1680 was most likely motivated by a desire for better soil and a longer growing season. Other things changed as European contact continued. Besides the switch to metal tools and firearms, the Pottawatomie by the 1760s were abandoning birch bark canoes for horses.."
See the Indians of Kalamazoo - Early Letters page for a description of how the Indians interacted with the settlers and how the Indians lived.
Also see Michigan Indian Tribes
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LA SALLE AND THE FIRST EUROPEANS
 The Trappers Return, George Caleb Bingham, Detroit Institute of Arts |
The earliest European residents of the county were fur traders who had trading posts along the Kalamazoo River sometime before the War of 1812. "Though long a gathering place for Indians and a place for Indians and a casual place for whites in earlier years, Kalamazoo's place in history dates from 1823 when the trader, Neumaiville erected his trading post on the present site of Riverside Cemetery." - See Kalamazoo History Chronology
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By the 1820's, traders such as Rix Robinson were firmly established in Kalamazoo. Volume 11 of the Michigan Pioneer Society Collections contains recollections of Rix Robinson (in edited form below):
"At the time that Rix
Robinson settled upon the Grand River of the territory of Michigan,
sixty four years ago, there was not a neighbor towards the west (except,
possibly, one Indian trader) nearer than the Mississippi river; nor to
the north within two hundred miles; nor to the eastward within one
hundred and twenty miles; nor to the south (except at his own Kalamazoo
station) within one hundred miles. If there was no other reason for it
than this, it would be very proper that some attention should be given
to the preservation of his memory, but when we add that it was largely
through his influence and efforts that the Indians of western Michigan
entered into the treaty by which they sold their lands north of Grand
River, in this state, to the government, for a fair compensation; and
that they and the white settlers lived together so peaceably that our
early history presents none of the bloody scenes that disfigure the
early history of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana; and the further facts of
his participation in the early administration of affairs in the
government of this state, and his prominence in the ranks of the then
dominant party, placing within his reach the highest office in the gift
of the people of this state, had he desired it, urgently call for a
sketch of him, while yet the material for it is within our reach, for
within a short time it will be lost forever. So I have deemed it proper
to lay before you to-day what I have learned of it mostly from his
associates, friends and relatives who survive him, and from a personal
acquaintance with him of nearly twenty years.
Rix Robinson was the second son of Edward Robinson, born in Preston,
Conn., and Eunice Robinson, born at the same place. His birthplace was
at Richmond, Berkshire county, Mass., where his father, for many years,
carried on his trade of blacksmithing, and the cultivating of a very few
acres of land. Rix was born on the 28th day of August, 1789, but at
about the beginning of this century his father removed, with his family,
to the fertile Genesee country...
He had, and fully availed himself of, the advantages of an excellent
common school and academical training at a somewhat locally famous
academy in Cayuga county. At the age of about nineteen years he
commenced the study of law ...and then was admitted to practice law in
1811...
Samuel Phelps, a neighbor living half a mile away, had received the
appointment of a sutler to some of the troops then massed on the
Canadian frontier, and not having enough capital, and needing a bright,
energetic, and active assistant, proposed to Robinson to go into
partnership with him and furnish a 1000 dollars, a very large sum of
money in those days.
He and his partner continued this sutler business after the close of the war. Without receiving its pay their regiment was ordered to Detroit. Nearly all of its members were largely indebted to them and they followed so as to be present at paying off time, and receive their dues.
The regiment was ordered to Mackinac. They followed on the brig Hunter, arriving there in November, 1815. They received the appointment of post sutlers, and remained until the troops were ordered to Green Bay, where they remained during the winter of 1816 and 1817, after which the troops were dispersed in detachments without receiving their back pay. A part of them were ordered to Dubuque and a part to Mackinac; the partners separated, keeping with the largest detachments. Their time expired and without being paid and formally mustered out they, as it were, disbanded and returned to their homes, leaving the sutlers minus their goods and their pay, and with only their promises, which were in but few instances kept. Messrs. Phelps and Robinson found that all their profits for several years of labor, and a considerable portion of their capital were outstanding.
