KALAMAZOO  COUNTY, MI

GENEALOGY & LOCAL HISTORY

COUNTY HISTORY PAGE 3

Lewis Cass, negotiated many of the Michigan  Indian Treaties ending in removal

INDIAN TREATIES AND  REMOVAL

The Indians gave up more and more of the lands given to them under the 1895 Treaty of Greenville,  then they were removed completely from the area.  In return for their traditional lands, the Potawatomi received what seems today very small compensation.

In the 1817 Treaty of Fort Miegs (or Treaty of the Foot of the Rapids ) the following compensation for various lands :

"To the Potawatomy tribe, annually, for the term of fifteen years, the sum of one thousand three hundred dollars, in specie, at Detroit"

"The stipulations contained in the treaty of Greenville, relative to the right of the Indians to hunt upon the land hereby ceded, while it continues the property of the United States, shall apply to this treaty; and the Indians shall, for the same term, enjoy the privilege of making sugar upon the same land, committing no unnecessary waste upon the trees."

Of course, the United States reserved certain privileges even on the remaining Indian lands

ART. 14. The United States reserve to the proper authority, the right to make roads through any part of the land granted or reserved by this treaty; and also to the different agents, the right of establishing taverns and ferries for the accommodation of travellers, should the same be found necessary.

In the 1821 Treaty of Chicago, the Potawatomi and other tribes ceded land from their reservations to  white control.  In Kalamazoo County, the Indians were left with two reservations:

"One tract at the village of Prairie Ronde, of three miles square."

"One tract at the village of Match-e-be narh-she-wish, at the head of the Kekalamazoo river."

In an 1839 Indian Council the white settlers made it clear that they wanted the Indians to leave, but Indians were adamant they did not want to go.  The discussion includes references to the 1833 Treaty of Chicago that required the Indians to leave:

"ARTICLE 3d--All the Indians residing on the said reservations in Michigan shall remove there from within three years from this date, during which time they shall not be disturbed in their possession, nor in hunting upon the lands as heretofore. In the mean time no interruption shall be offered to the survey and sale of the same by the United States. In ease, however the said Indians shall sooner remove the Government may take immediate possession thereof."

The Indians expressed their views about leaving at an Indian Council in White Pigeon:

INDIAN COUNCIL
From the White Pigeon Republican, Aug. 28,1839

In 1840 the long process of obtaining Pottawatomie lands came to an end.  Following the terms of the 1833 Treaty of Chicago the Indian Land Agent, Henry Rice, and General Brady assembled all the Pottawatomie at what became the Michigan Central Station for removal to new reservations in Iowa (see CMU Clarke Library for an account from a removal survivor).  The Indians did not board trains since the railroad had not yet come to Kalamazoo, rather they were marched west under U. S. Army guard.  Catholic Indians were exempted due to the efforts of Judge Epaphroditus Ransom, a prominent Kalamazoo resident,  who  became governor.  Other Pottawatomie went their own way to Ontario and some overlooked in remote areas.  The Indian removal was memorialized in a bronze marker placed on the Michigan Central Depot:

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ADVANCE OF SETTLEMENT

As in most of Western Michigan, early settlers in Kalamazoo were primarily from New England and western New York, many using the Erie Canal to their journey to Michigan.

The early settlers took the open prairie lands that did not require clearing brush and timbers.  The pattern of settlement was discussed in a June, 1999 conference at WMU : "Farmers evaluating land for possible settlement would, according to this logic, select heavily timbered land over sparsely timbered and open land. The following text is taken in large from a 1970 paper by B.C. Peters in the Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters."

"Agricultural Settlements: 1832 - 1834

Although the most desirable farm land--the prairies--had been largely taken up by settlers or speculators by the end of 1831, the oak openings and beech-maple forest remained essentially unoccupied and unpurchased at that time.

Oak openings were perceived early on as being nearly as valuable as the prairies, and much preferred to the dense forest. Several pioneers in Richland Township, for example, who arrived early enough to obtain prairie land selected instead oak openings near Gull Prairie. One of these settlers, who lived on the road from Bronson (later Kalamazoo) to Gull Prairie, told an 1836 traveler the reason he had not taken up prairie land. 

