1880 Map of Hamburg Township

     278.HAMBURG occupies a position in the Southern tier of townships of Livingston County, and is bounded north, east, and west, respectively, by the townships of Genoa, Green Oak, and Putnam, and South by Washtenaw County.

     It contains the villages of Petteysville and Hamburg and the neighborhood on section 12 known as "Newburg." The Ann Arbor road crosses the township in a varied route from north to southeast. The water area of Hamburg is larger than that of any other township in the county, and numerous extensive marshes exist, yet the improvements in the better portion rank with the best. Strictly speaking, this is an agricultural township, although mills have been built in several places and the waterpower utilized. The shores of the Huron are generally marshy.

     From the northeast enters Ore Creek, which, after spreading on section 13 into what is known as Ore Lake, finally joins the Huron River near the centre of town on the east. The latter stream has a general southwest course and enters Washtenaw County from sections 31 and 32, where it expands into a lake, which has been given the name of Base Line Lake. Above this are Whitewood, Buttermilk Rapids, Loon and Strawberry Lakes, all expansions of the river, Among the other lakes in the township to which names have been given are Appleton, Roff, Walker, Long, Round, Lime, Rush, Travis, Mercer's, Pleasant, Gut, Island, Buck, Silver, Zucky, Bass, Cordley, Half-moon, etc., and a portion of Portage Lake lies in the southwest corner. Traversing the township diagonally from northeast to southwest is a long range of high, and in places abrupt, gravel hills, which have a rugged appearance from a distance.

LAND-ENTRIES

     The following is a list of those who entered land in what now constitutes the township of Hamburg, together with the sections and the years of entry:

278a.

 Image of
Dennis Correy Residence,
Hamburg, Michigan

     279.

     From this list it is seen that the first entries were made in the southern portion of the township as early as 1831, many of them being south of the river. The reasons why this was the case are two-fold. First, the region farther south, in Washtenaw County, was settled first, and as the population increased it pushed northward into Livingston. Second, a glance at the farming region south and north of the Huron, in Hamburg, leads the observer to choose the southern portion on account of its superior adaptability to the uses of agriculture. However, after passing the immediate vicinity of the Huron, with its lakes, swamps, and gravel-ridges, an excellent farming country opens before the husbandman,--and as soon as this fact was known, and conveniences for reaching it were established, it became the abiding-place of many of the most influential settlers in the township, and at present bears evidence, by its improvements and general air of prosperity, to the wise choice of its pioneers in locating there.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS-PIONEER INCIDENTS

     The following "Leaf of Hamburg's Dry Early History" was furnished to the Pioneer Association in January, 1878, by Thomas J. Rice: 280.

     "During the interval between the years 1830 and 1836 the southern portion of our beautiful peninsula, which was then comparatively unoccupied territory, was not only being very much talked about, but actually being settled upon with a rapidity never before exampled in American history; and, as a legitimate consequence of this unprecedented rush of immigrants thereto in search of new homes, I found, when I first entered Hamburg as a resident,--which was on the first day of May, 1836, and only four and a half years from the day on which the first white settler therein planted --himself and family upon its soil,--instead of a few discouraged, half-starved settlers, widely separated from each other, in a state of isolated loneliness, a regularly organized town, with its governmental machinery in good running order, and containing fully one-third as many inhabitants as it does to-day. . . . It will therefore be obvious that it is but little, very little, that I know from my own observation or experience about the toils, privations, and hardships of actual pioneer life; and consequently it will readily be seen that for the correctness of most of the statements which I am about to make I am compelled to rely upon traditional evidence and such other testimony as I have been able to glean from individual., who, front their weight of years, are liable to be somewhat confused in their recollection not only as to days and dates, but also in reference to events and circumstances long since past.