Mr. Robinson was much chagrined over this condition of things, and was aware that process was out against him at home for the penalty of non-appearance to do military duty, a judgment on which would absorb the balance of his means, and leave him indebted besides; with that firmness and determination that was a marked trait with him, he concluded to go into the Indian trading business, if possible, and so suggested to Mr. Phelps, who readily acceded to the idea. Both of them had fully investigated it at Mackinac and Green Bay through curiosity, and become well acquainted with the good and bad qualities of furs and their values and the best modes and places of marketing them.
They selected each a place to trade at with the Indians, in, I think, Wisconsin, invested their cash and their goods in goods fitted for the Indian market and incurred some considerable indebtedness.
In the spring they
rendezvoused together at Mackinac, disposed of their furs, etc., and
paid their debts, and found that Mr. Robinson had made quite handsomely,
considering the difficulties that surrounded him, and that Mr. Phelps
had lost about an equal amount. This unlooked for result surprised them,
and resulted in a dissolution, Mr. Phelps returning eastward.
John Jacob Astor had become acquainted with Mr. Robinson before this at
Mackinac, and had observed him and his personal appearance, and his
ways, and had been favorably impressed. At this time Mr. Astor was
really the American Fur Company...
It occurred to Mr. Astor that Robinson, who was then a large, powerful
young man of about 30 years of age, over six feet tall, of splendid
physical presence, apparently a courageous person, somewhat acquainted
with the Indian language and habits, and a little acquainted with Indian
trading and much so with men, a well informed young man, might succeed
in holding the post... Acting on this he made an offer to Mr.
Robinson to go and stay through the season of 1818 and 1819, for a given
sum, and as his own capital was insufficient, Mr. Robinson gladly
accepted it.
He was fitted out and the stock and himself transported to the given
point, by the employees of the company, and then he was left to remain
there without any companion until the employees should come, in the
following June, to take him and the results of his winter's trading to
the grand rendezvous of the American fur company, at Mackinac.
The business of the post resulted so well that when his furs, skins and
peltries were carried in to Mackinac, they were received with great
surprise. Mr. Astor was not there. Mr. Stuart sought to keep him in
their employ, but Mr. Robinson had resolved to be his own master.
Mr. Robinson drew all of his funds out, went to St. Louis and bought a
quantity of tobacco and some supplies and went into business again as an
independent Indian trader, and pursued it among them during the season
of 1819.
... in 1821 his position changed; he was no longer a mere Indian trader,
but became a limited partner in the American Fur Company, ... Mr. Astor
was at Mackinac, and from there sent to Mr. Robinson a request to meet
him at Mackinac, and then offered him the chance to go to the Grand,
Kalamazoo, and Muskegon rivers, making his headquarters on the Grand.
Mr. Robinson accepted the offer and at once closed up his post near the
mouth of the Illinois river, and came over to the mouth of the Grand
river,... He selected a lovely site on the bank of the river at a
point from which he could readily penetrate into the remote interior
parts of the lower peninsula by means of the Grand river and its
numerous long tributaries, navigable for the canoe and the Mackinac
boats, as his permanent home. For he had now become so completely weaned
from civilized life as to have no desire to return to it. He also
selected and married according to the Indian customs,
Pee-miss-a-quot-o-quay (flying cloud woman), the daughter of the
principal chief of the Pere Marquette Indians, in September, 1821. By
her he had one child, now the Rev. John Robinson, an exemplary Methodist
missionary among the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of the state.
He established other posts at Flat river, at Muskegon and up the
Kalamazoo a few miles from its mouth.
When Michigan became a state in 1836, Mr. Robinson and all other Indian
traders foresaw that the business of Indian trading must soon close, and
he resolved to turn his attention to farming and his mercantile and land
matters at Grand Haven, and go out of the business except what little
might come to Ada station.
Mr.
Robinson settled up the affairs of the different posts in his charge and his
accounts with the company, closing out the Kalamazoo post in 1837...
Mr. Robinson had as early as 1835 entered with all of his energy into
the matter of turning emigration to western Michigan, ...inciting a large
emigration from that portion of western New York...
Mr. Robinson was largely instrumental in securing the making of the
treaty of Washington with the Indians in 1836 accompanying them to Washington
for that purpose. By that treaty more than half of the area of the lower
peninsula was ceded by the Indians to the general government, for a full, fair
consideration.
