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Two families, Wilkes L. Stuart's and Daniel Weaver's, who lived in the town of
Cambria, Hillsdale County, Michigan, decided that they needed more land for their
children. The parents said, "Why must we be separated from our children? Let us sell out
and go with them. What are the comforts of home without the society of our children?
This sentiment prevailed, and after a few earnest conversations on the subject it was
decided to come north and look for that "lodge in the wilderness".
On January 1, 1855, W. L. Stuart and Daniel Weaver started from their home. On the third day they reached Lansing, where the Legislature was in session. Here they came across a old pioneer of Newaygo County, John A. Brooks, then a member of the Legislature. He invited them to take a look in this county north of Muskegon River. They then came north to Ionia, the United State land office being located there. Here they procured maps showing the unentered lands of several townships. Coming down the Grand River, they reached Grand Rapids on the 6th. and on the 7th. they came to Newaygo, where they were introduced to J. H. Standish, a young lawyer in that village and Hiram Butler, landlord of Newaygo's best hotel. Standish and Butler put them on the track of the vicinity of what is now Fremont. On the morning of the 8th, they shouldered their packs and waded through the snow, going north-west of Newaygo until they came to the pole shanties of John and Frank Harrington and Daniel Joslyn and his wife.(The Joslyns were one of the first married couples in the woods north of Newaygo). This location was one mile east of Fremont and was later called Elm Corners. In the morning they looked around and made up their minds to pitch their tent where Fremont, has since been brought into existence. Later they returned to the United States land office again, at Ionia, where they purchased nearly 1,000 acres of land, 640 acres at .75 cents an acre, and the balance at $1.25 per acre. This purchase was made on the 1st. of Feb. 1855. They then returned to Hillsdale County and prepared to emigrate. In a few days they started back with five teams, seven or eight men, one woman and a baby: the woman was Mrs. Susan "Stuart" Mallery, and the baby, her daughter, Fanny, afterwards the wife of George B. Raider of Fremont. A six day journey brought them to Lisbon, a small town, 16 miles north of Grand Rapids, Michigan where Mrs. Mallery with her infant stopped and stayed with her aunt, while the men came on and erected a dwelling. Commencing at Newaygo, near where the cemetery now stands, they cut their road into Joslyn's claim, and stayed with him over night. In fact they boarded and lodged with him while they put up a house. The beds were made up on the puncheon floor; and, although in the morning their backs would have made a good checkerboard, there was no complaint. In the company were two brothers of indomitable energy and plunk, Henry and Samuel Shupe: these boys, together with Philip Weaver and Mallery, soon cut the house logs, and Shupe, with Thomas Stuart's stags, drew them through the deep and crusted snow. Philip Weaver cut and supplied the "persuaders,' of which it took a goodly number. Some culled lumber was hauled from Newaygo, and thirteen men and boys raised the 'old log house,' the first in Fremont. A large fire was kindled, and before a log was turned down (set in place), a shovel full of coals was put on the corner to make it 'stick.' The shingles were made by Joslyn, and the rafters cut and backed by Philip Weaver and Samuel Shupe, framed with a narrow ax, and in three weeks it was ready for the pioneers. That house was looked upon with interest by many of the first settlers. There, for several weeks, 26 persons stretched their weary limbs upon its floors. There, the first wedding in the area was held between Thaddeus L Waters and Laura Jane Weaver on 27 May, 1855. (at that time the area was still part of Bridgeton Township). The Waters's first child was born there also. There, Dr. Weaver took his first lessons, and scores of travelers stopped, refreshed themselves and recuperated, and then pushed forward with renewed vigor into the howling wilderness. There, in 1855 the first town meeting was held and officers elected, and there, a new township was formed by taking the north twenty seven miles of Bridgeton Township and the name Fremont was suggested by Samuel Shupe, in memory of that old pioneer, Gen. John Fremont. There, in the house the first post office this side of Newaygo was established on the 23 Aug, 1856, by Daniel Weaver and was called Weaverville. Wilkes L. Stuart's house-raising, which, according to Wallace Dickinson's diary, was the second house raised here, on the 14th. of April, 1855, and the Harringtons the third on 23rd of April, 1855. At the Harringtons raising there were present, Miles Hunts, James Mallery, Samuel Shupe, Lyman Brown, Daniel Joslyn, J. Cooper, Jonas Waters, Philip, John, and Wallace Dickinson and the three Harrington brothers. In 1862 Daniel Weaver moved to where Hesperia is now located on the White River and the post office name was changed to Fremont Center as the settlement was located in the center of Fremont Township at that time. In 1882 the name of the post office was again changed, to just Fremont. In 1873 the village was incorporated by the act of the Legislature and in the spring of 1883 the village officers, elected were J. R. Odell, President; C. I. Rathbun, Clerk; John Cole, Treasurer, A. O. White, Assessor; R. J. Thompson, Street Commissioner; R. P. Piper, Marshal; John C. Brewster, Surveyor; Joseph Gerber, Chief Engineer of the Fire Department; S. P. Barnhard, M. B. Franklin, Joseph Gerber, J.R. Odell, J. T, Reynolds and R.W. Rutherford, Trustees. |