    "According to the best light I have, then, upon the subject, it was on or a little before the middle of October, 1831, that Jesse Hall, Esq., the first actual white settler in, Hamburg, first sat himself down with his wife and children within his rude cabin, erected on the west half of the northeast quarter of section 25, and near the edge of the bank of what is now known as Hall's Creek. And on or about the 1st of November of that year, Mr. Heman Lake, who followed close after Mr. Hall, planted himself and family upon the east half of the southeast quarter of section 35. At the time when these first two hardy pioneers established themselves in Hamburg, there were not to exceed a dozen actual settlers, including themselves, in all four of the towns bordering upon the south side of the county, and not one in any of the twelve towns lying north of these, and which constituted the balance of the county. Thus it will be seen that these two men, both of whom are now gone to their rest, were not only pioneer settlers in our beloved town of Hamburg, but also in our beloved county of Livingston. Of course everybody understands that the mere fact that some certain pieces of land were purchased from government at an earlier day than were those purchased by Mr. Hall and Mr. Lake, and on which they almost immediately settled, is no proof that such certain pieces, thus earlier purchased, were also more early settled upon, nor, in fact, that they have ever been actually settled upon, either by the original purchasers or anybody else.

     "That Elizabeth Lake, daughter of Heman Lake, born some time in the summer of 1832 (the exact date I cannot give), was the first white child born in Hamburg, admits not of a doubt, but whether or not she was the first one born in the county I am not prepared to say.

     "That Mr. Cornelius W. Miller raised, in 1834, on the place where I now reside, the first apples that were grown within the limits of this now famous apple-producing town of Hamburg it is confidently believed and I think I am not mistaken when I say they were also the first that were ever grown within the limits of Livingston County upon trees of white man's setting.

     The first large frame, hay, and grain barn erected in Hamburg was built by Mr. Martin Olsaver in 1836, on the southwest quarter of the southeast, quarter of section 35,

     "The first persistent and well-directed effort made in Hamburg to improve the breed of horned cattle, and also of sheep, was made by Mr. David B. Power, now dead; and it is also deemed worthy of remark that the noble example in that direction, by that good man thus early set, is still being followed up with increased vigor and success by his enterprising son-in-law, the Hon. William Ball.

     The first Supervisor elected in Hamburg was Mr. Christopher L. Culver, who, the noble man that he was, came to an untimely death many years ago by being crushed at a barn raising.

     "The first county officer selected from Hamburg was Mr. Justus J. Bennett, sheriff, and the first State officer selected therefrom was the Hon. Edwin M. Cust, senator, who for many long years has been lying in his grave.

     "In conclusion I will merely add that, in addition to the first two pioneer settlers in Hamburg, spoken of and the several other gentlemen of whom honorable mention has already been made, there were many other good and worthy men who planted themselves in the town at quite in early clay. A few of the more active and prominent among the number, I will here beg leave just to name Stoddard W. Twichell, Esq., Mr. Anson L. Power, James Burnett, Esq., dead; Mr. George G. Grisson, Ferdinand Grisson, Esq., Mr. George Galloway, dead, and Mr. Bradford Campbell, also dead. These few individuals have been named because I cannot for one moment doubt but that these men, aided by their respected wives, did much, very much, by the noble example which they set of minding their own business and letting that of others alone, not only towards making the town that quiet, orderly, and thrifty one which, when I came into it in 1836, I found it to be, but also towards causing it to be and remain, until this day, a town in which there are but few crimes committed, few lawsuits prosecuted, and few neighborhood quarrels or other disturbances of any kind. And long therein may the effects of the influence of their noble example continue to live."

     At the meeting of the Livingston County Pioneer Society, held June 18, 1879, the following facts relating to the history of the township of Hamburg were given by Hon. Edwin B. Winans:

     "My first acquaintance and recollections of the township of Hamburg date from the fall of 1843. I then came from the township of Unadilla, to live with my sister, Mrs. Leland Walker, and to attend the winter term of school taught by Horace Griffith, in the Bennett School-house, in District No. 2. Griffith was a married man, and lived on the farm now owned by Orville Sexton, in the same school district. At that time Hamburg had been long settled, comparatively speaking, and offered educational facilities of which I desired to avail myself. I cannot, therefore, relate any pioneer experiences of my own, but only such recollections of the actual pioneers of the town as were then upon the active stage of life. My first impressions then as a stranger were that Hamburg people were, mostly Bennetts, Cases, and Halls,--and it seemed to me in about equal proportions,--and some of the Halls struck me as being very beautiful and attractive. Of course I was young and my experience very limited; but though many years and some travel have enlarged my experience, I still shall insist that the elegantly furnished Halls of to-day have not the fascination and attraction or charm for me as had those young and beautiful Hall girls of Hamburg, in those days, of my early manhood.