In connection with his going to Washington with the Indian chiefs, who
declined to go without Mr. Robinson, who went at the solicitation of the
government, on its expense,...
At the formation of the state he was appointed one of the first board of
commissioners of internal improvements, who were to expend the five million
loan, which the state had made for the formation of a grand railroad system, a
grand canal system, and a grand system of river improvements, and, for several
years gave almost his entire personal attention and services to the performance
of its duties.
His intellect was strong and clear; it was only the physical body that
was worn out and ceased to be the wrap of the soul January 13, 1875. No
monument marks the place where this remarkable man's remains repose, on the
crest of a hill at Ada, overlooking the river he so loved, and the home of more
than fifty years of his life."
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In Kalamazoo and How It Grew, Willis Dunbar quotes an early history of Kalamazoo that describes one of the old trading posts:
"The grounds upon which it stood, and from whence a beautiful view of the river is obtained, are now within the enclosure of Riverside Cemetery. From the hill above it the first glimpse of this lovely valley and its fair surroundings met the eyes of the earliest pioneers... It was the home and burial place of the most famous of Indian chiefs. It was here the trails all met for the river crossing, and for some time it was the fording place for the pioneers..."
See Reminiscences of Kalamazoo, 1832 -1833 by Jesse Turner for more about trading post and trade on the Kalamazoo River.
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The first white settlement was made on Prairie Ronde, in the southwestern corner of the county, in 1828.
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According to American
Biographical History of Eminent and Self-Made Men with Portrait Illustrations
by Steel, Volumes I-II quotes a tribute paid to
Bazel Harrison, the first settler, upon his death: " ...late of Schoolcraft, the first white settler of Kalamazoo County, and, at the time of his death,--which occurred August 30, 1874,--its oldest inhabitant, was born March 15, 1771, in Frederick County, Maryland, thirty miles from Baltimore. He reached, therefore, the advanced age of one hundred and three years, five months, and fifteen days. His ancestors were a remarkably hardy and prolific race. His paternal grandfather, William Harrison, was a native of Scotland; and his grandmother, of Wales. They came to this country early in the eighteenth century, and settled in Berkeley County, Virginia. There, in 1730, William Harrison, Jun., the father of the subject of this sketch, was born. He was twice married, and had twenty-three children, of whom Bazel was the twentieth,--the third by his second wife, Worlenda Davis. Benjamin Harrison, a brother of William Harrison, Jun., was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence; he was the father of William H. Harrison, who was, therefore, first cousin to Bazel. When Bazel Harrison was nine years old, his parents removed to a farm near Winchester, Virginia, where they remained five years, and then settled in Pennsylvania, near Greencastle, Franklin County. Here, at the age of fourteen, he went to work in a distillery, where he remained until he left the State. He was steady, industrious, and thorough; but had scarcely any opportunities for study, having attended school but three months in his life. He learned to read and write, however; and was not in any way at a disadvantage as compared with those about him. At the age of nineteen, he became engaged to a neighbor's daughter, Martha Still-well; but, as their marriage was opposed by her mother, the courtship terminated, March 17, 1790, in an elopement, in which the lady's father was an able assistant. They remained in Franklin County for three or four years, during which time Mr. Harrison cast his first vote,--for Washington, for his second term. From there he removed across the Alleghany (sic) Mountains to Washington County, where he remained until 1810. In that year he went with his family, now numbering eight children, to Kentucky, opposite Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was engaged two years in the distillery business, During this time General Harrison gained his victory over Tecumseh, at Tippecanoe; and, at the breaking out of the second war with England, being appointed to the command of the north-western frontier, he engaged his cousin Bazel to work his farm, at Millbrook, a few miles below Cincinnati, on the Ohio. Here Mr. Harrison remained until the close of the war, when he bought a farm of three hundred acres, near Springfield, Ohio, on which he lived for ten or twelve years. During that time there was much confusion of land titles, growing out of what were known as "military claims;" and, after Mr. Harrison had bought three such claims, in order to perfect his title, and a fourth was presented, for