Report of the Pioneer Society
of the State of Michigan Vol 3, 1881
The Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan met yearly to present reports of historical interest from “County, Town and District Pioneer Societies.” These notes were complied yearly and yield interesting stories of Michigan’s early years.
MEMORIAL REPORT
BY COLONEL ISAAC D. TOLL, OF FAWN RIVER, VICE PRESIDENT FOR ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
February 5, 1880
Sketch of the life of Patrick Marantelle, who died at Mendon, May 23, 1878.
Hon. Patrick Marantelle, son of Dominique Marantelle and Archange Marie Louise Navarre, was born at Sandwich, Canada, March 11, 1807, and died at his beautiful home on the St. Joseph river, in Mendon, May 23, 1878. In 1823, when sixteen years old, he superintended the Indian trading post, at Coldwater, for Peter and James Godfrey, the former having married his sister. This post was established in 1821. In 1825, with an Indian guide, he went to Fort Wayne by the way of Sturgis and Mongoquinong prairies, on the business of his employers, and in 1833 succeeded his father-in-law, Colonel Francois Moreton, in charge of the trading post at Nottowa, near his mansion and farm in Mendon, Nottowa Sepee, and the Indian reservation therein, formerly embracing a large portion of that township. By his honorable treatment of the Indians, his well known intrepidity and personal magnetism which affected both white and red, he was of great service to the government in the removal of the Pottowottomie Indians, of the Nottawa reservation, in 1840. Indeed it is authenticated that without him the attempt proved a failure. He purchased a section of most valuable land and showed great energy in developing its fine agricultural resources, and being a superior equestrian, raised many horses noted for speed and endurance. In 1835 he married Frances, daughter of Colonel Moreton, and niece of Governor Gabriel Moreton, of Illinois. In 1847 he served with credit as a member of the House of Representatives of the Michigan legislature, and was one of the committee of Internal Improvement. The office was unsought and he only accepted it by severe urging of his influential friends. For several terms he was elected supervisor of the township of Mendon, serving against his wishes, and carried with him the same devotion and judicious energy in public affairs as he had shown in the management of his own. For over forty years his home was noted for the unstinted hospitality and refined courtesy of its occupants, and for many years religious services were held in his capacious mansion. Mr. and Mrs. Marantelle, in early life, became members of the Catholic church, to which they were devotedly attached, and by lives of most noteworthy examples of all the cardinal virtues, were an honor to their religion and an ornament to society. Patrick Marantelle was connected by marriage with the Brevoorts, Godfreys, and De Quindres. His mother traced her lineage to the princes of Navarre, but irrespective of ancestry he was a peer by virtue of his exalted character, his stainless integrity, his noble bearing; for by the graces of his mind and manners, to say nothing of his manly figure and handsome features, he was without a superior in the wide country round. He left the consort, the partner of his pioneer life, four sons and four daughters (one married Captain William McLoughlin, an eminent citizen of Sturgis), and an estate valued at over $100,000. The writer knew him from boyhood to the date of his death.
Thomas Cade, of Sturgis, St. Joseph County, was born in Yorkshire, England, January 7, 1786, and died at Sturgis, March 9, 1879, having lived over ninety-three years. He emigrated in July 1830, going directly to Sturgis, where he purchased 320 acres of prairie land. He always was engaged in agriculture; was successful, and was of most honorable and honest character. He was noted for his remarkable health and the habitual exercise he took, riding on horseback daily, even to the day before the close of his long life. He rode on horseback Saturday, took supper at Mr. Bloss' same evening, next day said he felt tired and would take a little sleep; but it proved a sleep that knew no waking, for his life went out then, and in an hour his family saw from the calm features that for him death had no pain. He left three sons. Of these Stephen W. is known for his generosity and high character. He served as supervisor for many years with great credit, and dispenses a liberal hospitality at his new and large brick mansion two miles north of the village of Sturgis. Another son, Joseph, has a handsome farm and excellent buildings near his brother. Cade, Lanrick, Mortimer, the Wrens, Morris, were all worthy types of solid stalwart English character, who settled nearly the same time in the township of Sturgis.
William Hazzard, Sr., was born in Berkshire, Massachusetts, February 10, 1798. He settled in the township of Nottowa, two miles northeast of Centreville, in 1829, on Christmas Day, in company with that most excellent gentleman, John W. Fletcher, and others. At the age of twenty-five he married Cassandra Coon, of Monroe, Michigan, and fourteen children were the fruit of this union, of whom eleven survive. In 1875 he married again, his former wife having died in 1871. She was a most worthy woman, and with her husband, the Fletchers, Howes, Powers and others, in 1830, formed a social and religious circle noted for refined courtesy and a Christian influence which pervaded the new settlement and gave results that are visible to-day. William Hazzard was the last survivor of the first Methodist class formed in St. Joseph county in 1830. He died at Mendon, Michigan, September 29, 1878, loved and regretted by all who knew him.
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