    "At the head of the Bennett family I may place Justus J. Bennett, a veritable Nestor, who lived to see three generations of his children, who, together with his brothers, John, Joseph, and Abram Bennett, and their families of stalwart sons and daughters, gave him quite a patriarchal position with the clan Bennett. He was the first sheriff of Livingston County, and it that time owned a large farm on section nine, and lived in a story-and-a-half farm-house with a wing on each side; and it seemed to me to be a veritable mansion, such as I had read of in the old romance of 'Thadderts of Warsaw,' and the 'Scottish Chiefs.' It stood on the hill, as you cross Mill Creek going south, and was known far and wide as the 'Big White House.' I well remember the first time I was invited to the house,--it was to a social party, given by the younger members of the family,--and how I was bewildered by the many rooms; and the brilliant tallow dips glimmering in the far recesses, and the many nooks, angles, and corners of the house. I was more than ever impressed with the superiority of Hamburg style 281. over the one-room log house of my father in Unadilla, in the chamber of which I had been used to sleep and listen to the singing of the woodland birds or the patter of the soft rain upon the roof, with no ceiling or plastering between me and it to dull the soothing sounds. Bennett was surrounded by a large family of grown children, some married and settled on good farms in the near vicinity, others under the paternal roof. The married sons, William Reuben, Justus J. Jr., and Royal, were men in the heyday and prime of life, with children of their own growing up about their own hearth-stones; while Sherman, Joseph, and Charles were then single; and life, bright, fair and wide, was all before them. The old man, full of years, was gathered to his fathers, about a year ago, and now lies buried in the church-yard of the little Union Church round the corner from his old farm in Hamburg. Of his brothers, John, Joseph, and Abram, I was best acquainted with the family of John Bennett. He owned a splendid farm on section twenty-four, on the banks of the beautiful Huron River, one mile north of Hamburg village,--the farm now owned by his son John W. Bennett and Stephen Galloway. He was a mighty hunter and trapper in those days, and none knew better how to supply his larder with the spoils of lake and forest than Uncle John Bennett. He lived to a good old age, and died about four years ago, and is buried in the cemetery at Hamburg village, where many of the early pioneers rest by his side. His sons, six in number,--Isaac, Helem, Alfred, Henry, John, and Horace,--all married, and to them were born children who perpetuate the name and family traditions in Hamburg. The family may be said to be long lived; for Abram, John, and Justus J. each lived to be upwards of ninety years.

     "The Case family was nearly as numerous in Hamburg in those days, as the Bennett. Samuel Case, the patriarch, had a large family of sons and daughters. Elisha, Joseph, Rodman, Spaulding, Crandall, Ira, Jonathan, Norman, and Rufus Case at that time were all young or middle-aged men. Elisha, Joseph, Rodman, and Crandall were married, and had farms on sections four and five, which they or their children own to-day. The Cases were active, thrifty men,-good farmers, mechanics, and business men. I think Spaulding or Ira, or both, kept store at the old homestead. I know there was a Case's store kept there for the country trade, but about that time it was removed to Brighton, where Ira Still does business. The Case family had something to say in those clays about how matters went in town, for they were active, energetic men, who had their own opinions about matters, and were not at all diffident about expressing them. The father was then an old man, and he has been dead these many years; but the sons, I think, are all living except Spaulding, Joseph, and Norman.

