History of Hillsdale county. Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers.

HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

201

Royal Raymond, November 3; John M. Lickley, November 7; David, Short, November 16.
Section 6.-Christopher Clement, October 17; Royal
Raymond, November 3; Wilber Ames, November 7.
Section 7.-Jonathan Howland, October 24; Samuel
Miller, November 2; Stephen Thorn and S. D. Daken,
November 9.
Section 8.-Michael Lickley, November 7; Moses Moore,
November 9; Stephen Thorn, James Sager, and James
Thorn, November 10.
Section 9.-Lewis M. Gates, July 15; John B. Skinner, July 31; David Short, November 16.
Section 10.-Lewis M. Gates, July 15; John B. Skinner, July 23; A. S. Berry, November 12.
Section 11.-Alexander Duncan, July 6.
Section 12.-Job S. Littlefield, June 26; Alexander
Duncan, July 6; Asa D. Reed, July 18; Thomas C. Sawyer, September 30; William Cavender and Arthur Lucas,
October 7.
Section 13.-Alexander Duncan, July 6; Thomas C.
Sawyer, September 29.
Section 14.-Alexander Duncan, July 4; Hiram Lucas,
October 7; A. J. Comstock, December 26.
Section 15.-Nathaniel Silsbee, July 30; Samuel Coman,
October 7.
Section 17.-Isaac M. Sturgis, November 9; Stephen
Thorn and J. Sawyer, November 10; Nathan Birdsall,
December 12.
Section 18.-David Short, November 16.
Section 20.-Joseph R. Williams, November 10; Jane
Shute, November 26.
Section 21.-Joseph R. Williams, November 10.
Section 22.-Alexander Duncan, July 6; Joshua Tompkins, July 18; Samuel Coman, October 7.
Section 23.-Alexander Duncan, July 6; William Tappenden, July 9; William Raleigh, October 27.
Section 24.-William Tappenden, July 7; Alexander
Duncan, July 21.
Section 25.-Thomas Smith, July 9; Benjamin F.
Brown, December 10.
Section 26.-Thomas Smith, July 9; Henry P. Gardner, October 27.
Section 27.-Langford G. Berry, November 12.
Section 29.-Charles H. Covall, October 20; Jane Shute,
November 26.
Section 31.-The whole section was entered by Charles
H. Covall on the 20th of October.
During the spring and summer of this year Mrs. Hiram
Lucas, who resided at the village of Adrian, in writing to
her father, Samuel Coman, then living at or near the city
of Rome, in the State of New York, gave him such glowing descriptions of the beauties of this country, which she
looked upon as the emigrant's Eldorado, that he became
enamored of it, and resolved at least to see it, and if he
found that it sustained its reputation for worth and beauty
to make it his future home. Having this in view, he wrote
to his son Russell, who had been a resident of the West since

1825, and who was then living in Dearborn Co., Ind., to
meet him at Adrian on a designated day in September, to
aid him in prospecting for and locating land should he find
26

himself suited with the country. They met in Adrian according to the appointment, and, accompanied by Hiram Lucas,
proceeded to Canandaigua. At that place they hired Arthur
Lucas and Calvin Pixley to guide them in their wanderings
through the unbroken wilderness. The forest was at that
season decked with its most gorgeous and attractive dress.
The pencil and brush of nature's most gifted artist had
touched, tinted, and colored the foliage till it glowed with
its wealth of red and purple, russet, crimson, and gold.
From the festoons of the clinging vines hung pendent
large bunches of fox grapes, their deep, rich color contrasting vividly with the parti-colored foliage. The earlyfalling leaves had formed a soft, rustling carpet beneath
their feet, and the fruits of the nut-bearing-trees-the
beech, oak, hickory, and walnut-kept up a continual pattering as they, loosened by the touch of the early frost,
fell from their elevated positions among the branches.
Squirrels chattered noisily among the branches; wild turkeys crossed their path, and stole away at their approach;
rabbits sat and stared at them for a moment, and then leaped
away to their coverts in the underbrush; and wide-eyed
deer, after giving a momentary gaze of astonishment at the
unwonted apparitions, bounded away with flying leaps
through the aisles of the echoing forests. The forest
primeval was in its gala dress, and no wonder that it captivated the hearts of the entire party. And such it seems
was the result, for every member of the party, guides and
all, made selection of land, and subsequently entered it at
the Monroe land-office. The land selected by the Comans
was on sections 15 and 22, and was entered by Samuel
Coman on the 7th of October, he stopping at Monroe for
that purpose when returning to his home in New York.
The two Comans, father and son, returned to their respective homes to make preparations for the removal of
their families to the new homes they had selected. Russell
Coman had left the parental home, in the State of New
York, in 1825. With a small boat so affixed to the running-gear of a wagon as to supply the place of a wagon-box,
and accompanied by a young man, he started West to seek
his fortune. Arriving at the head-waters of the Ohio
River, he dismounted his boat, and, launching it upon that
stream, dropped down with the current till he reached the
mouth of the Miami River, where he disembarked, and
found a home in Dearborn Co., Ind. March 12, 1829, he
married Miss Ann McMath, and the union was blessed with
three Indiana-born children, one of them being an infant at
the breast when the journey to Michigan began. Immediately upon his arrival at his Indiana home, Russell Coman
packed his goods, loaded them in a Hoosier wagon, with his
wife and three children, and with two yokes of oxen drawing
the loaded wagon, began his journey to Michigan,-to the
land where he was to find so pleasant a home for himself and
for his family. In due time they arrived at Adrian, and
stopped at the house of Hiram Lucas, Mr. Coman's brotherin-law. While there the youngest child died. Mr. Coman employed Hiram and Arthur Lucas to assist him, and, leaving
his family at Adrian, went to his land and built his first house,

which was also the first one erected within the limits of the
town. It was soon so far completed as to allow of its being
occupied by the family, and they moved into it some time