which seven hundred dollars was asked, he lost patience, and determined to emigrate. Stimulated by stories of the wonderful richness of the Territory of Michigan, and being fond of adventure and well-fitted for pioneer life, he decided to remove to Michigan,--the most remote, and then least known, of the lands of the great North-west. He accordingly gathered a party, consisting chiefly of his own family, and, September 20, 1828, began the journey. After leaving Fort Wayne, then the limits of civilization, they traveled laboriously through the unbroken forests of Northern Indiana, until they reached the boundary of the Territory they sought. Then, after prospecting by scouting parties for a few days, they found the beautiful Oak Openings, called by the Indians "Waweoscotang,"--Round Fire Plain. Here they camped, November 5, six weeks after leaving Springfield, Ohio. They soon met Saginaw, Chief of the Pottawatomies, with whom they became very friendly. Mr. Harrison was always a favorite with the Indians, as well on account of his commanding presence, as for his unswerving integrity and kindness of heart. The little settlement grew steadily, the necessary hardships being easily endured by the ready helpfulness which comes of common need. Mr. Harrison was the patriarch of the little world. Before the organization of the Territorial courts and lesser tribunals, he was the arbiter of all disputes among the settlers; and his decisions were always felt to be just. He was chosen Justice of the Peace; and was afterwards Judge of the County Court, which position he held until 1834. He was naturally a peacemaker; and it is said that he would go half a day's journey to prevent a quarrel. Many anecdotes, illustrating this trait of character, are related of him, among which is the following: "A settler had loaned a neighbor a wagon, which, not being in very good condition, gave way in some part while being used by the borrower. The question arose, who should repair the damage,--out of which grew hard feelings and the prospect of a lawsuit. The parties were induced, however, to submit the case to the unofficial arbitration of Judge Harrison. After hearing the statement of each, without a word, he arose, went into his barn, and, returning, replaced the broken part with a piece of wood selected from a supply which he had brought with him from Ohio. Of course, each party was willing to pay him for the piece replaced, but he refused." In 1830 he was one of those who formed the first Board of Commissioners of Highways, which, in a new country, embraces important and laborious duties; upon them devolved the task of laying nearly all the roads and building the bridges in the entire southern half of the county. In politics, Mr. Harrison was always active. He voted for Washington for his second term, and at every Presidential election after that, except in the years 1828 and 1872: the first of these being the year of his removal to Michigan; and the second, one in which he was prevented by illness. From the time of the Presidency of Andrew Jackson until 1860, he was a Democrat,--having even voted against his cousin, General Harrison, for President. In 1860, however, he voted for Lincoln. His name appears as a delegate to almost every convention during his active life. During the civil war he followed, with eager interest, the fortunes of the Union army; and no one rejoiced in the final victory more than he. Mr. and Mrs. Harrison had seventeen children; namely, William, Sarah, Nathan, Shadrach, Ephraim, Joseph, Cynthia, Elias S., Worlenda, Bazel, Martha, Rachel, Amanda, John S., Almira, Diana, and an infant who died unnamed. Of these, seven are still living; namely, William, Nathan, Worlenda, Bazel, Martha, John S., and Almira. The eldest, William,--now eighty-seven years old, and still strong and well,--illustrates finely the hardihood of the Harrison family. During the last few years of his life, Mr. Harrison remained closely at home. His last appearance in public was at a meeting of the pioneers at Schoolcraft, in September, 1873, when he remarked to the friends gathered around him: "I am one hundred and two years old, and I have not an enemy in the world." He was a man whose integrity was never questioned; his word was relied upon to the fullest extent. He was, moreover, of a strongly devotional nature, and lived an active and religious life; for more than half a century a member of the Methodist Church, his life gave evidence of the genuineness of his professions. In the government of his family, he was strict in exacting obedience, but never harsh; his words, which were few, were always heeded. At his funeral, which occurred September 2, 1874, from the residence of his son, John S. Harrison,--almost exactly on the spot where he had settled forty-six years before,--about one hundred of his children and grandchildren were present. There are now living of his descendants about one hundred and fifty persons. |
Also see the Kalamazoo Valley Museum magazine, Museography, for an article about Bazel Harrison.