    "The Hall brothers, Jesse, James, Augustus, and Daniel, settled near Hamburg village, in the south part of the town. Jesse was among the earliest settlers in town. He took up a large tract of land, on which he lived till his death, and where his widow and youngest daughter still reside. He had a large and interesting family of sons and daughters as also had his brother Daniel, who was located on a farm just west of Hamburg village, now a part of Hon. William Ball's farm. Jesse Hall being wealthy for a pioneer, and being of a social, hospitable disposition, many of the early settlers made his house their home till they had time to build a house of their own, and I have heard Mrs. Galloway, my wife's mother, say, that two, and sometimes three families at a time found shelter and a temporary home at his house. She and her husband, George Galloway,* being, of those who shared his hospitality in those early days, and till they had built for themselves a house on the farm where I now reside. The Hill families were important factors in Hamburg society in those days. The boys were stalwart and the girls were beautiful, and I was so favorably impressed with the condition of affairs that I determined to attend the next winter term in the same school district, which I did; and I liked the place so well that I made the town my home from that time, settling with my mother (my father having died the previous year) in the present village of Petteysville, I having engaged with Seth A. Petteys to work in his woolen-mill for the term of three years, from April, 1845, to April, 1848, which contract I fulfilled. A longer and wider acquaintance showed me that, though numerous and important, the Bennetts, Cases, and Halls, were not all the people in Hamburg worth knowing. At that time George Galloway held a prominent position in the town, both socially, politically, and in enterprise and wealth. An early settler, he soon became somewhat of a leader in public affairs. He was treasurer of the township for eleven successive years, and he was known far and wide for his open handed hospitality. His judgment was relied upon, and his advice and opinion valued by his neighbors and townsmen and no man stood better or had it fairer prospect of success in life than George Galloway; but he died in the prime of life, suddenly, with the cholera, in the year 1854, while on a business trip to New York. He left a wife and six children, all now living.

     In the same school district, and joining farms with Galloway on the south, lived Col. Edward Bishop, a man well known to the people of this county, from having held the office of sheriff for two terms. The colonel was a man of remarkable memory, and with the faculty of relating the events of his life with wonderful minuteness. He could make the story as interesting as an 'Arabian Nights' tale, and I have often been a delighted listener as he narrated the many incidents of his varied life. He was a wagonmaker by trade, and had a shop on his farm, where he and his son, Edward, made and repaired wagons. I well remember the sign, nailed to a tree in the woods at the forks of the road as you came west from Hamburg village, 'E. Bishop & Son, Wagon-Makers.' He also raised a family of ten children,--five boys and five girls, all bright, witty, and promising children. I taught school in that district in the winter of 1846 and 1847, and the Bishop, Galloway, Hendrick, and John Bennett families could send twenty children to school. Theirs were about average families in those days. That is how the country had men to fight her battles. In these degenerate days of luxury and refinement, a family of two or three, or four at most, is considered about the respectable thing. Well, the colonel and his wife are now both at rest in the little cemetery at Hamburg village, where we laid them quite recently, after more than fifty years of wedded life. They were separated for a little while only, he going before, a pioneer into the unknown land.

     "Another of my early Hamburg acquaintances was George Mercer and his family, consisting of Mrs. Mercer and four sons and one daughter. He was a cultured English gentleman, who had located on section seventeen, near the present village of Petteysville. He was a man better fitted by birth and education to move in the older and more cultivated walks of life than to be a pioneer. But somehow he had been caught in the tide of emigration and had drifted away out West, and had pitched his tent in the wilderness. But the great West was omnivorous, and all was fish that was gathered in its net, and so the accomplishments and qualifications of Mercer were of use in building up and developing this country. He was for years the book-keeper and confidential clerk of William S. Maynard, of Ann Arbor. But his family never quitted the farm; and after he left Maynard's he was almost continuously kept in town office up to within a few years of his death. He died at a ripe old age a few years ago, respected and mourned by all who knew him. His wife and children, who still survive him, reside in the same vicinity. His, sons, William, Alexander, and Robert, are enterprising, wealthy farmers; and the Mercer family has taken deep root and developed all the sterling qualities of the old English race.