'A settler near the edge [of Gull Prairie] at whose house we dined, stated to me that from his own experience her preferred openings to prairie, that the old farmers on the latter think they begin to perceive a slight deterioration of soil by cultivation, whereas in Washtenaw County, for instance, some parts of which have been settled 12 years the openings have continued to improve with every crop to the present time.'

The agricultural settlers who purchased land between 1832 and 1834 favored the oak openings over the beech-maple forest. The two largest areas of this upland forest, in the southeastern and southwestern corners of the county, were essentially unoccupied in 1834.

Thus, it is obvious that settlers favored the oak openings over heavily timbered land. As soon as the prairie land in the county was all taken, settlement began in those townships dominated by oak openings. For example, in 1832 the first settler in Ross Township occupied an oak opening in section 18. The first settler in Cooper Township, in 1833, selected an oak opening in sections 2 and 11. And the initial settler in Pavilion Township in 1834 took up residence in an oak opening in section 2. 

That the occupation of the county spread from the prairies into the oak openings was recognized by an early historian who reported that in Oshtemo Township by 1836, the settlements were being "pushed" into the oak openings west of Grand Prairie. In fact, if they had the money, the settlers preferred to buy land in prairie or oak opening from speculators rather than beech-maple timbered land from the government. This was the case, even though in 1836 the prairie land was selling at prices of $10 to $15 per acre and the oak openings at about $5 per acre.  

The lack of interest in settling the heavy timber is revealed by the general absence of early information about Wakeshma Township, which was covered by that type growth. The 1869-70 Kalamazoo County Directory reported that the township "has been looked upon as a wilderness and forsaken place umbrageous and ambiguous with here and there a squatter," and was "just now [1869] getting itself out of the woods." Wakeshma Township did not receive its first settler until 1842 (14 years after the first settler had arrived in the county) and he probably would have taken up prairie or oak openings if he could have afforded them. By this time the farmers on Prairie Ronde had been exporting wheat for 11 years, and one farmer on Genesee Prairie was producing 1000 bushels of wheat a year. The reluctance of the pioneers to locate in the forested land in Wakeshma Township is understandable since it took five or six months of hard labor to clear a 20 acre plot."

For more information about the 1830's in Kalamazoo go to the Reminiscences of Kalamazoo, 1832 -1833 by Jesse Turner page.

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HARDSHIPS OF EARLY SETTLERS

The wilderness dense to Kalamazoo

The Reverend Wm. Ferry of Ottawa County gave a sermon in the 1850's that included a poem about frontier hardships that mentions Kalamazoo and the thick forest surrounding it. 

"Who shall despise the day of small things?"--Zech. iv, 10.

Mr. Ferry's text on this occasion: "Alas, for their hopes! for the vigilant cook had need for a moment just indoors to look. When an unruly pig spied the morsel delicious, up his nose to the kettle--the fruit was in ashes!

It happened one day that some Indians came with a birchen-bark vessel, a "mocock" by name. Till 'twas done to a turn--it could not be too soon.

So fortune, most fickle, our fondest hope dashes. Once their commons were short and famine impended. But that food might abound and the scarcity ended, a man was dispatched in haste to ride through the wilderness dense to Kalamazoo,

To purchase live pork for the settlement's need, to all this necessity giving good heed, he hastened, through wintry tempest and storms.  And with care and success his errand performs, with drove well in hand, approaching his goal, and thoughtful of home, the generous soul sent a messenger forward with haste, to declare: The success of his mission, that they might prepare for the feast of fat things he homeward was bringing..."

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LAND SALES - MICHIGAN FEVER

The settlement of Michigan increased sharply in the 1830's due to the Indian and land policies of Andrew Jackson's administration.

