History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With ... biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers.

490

HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

the site now occupied by the village tavern. Newton was
not the most industrious man in the community, and,
apropos of his inordinate fondness for lingering within
grateful shade on a summer day, it is related that H. P.
Barnum once said that he could always tell the time of day
by marking Newton's gradual march around a house in the
wake of the moving shadow of the building. Cyrus Batemen, above mentioned, lived on the place of his first settlement until his death. He and Roderick Irish married
sisters of the Dopps.
Samuel Gunton, the first elected sheriff of Van Buren
County, settled on the Territorial road, one mile south of
Prospect Lake, in 1836. In 1839, nearly all the members
of his family being dead, he returned to New York State,
his former home.
S. M. N. Brooks, a young man, lived with his brotherin-law, John Reynolds, in 1838, roved about for a time,
and settled eventually in Keeler. In the same year John
Andrews located on section 14, east of Baker's Lake; he
moved afterwards to Hartford, where he now lives. William R. Williams, a New Yorker, settled upon section 20
in 1836, and at an early day, selling his place to John
Raven, moved to the eastern part of the State. Thomas
Price and his widowed mother came from New York in
1836, in company with David Dopp, who had previously
married Mrs. Price's daughter. They all lived together at
the village a short time, and settled in company upon a
farm in section 29, where Mrs. Price died. Her son
Thomas lives now in the far West. In 1836, also, John
Mellen, with his wife and ten children, journeyed from New
York, and located on section 17, in Lawrence, where both
Mellen and his wife died in 1843. All of their children
moved out of the township. Mellen was at the time of his
death a blacksmith in the village.
Joseph Haynes, a carpenter, located in Brush Creek in
1836, worked at his trade there some time, and settling
upon a farm in section 15, died there in 1858.
Volney A. Moore, a nephew of Harvey Marshall, came
to Lawrence in 1838, lived with the Marshalls for a time,
and marrying, bought a farm on section 30, where he died.
General B. F. Chadwick, who bought the Phelps mill,
south of the village, owned also a small farm near there.
He lives now in Hartford. The old mill is still known as
Chadwick's mill. Mr. Chadwick says it used to be called
"Chad's old mill," and " old Chad's mill," just as the popular humor fancied. Leonard Watson, who settled in
Breedsville in 1835, and in Lawrence in 1838, married one
of Judge Haynes' daughters, and died in Cass County.
In 1838 also came Warren Van Vleet, who owned a farm
on section 13, and who still lives in the township. Barney
and Daniel Evans came to Lawrence with their father in
1838, and located near Prospect Lake. They are all dead.
Barney's widow lives on section 16.
Watson Pool, a carpenter,. became a resident of Mason
in 1837, and besides his work at the bench attended to the
cultivation of a few acres on what is now called St. Joseph
Street. His widow still lives in the village.

The first birth in Lawrence was that of Sarah, daughter
of John and Jane Reynolds, her advent occurring March
21, 1836. She died in Lawrence in her youth.

William R. Williams and Elizabeth Gibbs were the pioneer wedded couple of Lawrence, but as they mated before
Lawrence had a "squire" they were compelled to go to
Schoolcraft to have the ceremony performed. The first
marriage in the township was that of Ephraim Taylor and
Emeline Gibbs. They were joined in the autumn of 1836,
by Justice Jay R. Monroe, in Dexter Gibbs' double log
tavern, which was, on that important occasion, alive with
merry-making, and radiant with a joyous gathering, from
far and near, of fiiends and fellow-settlers. Judge Monroe
was on his way to Schoolcraft when he was overtaken by a
messenger in hot haste, and told that he was wanted to
marry a couple at Dexter Gibbs'. The judge turned about,
got to Gibbs' at nine o'clock that night, married them, and
resumed his trip.
No death occurred in the little settlement until 1838,
when, in the month of April, Dexter Gibbs' wife was called
from her earthly cares, and three months later her daughter,
Mrs. Ephraim Taylor, died. Dexter Gibbs himself did
not remain long, for in October of the same year he followed the others. Mother, father, and daughter were
buried upon the banks of Brush Creek, just outside the
present eastern limits of the village. This place was afterwards used as a public burial-ground until the present
village cemetery was laid out.
The frequent necessity of sending a grist to mill was to
the early pioneers of Lawrence a task of considerable magnitude. For the first two or three years after its first settlement, " going to mill" meant going to either Kalamazoo,
Prairie Ronde, Flowerfield, or Whitmanville, and sometimes even to Three Rivers,-places from twenty-five to
thirty miles distant. A journey like that through a wild
country, and over rough roads, or no roads at all, was not a
pleasant subject for contemplation, but the necessities of the
hour offered no loophole of escape, and the issue had to be
met. The tree-stump corn-mill at home served many a
good turn, and was a valued and useful coadjutor in the
business of producing corn-cake. Of course the march of
improvement soon relieved the settlers of the inconvenience
attendant upon reaching distant mills, but while the exactions continued, they were distressing. Matters improved
somewhat in that respect in 1838, when John R. Haynes
put a small run of stones into his saw-mill at the village of
Mason.
As an illustration of the difficulties encountered by the
early settlers in procuring the necessaries of life may be
cited an incident in the experience of Mr. Warren Van
Vleet. He spent, on one occasion, several days in a fruitless search through the country for some flour. Eventually,
he discovered a man in Prairie Ronde who had eight barrels, but who refused to sell less than a barrel, and that at
an extortionate price. Van Vleet was pretty nearly desperate at the dealer's obstinacy, and told him that he had
better lock his flour up somewhere, for the people might
presently be urged by hunger to deeds of violence, " and
then," said he, "where would your flour be?" Failing to
get flour Van Vleet bought a lot of rice at Paw Paw, but

when he got home he found that there were no edibles in
the house but the rice. Thereupon he roamed the woods
in search of wild honey, and finding some, he and his fam