     "Speaking of Petteysville, its founder, builder, and prime mover is Seth A. Petteys, who is still at the helm, and guides and governs affairs, notwithstanding his threescore years and ten. He first settled in Putnam, on the farm now owned by Hon. George Crofoot; but being a millwright, he was engaged by the Grissons, of Hamburg, to build their mill, and in going from his farm in Putnam to Hamburg village he noticed the water-power, and bought the school land on which his mill now stands. He first 282. put in machinery for wool-carding and cloth-dressing, and for ten or twelve years did a thriving business in that line. That is where your humble servant put in four years of his youthful days. I hired to him for three years at ten dollars per month, to learn the business, and I to live in his family; but after one year my mother came to me, and we lived in our own house (a log one), and he paid me four dollars per month additional, and I board myself. Many a sack of wool I carded for the wives and daughters of this county, to spin and weave into cloth for men and women's wear, and many yards of flannel I have dyed and pressed for dresses, fulled and dressed for suits for the boys to go courting in. I took especial care to have the cards clean and in order to make the rolls for the girls of my acquaintance to spin, because if they were knotty, and did not run free, I was sure to hear from them in such a way as was not at all flattering to my vanity. Petteys has extended and improved his business till now through his efforts and enterprise a little hamlet has grown up around his mill; there is now a grist and flouring-mill, a cider-mill, with all the improvements, a blacksmith and carriage-shop, two stores, a post office, shoe-shop, school, and church facilities for the fifteen or twenty families who live in the village. He has raised a family of four sons and daughters. Three of his boys went at their country's call in the great civil war, but only one returned at the close, and one daughter has died since. The remaining children are settled in and around the little village that bears the family name. Long may he be spared to see and to enjoy the fruits, of his toil.

     "Going east from Petteysville, over the rolling country into the valley of the Huron, past the homes of George Galloway and Col. Bishop, at the foot of Pleasant Lake, in those days lived Peter S. Hendrick, another of the Hamburg pioneers but he too has 'joined the innumerable throng who assemble around the Throne.' His widow and his youngest son now live in the old home at the foot of the lake. Hendrick was a mechanic as well as farmer, and many of the late houses, and more of the earlier barns, were planned and built by him. Such men in those days were indispensable, and his services were in constant demand. He raised and educated a family of eight children, all now living, and by his industry he left, at his death, for their inheritance, a good farm, a good name, and a record for liberality in all matters of public interest. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and Mrs. Hendrick now receives from the government a late recognition of her husband's services.

     "Leland Walker, the owner of the saw and flouring-mills of North Hamburg, was a man in those days, who filled a large space in society; a man of acute mental power, he had much to do in shaping matters of public interest. For many years he was supervisor of the town, and took a strong interest in all educational matters; later in life he took an interest in the study of medicine, and having graduated at a medical school, he removed to Dexter to practice his profession, but soon after died suddenly of heart disease. His death was a serious loss to the community. The limits of this paper will not permit even the casual mention of all the worthy dead and gone pioneers of the town; but, with your indulgence , I will mention the names of a few as they occur to me, who have not passed over the dark river, and are still living in the township, and are to-day prominent and active citizens fully abreast with the times, and who, it seems, could as ill be spared as any of the younger generations now on the stage of life.

     "There are the brothers, Stoddard W. and Hobart A. Twichell, two men with the proverbial New England thrift, farmers pure and unmixed who by strict attention to their own business are now possessed of a large competency. S. W. Twichell, the eldest, lives on section thirty-six, where he first located, and Hobart A. on section twenty-three, where he first settled. Both have often held the highest offices in town, and had they been ambitious in that way, could readily have gone higher. They are of the solid and reliable men of the town.