Federal Land Purchased By Settlers 1830

Federal land purchased by settlers under 1831 land sales

The US land office serving the area was moved from White Pigeon in southern St. Joseph County to Bronson (Kalamazoo) in 1834.    The Michigan Pioneer Reports state that, "The records of the public land sales at the office in Kalamazoo for the year 1836 show that there were nearly two millions of money received at one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. For one single day there was received eighty-seven thousand dollars in exchange for the fertile land of Michigan. And this, notwithstanding the Surveyor-General's report for the year 1815 says that the land was unfit for cultivation and not worth the expense of surveying."  The Michigan Pioneer Society Collections Report Volume 12 indicates that Kalamazoo's experience was part of a land boon taking place throughout Michigan at that time:

From the very beginning of the period we are considering, and even before, a steady stream of immigration had begun to pour into the territory. It consisted mostly of people of means and respectability from the older States, led by the prospect of cheaper lands. Wagons loaded with household goods and surmounted by a live freight of women and children--the men trudging on foot--were constantly entering by the almost only door, Detroit, in great numbers, bound for some paradise in the new El Dorado. A curious spectacle at one time presented itself--literally a drove of men--Frenchmen from lower Canada--taken on by an adventurer to be settled upon the River St. Joseph, at the mouth of which, in the olden time, their countrymen had built a "fort" among the savages. Each had his pack, bound up in a blanket, upon his shoulders, and the baggage followed in a wagon; for the United States Government had opened a road in that direction, leading from Detroit to Chicago.

Men who never before saw a wilderness were tempted to set fourth, on horseback and on foot, in the spirit which prompted so many gentlemen adventurers, in the early settlement of the New World, to swell the ranks of the colonists--the prospect of speedy and golden fortunes. The numbers that crowded to the search soon converted the ordinary slow process into a race.

Three land-offices had been opened by the Government in Michigan--one at Detroit, one at Monroe, another [p.95] near the western extremity of the known portion of the territory at Kalamazoo, then called Bronson. The strife and eagerness which prevailed at these offices passed all sober bounds. They were besieged long before the hour arrived for opening; crowds of anxious faces gathered about the doors and blocked up the windows, each eager to make "entry" of some splendid tract of farming land, or better still, some magnificent site for a town, before an equally greedy speculator should discover and pounce upon the treasure.   See Michigan Fever Part I and Michigan Fever Part 2 for more information about land settlement in western Michigan.

The 1839 Michigan Gazetteer described the Kalamazoo region in glowing terms and declared much of the county's land taken:

"Kalamazoo is generally level, though sufficiently undulating to conduct off the waters in healthy streams. It is divided into prairie, open, and heavily timbered lands. About one third of the county is heavy timber, of beech, maple, ash, basswood, whitewood, butternut, and black walnut. There are eight prairies, viz. Prairie Ronde, Grand Neck Prairie, Dry Prairie, Genesee Prairie, Grand Prairie, Tolland's Prairie, Gull Prairie, and Climax Prairie; in all, containing about one eighth of the county. Every portion of the county is admirably adapted to agriculture. The soil is a black loam, rich and fertile in the extreme. The productions are similar to the counties adjoining. 

There are numerous mill-sites in different parts of the county, with a hydraulic power sufficient to support the most extensive manufactures. The principal mill streams are, the Portage river of the St. Joseph, and the Portage river of the Kalamazoo, and Gull creek. The Kalamazoo river runs through the county, near its geographical centre, and is skirted with heavily timbered and open lands of the first quality.

The settling of this county commenced in 1829. In 1830, two or three townships of land were offered for sale by the general government. In 1831, the balance of the county, save a reservation of one township, was brought into market. The public lands are mostly taken up in this county, by actual settlers, though some remain unsold, of a good quality. It belongs to the Kalamazoo Land District."

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MISSIONARIES

The impulse to head west affected another group, the missionaries.  One such was George N. Smith (1807-1881) from Vermont.  He went west to Kalamazoo and experienced all the hardships of frontier life. His story was told by his daughter, Etta Smith Wilson, in her essay, Life and Work of the Late Rev. George N. Smith, A Pioneer Missionary ( Published 1905 in "Historical Collections Made by the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society" Vol.  XXX ) excerpted below:

Ohio had been designated as the end of their journey, but in May, 1833, a colony of Congregationalists, to whom he was to preach, had formed to start for Michigan and Mr. Smith determined to come with them. The little boy was then nearly one year old. Mrs. Smith’s health was well established, and they were both ambitious to see the new country. 