A historical marker in Prairie Ronde Township honors Kalamazoo County's first white settler, Bazel Harrison. It also refers to his portrayal as the "Bee Hunter" in James Fenimore Cooper's novel Oak Openings ( see the James Fenimore Cooper Society website ) :
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The following is a brief excerpt from a plot description of Oak Openings by Warren S. Walker that appeared on the James Fenimore Cooper Society website:
| " Although
the action of this Indian story turns on physical combat and the
flight-and-pursuit motif, its theme is religious. The novel opens in July
of 1812 on the partly wooded prairies of western Michigan known as "oak
openings." Four men, all strangers to each other, meet in apparent amity
and talk together. Two of these men are Indians: Elksfoot, an elderly
Pottawattamie, and Pigeonswing, a young Chippewa. The other two are white
men: Benjamin Boden, a bee-hunter and honey merchant from Pennsylvania,
and Gershom Waring, an alcoholic trader from New England. In the story's
first episode Boden shows his three new acquaintances the scientific
method he practices for locating hives of wild bees. He uses simple
triangulation, releasing two honey-laden bees at points 1,600 feet apart
and then observing closely the direction of their respective flights;
where their lines of flight intersect, there will be their hive.
After chopping down the dead oak tree containing several hundred pounds of honey, the men go to Ben Boden's log cabin for dinner. As they are smoking their pipes and talking about the possibility of another war between the Americans and the British, Pigeonswing startles his three companions with the announcement that the war has already started and that Fort Mackinaw has fallen to Canadian forces. The next morning before breakfast, Pigeonswing draws Boden aside and warns him against Elksfoot, who, he claims, is in the pay of the Canadian British. Then to prove his own pro-American position, the Chippewa takes from his tobacco pouch a letter which he is bearing from Detroit-based General Hull (Governor of the Michigan Territory) to Captain Heald, the officer who commands the small garrison at Chicago. After breakfast the two Indians depart, and Boden and Waring proceed by canoe to a point along the river near the felled bee tree in order to collect the honey. After driving off eight bears which are also interested in the honey, they accomplish their mission and start back down the Kalamazoo River to their cabins. Boden has decided to move back to the settlements until the British-American conflict has ended lest he be caught in the Indian hostilities that will inevitably erupt during such a war. He hires Waring to help him take out of the wilderness the large store of honey he has been accumulating for several months. As they are about to proceed to Whiskey Centre, the Waring shanty, they discover the shot and scalped body of Elksfoot propped in a sitting position against a tree, and it seems likely that the Pottawattamie died at the hands of the Chippewa just after the two Indians had left Boden's cabin that morning. As their heavily laden canoe floats down the river, Gershom Waring reveals how his drinking has brought him down in life from a fairly prosperous New England merchant to a frontier trader whose whole wealth now is two barrels of whiskey. He had heard that in the West soldiers and Indians were paying high prices for whiskey, so he had put all of his remaining funds in that commodity and come to western Michigan accompanied by two virtuous and loyal women, his wife, Dorothy (Dolly), and his sister, Margery (Blossom) Waring. The final chapter is not an integral part of the plot but rather a postlude to the action. The narrative method changes from that of omniscient observer to that of autobiographical commentator, and the coda is told from the author's point of view. It is thirty-six years later when the author visits Michigan (now a place of fertile farms and pastoral villages) to meet those characters of the novel who are still alive. He comes as a result of receiving from Ben Boden, now nearing seventy, a set of notes that constitute the memoirs of his life in the oak openings. The author meets the elderly Ben and Margery Boden, their daughter (an only child), and their two granddaughters. He is also introduced to Pigeonswing during the Chippewa's annual visit to the Boden homestead. Most impressive of all those he meets is Peter, completely Christianized and dressed in conventional clothes of the settlers." |
Other historical markers in Schoolcraft and Comstock honor James Fennimore Cooper's visit to Kalamazoo County. The Kalamazoo Ladies Library contains a stained glass window based on Cooper's Last of the Mohicans that reflects Cooper's belief that the Indians held settler technology in great awe; it depicts Indians with their simple canoe and tools, viewing a mill wheel and remarking "The pale-faces are masters of the earth."
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