     "Ferdinand Grisson is an educated, genial German gentleman, the only one remaining in Hamburg of the four brothers of that name, who came from Germany and settled in a very early day on section twenty-five, by whom the town was named for their beloved Hamburg in the fatherland, the founders of Hamburg village. He still remains an indispensable member of our society. He is, and has long been, our postmaster; For years he has been the only justice of the peace who does much, if any, business. He does the insurance and conveyancing for the country round about; he is the leader of our choir. He occasionally marries a couple, but oftener helps to bury our dead. He makes himself so generally useful that it, though a strong partisan and his party in the minority in our town, he can always be elected by a large majority. That is the kind of a man he is. 'May he live a thousand years and his shadow never grow less.'

     "George Burnett is a quiet, intelligent fanner, who lives just out of the village, and may well be classed with the most worthy of pioneers of genuine merit and probity, he has lived a blameless life, and always is ready and answers to the call of duty.

     "There is Thomas J. Rice; the history of Hamburg will never be complete without mention of him. Educated to the law, he is well versed in literature and history, and is himself an author; but modest, retiring, and unassuming, he bides his light in his study on the banks of Silver Lake, and unless he is dug out by his admiring friends he prefers to remain in retirement.

'Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear.'

     "A near neighbor of Rice is Charles H. Hankins, who is a very deserving citizen, who for many long years, has contributed his quota to the industry that has gradually made for Hamburg a reputation for having a law-abiding, industrious, thrifty population. He is a good mechanic, and has a shop on the banks of Silver Lake, where all and any jobs of repairing in almost any line can be done with neatness and dispatch. He owns a fine cider-mill run by steam, and is largely engaged in making cider vinegar. He is always on hand to serve his customers himself, and they are sure to be well served.

     "In the winter of '46 I first knew George S. Butler, a farmer who, then as now, lived about three-fourths of a mile north of Hamburg village. I was teaching school in his district, and he and his wife made their home so pleasant for me that in my memory the hospitality dispensed in the log houses of those days is not surpassed in the sumptuously furnished houses of these latter times. 'The humblest fare where love is, is better than a stalled ox with envy,' and Mr. butler is a rare man, who for more than forty years has pursued the even tenor of his way with 'Good will for All and offense toward none.' "

     The following is from the pen of Col. Edward Bishop, of Hamburg township, and was furnished to the County Pioneer Society in January, 1876. After narrating the events of his first prospecting tour (in 1832) from Yates Co., N.Y., to Michigan, Col. Bishop proceeded:

     "In July, 1836, 1 again started for Michigan, with my wife and eight children, designing to settle in the State. We stayed in  Detroit six weeks, when we moved to Plymouth Corners, where we resided three years and a half. In 1836 I had purchased land in Hamburg (sections 10 and 22), and soon after built a house on it, into which I moved on the 2d day of May, 1840, where we have resided the greater part or the time ever since. I think I manufactured the first lumber-wagon, or wagons, ever made in Livingston County. Being in moderate circumstances, I labored early and late to improve my land and to provide for the wants of a large family,--then consisting of ten children (two children having been added to the number since our settlement in Michigan), my wife, and myself. We succeeded as well as we could expect. Seven of our children are still living, and all but one are married or have been. I believe my wife and myself are the

 282a.

 Image of
Hobart A. Twichell Residence,
Hamburg, Livingston County, Michigan

     283. oldest couple living in Hamburg, -- she being seventy-eight last August, ¥ and myself eighty the same month We were married on the 27th of April, 1816. . . .

     "I have in the course of a long life met with a number of gentlemen who have been my friends, for which I feel very thankful. I have also seen a few rogues, but from the latter I have been quite exempt; though while I was sheriff of Livingston County I had a prisoner who was very anxious to escape, but found he was watched too closely, and he offered me in advance one thousand dollars in gold if I would go away from the jail and stay one night. I declined the offer, and told him I should watch him more closely. His name was Elijah Badgero, who was sent to the State-prison for a term of years.

     I have improved two farms, erected suitable dwellings and raised orchards but at present I own only a house and two lots, at Petteysville; am free from debt and enjoy the comforts of life. I draw a pension of ninety-six dollars per year from the United States for services rendered during the war of 1812-15. My health is now poor, but if my life is spared I think of writing a history of the events through which I have passed since the year 1800."