For some reason not understood at this late day, the colony did not materialize; but Mr. Smith and his family, including Mrs. Smith’s sister, Miss Jane Powers, who afterward became the wife of the Hon. D. D. Mc Martin, a pioneer resident of Kalamazoo, left St. Albans, May 8, 1833, for the Territory of Michigan. They crossed Lake Champlain by steamer, took the Northern and Western canal to Buffalo, crossed Lake Erie to Detroit by steamer, upon which Mr. Smith took deck passage, while Mrs. Smith, Miss Powers and the baby occupied the cabin. 

Arriving at Detroit Mr. Smith found himself possessed of exactly $1.06, but fortunately they met an old Vermont acquaintance, who took them to the only hotel, a log cabin kept by a Frenchman. To meet expenses, Mr. Smith sold his watch for $5.50. He found a teamster who was willing to take the family across the State to Gull Prairie for $20, payment being guaranteed by Mr. Smith’s friend.

The roads were wretched and the discomforts and hardships of the trip were almost unendurable. For a week the little family battled with the tortures of the lumber wagon, prying wheels out of mud holes, eating poor fare from boxes, exposed to rain, sleeping in the wagon or on shanty floors. The entire trip from Vermont occupied twenty-one days, and cost about $70, a sum much larger than was anticipated.

Arriving at Gull Prairie they were appalled at the amount of sickness among the pioneers who had preceded them. Bilious fever, typhoid fever, and fever and ague of a kind and intensity which shook the hardiest, were raging in every family. Not a house or even a room could be obtained; but a home was found with a Presbyterian minister, who, on learning of the new arrivals, hastened to them and offered a home in return for their help. His wife and children were ill with fever and ague and he was putting up a barn and could get no help. 

The Smiths remained with the family until fall when they rented a room that had been used as an office. It was large and convenient, with a large brick fireplace, and the family were very comfortable there.

The first three years in Michigan were trying ones. Mr. Smith taught school when he could find one to teach and at other times worked at the carpenter’s trade for $1 per day. At this early day very little building was going on in the southwestern part of the Territory of Michigan. The town of Marshall consisted of but two log houses; Jackson was known mainly by’ its one hotel — a poor one; Kalamazoo was but a suggestion of a place and Grand Rapids was mainly an Indian trail with a trading post of the American Fur Company and a mission for the Ottawa Indians in charge of the Reverend L. Slater, a Baptist missionary. 

Work was being carried on on the University of Michigan buildings, but Western Michigan was almost a trackless forest. The winter following Mr. Smith was appointed agent to distribute bibles in Kalamazoo county. He also preached when he could find hearers.

For a time the family escaped the ravages of the prevailing diseases, but with the coming of spring the plague was upon them. Miss Powers, who was teaching school a few miles away, was brought home on a bed, being very ill with bilious fever. Mrs. Smith was also down with the fever, and while still very ill gave birth to a little son, which wept feebly and died.

The problem of living became a serious one. Mr. Smith, although small in physique, was strong and wiry, and possessed of boundless energy and endurance. He worked like a slave days and studied nights, never forgetting his great aim. When not ill with the ague Mrs. Smith earned a little by taking in sewing when she could find opportunity. In August, 1835, Mr. Smith received a request to preach in Plainwell and Otsego alternately, with the prospect of getting support from the Congregational Home Missionary Society, then in its infancy, and the family moved to Plainwell the same month.  

The Smith family having solved its financial problems met new hardships in Plainwell where there was no real housing and wolves howled through the night, but Reverend Smith and his family eventually overcame the hardships of frontier life.  When the Dutch came to Western Michigan a decade later, George N. Smith was there to help them.

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COURTS

The first business of permanent settlement was the establishment of courts. First County Court held at the City of Kalamazoo, in a Log Cabin, Oct. 1832.

The image above is from a postcard published by the Kalamazoo Public Museum.  It shows a 1850 painting by an early Kalamazoo settler, Anthony Cooley that depicts a scene in 1833:   "Log house on the right home of Titus Bronson, Proprietor of Kalamazoo.  Center cabin scene of the first court, Jonathan Abbot first Doctor and Postmaster of Kalamazoo, talking to Bronson. "

Kalamazoo Courts in the Territorial Era

Before territorial courts were established justice was provided by people such as Bazel Harrison, the first settler in the county, who acted as Justice of the peace.

In May, 1831, the village of Bronson (now Kalamazoo) was designated the Kalamazoo County Seat initiating the process of establishing courts.

 From the Kalamazoo County Directory, J. M. Thomas, 1859.

Earliest Court Activity

(In 1831) " The unorganized counties of Calhoun, Eaton and Barry, and all the country north of these, were attached to Kalamazoo for judicial purposes. Bazel Harrison and Stephen Hoyt were appointed Justices of the County Court. The first record of the Court bears date Oct.17th, 1831, and Cyrus Lovell appears with a petition from the proprietors and citizens of the village of Bronson (present day Kalamazoo), requesting an alteration, in part, of the plat of said village 

The suit of Geo. Shaw, appellee, vs. Abraham J. Shaver and Epli. Harrison, appellants, the first litigated case on our records, took place at Bronson's house, at the October (1832)  session of the Court, Judge Bazel Harrison on the bench. Jury returned a verdict of $61 20, damages and costs. The attorneys in this suit were MeGaffey and Humphreys, for the plaintiff; and Cyrus Lovell and John Hascall, for defendants. This is the scene of Anthony Cooley's picture of " The First Court in Kalamazoo." - p. 38

(In October, 1834 Kalamazoo was struck by a tornado forced relocation of the court)

After the storm, Mr. Hays was obliged to find a place of shelter for his family, until his own house, twisted and torn by the storm, could be made habitable again. The only refuge that could be found was the new school-house on South street, then not wholly finished. The family used the back part of the school house to live in, and Judge Fletcher occupied the front part for holding a session of the Circuit Court-the partition walls being nothing more than suspended sheets and blankets. Several weeks elapsed before their own house was made ready again. Mr. David Hubbard and family, at the same time, occupied the old slab school house, adjoining, and the scenes and incidents of those days are by no means the least pleasant ones in the memories of the survivors of those two families. Among those who came here in the fall of 1834. we find the name of Epaphroditus Ransom, who, from the high positions he was, soon after his arrival, called upon to fill, both in county and State affairs, deserves more than a passing notice. - p45

Kalamazoo Courts under Statehood

"At the organization of the State Government, Mr. Ransom was appointed Judge of the Western Circuit, and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. The Circuit then comprised the entire western portion of the State, at that time sparsely settled, and for the most part a howling wilderness. Ionia, Eaton, Calhoun, Branch, Kalamazoo, Cass, Allegan, Kent, Berrien, St. Joseph and Van Buren counties were in Judge Ransom's Circuit, and twice each year did he make his way to the remote county seats ( generally on horseback) to dispense justice and dispose of such rogues as did not have the log jails of that period in healthy consideration-before their eyes.

The first term of the Kalamazoo Circuit Court (under the State) was held in the school house on South street, heretofore spoken of. The Grand Jury held their deliberations under the trees contiguous. The first "true bills" found against violators *of the " peace and dignity of the State " we need not here recite. The sessions of the Circuit Court were the occasions of the year. People flocked in to be present at the trial of the State cases, or as suitors and witnesses in every conceivable kind of litigation, from a dog suit up to the more dignified issue over a pair of steers. The felons of that day were hog and horse thieves; with a liberal sprinkling of those aristocratic rogues who sought to inflate the currency by "shoving the queer. " (Note: "shoving queer" means passing counterfeit money - probably much easier to do in pioneer times) - p. 50 Kalamazoo County Directory, J. M. Thomas, 1859.

Kalamazoo Courts have been housed in the following buildings:

"The first county building at Kalamazoo was erected in 1835 and was a frame structure of 42 by 55 feet and two stories in height.  The second, built in 1882, was an ornate, three story, brick and stone edifice with a central tower and four corner turrets.  The new (present) county building is six stories and a basement in height and 90 by 182 feet in plan.  Its size reflects in growth, over a century of time, of the area it serves.

It houses two courtrooms with accessory offices and jury rooms, all of the county offices, record vaults, the county jail, and the sheriff's quarters.

It is fireproof throughout, of steel and reinforced concrete, and the exterior walls are faced with limestone.  The high base is granite.  It was completed in October 1937 and has a volume of 1,400,000 cubic feet.  The construction cost was $710, 817 and the project cost was $743,590." - Local Government Buildings ,  circa 1940

Second Kalamazoo County Court House, 1907:

Kalamazoo County Building. 1940:

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