     Elijah Bennett, from Steuben Co., N.Y., settled in the north part of the township in the spring of 1835, on the place now owned by Meyer Davis. His widow is still living, and his daughter is the wife of Nathan Hight, of Genoa.

     Abram Bennett settled in Washtenaw County in 1829. At a comparatively recent date he moved into Hamburg, and took up his residence with his daughter, Mrs. George Cole. His wife died here, and his own death occurred at a late date, when he had reached the great age of one hundred and three years.

     In the fall of 1835, Garner Carpenter lived in the northern part of town, on a farm he afterwards (1836 or 1837) sold to Samuel Case, who settled upon it. Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Case are both now deceased. The latter's sons Joseph and Elisha, long resided in the township. Joseph is dead and Elisha is a citizen of Brighton at present. The latter's son occupies his father's old farm, and Oren Case, son of Joseph, lives in Genoa. Samuel Case's sons settled in Hamburg before their father came, probably in the fall of 1836. Rodman Case, another son, came later and purchased land from second hands.

     Justus J. Bennett, from Steuben Co., N.Y., came to Michigan in the fall of 1833 and located in Washtenaw County, where he remained until the spring of 1835, when he moved into Hamburg township. He located large tracts of land in Hamburg and Marion. The old homestead in Hamburg is now occupied by George L. Hull, and is owned by Governor Felch, of Ann Arbor. Mr. Bennett had a family of ten children when he came to the county. One son, Daniel S. Bennett, now lives in Ionia County, and another, William H., in Hamburg. One daughter is now the wife of Seth

A. Petteys of Petteysville, and she and her brother William are the only ones of their father's children at present residing in the county.

     Daniel B. Harmon settled in 1835 north of Petteysville, on a farm now owned by Mr. Buck, a German. A year or two later he sold his place to George Mercer and removed to Shiawassee County. The farm was afterwards purchased by Edwin M. Cust. **

     Christopher Hoagland. and Eastman Griffith, also Timothy Pettit, were early settlers in the north part of town, and all three were residing there in the fall of 1833. Griffith returned to Steuben Co., N.Y., where he died; Pettit died in Clinton Co., Mich. (his home at the time being in DeWitt); and Hoagland is also deceased.

     George Mercer, a native of England, afterwards for a number of years a resident of New York City, and finally of Rush, Monroe Co., N.Y., came to Michigan in the fall of 1835, and settled a mile north of where his widow now lives, on the place now occupied by Adolph Buck, whose wife is the daughter of Edwin M. Cust, also an Englishman, to whom Mr. Mercer sold in the spring of 1836, Cust moving upon it in the summer following. Mercer had been a merchant in the city of New York, and soon tired of life in the wilderness of Michigan, where there was no society, and his family also were averse to the life of pioneers. The nearest physician was Dr. Halleck, at Whitmore Lake, nine miles away. Mrs. Mercer was born in the city of London, and country life was entirely new to her. The nearest post-office was also at Whitmore Lake. The finishing lumber and brick for the chimney of his house Mr. Mercer procured at Ann Arbor. The nearest mill was at Plymouth, Wayne Co., thirty miles away. The Pinckney and Hamburg mills, built soon afterwards, supplied a great need, and in those days did a large business.

     When Mr. Mercer sold out to Mr. Cust, he removed to Swartzburg, Wayne Co., where he remained about one year. Mr. Cust finally prevailed upon him to come back and purchase the lot upon which Mrs. Mercer now lives, and a log house was built thereon into which the family moved. The materials for a frame house had been brought to the site from Ann Arbor; but as it was impossible to find a carpenter at any point nearer than the last-named place, the log house was built instead; it stood a few feet east of the present frame dwelling. The neighbors of the Mercer family, when they first came (1835), were Justus J. Bennett, James M. Davis, and George Galloway,--the first two north and the latter east.