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

230

HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

LEVI VANAKEN
was born at Parma, Monroe Co., N. Y., March 25, 1827;
son of Benjamin H. Vanaken, who emigrated from that
county and settled on the land now the home of Levi. He
purchased the land in 1846 and moved in 1848. The
family suffered not only the privations of pioneer life, but
severe sickness, and in March, 1852, the father and mother
both died. Within a week before his father's death Levi

Vanaken had purchased of him eighty acres of unimproved
land. Was married Nov. 24, 1851, to Miss Sarah L.
Stoddard, daughter of Henry Stoddard, one of the pioneers
of Litchfield. Having no children of their own, they
adopted Marion G. Moshier, whose mother was a sister of
Mr. Vanaken, and who died when Marion was one week
old. Is now in the twenty-first year of his age. Has had
good advantages. Graduated at the High School at New
Haven, Conn.

gL,

SOMERSET.

THE township of Somerset occupies a position in the
northeast corner of Hillsdale County, and is designated
upon the government surveys as township 5 south, of range
3 west of the principal meridian. It was originally a part
of Wheatland, from which it was set off, and erected into
a separate township for civil purposes, by an act of the
Legislature passed March 20, 1837.
The surface of this town is greatly diversified. There
are no extensive areas of level land, while " hills and dales"
abound in nearly every part. A large portion of the township is watered by Goose Creek, one of the main tributaries
of the river Raisin. It flows through in a general easterly
direction, and along its valley passes the Detroit, Hillsdale
and Southwestern Railway. It drains Goose Lake, northeast
of Jerome village, Moon Lake, south of Somerset Centre,
and several small ponds. At the Centre its power has been
utilized to drive the machinery of a grist- and saw-mill,
and the supply of water never entirely fails, owing to the
aid of the lakes which feed it. A branch of Grand River
heads in the northern part of the town, where a neverfailing reservoir exists in the shape of several small lakes,
among them Crystal (named from the clearness and purity of
its waters), Grand River, Mud, and Perch. Goose Lake
was so named from the fact that in the early days of the
settlement it was a resort for countless numbers of wildgeese. Crystal Lake has a small island which enhances its
beauty greatly.
The famous " Chicago road" passes through this township from east to west, north of the central portion, and is
the highway over which, forty years since, rolled such a
tide of human life as only finds an equal in the history of
this country in the historic region of Central New York," In the vale where the Mohawk gently glides
On its clear winding way to the sea."
The villages of the township are Jerome, Somerset
Centre, and Somerset Post-Office, or Gambleville, as it was
long ago known. The soil is generally of an excellent
quality, and possessed of the peculiarities which characterize that of Southern Michigan generally, being a mixture
of sand, clay, and rich loam, well adapted to the growth of

grain and fruit. The township is one of the best in the
county in respect to the supply of water it contains.
In 1838, according to a gazetteer of the State, published
that year by John T. Blois, Esq., now of Jonesville, this
township contained 2 saw-mills, a merchant. 326 head of
neat cattle, 40 horses, 93 sheep, 603 hogs, and a population
of 441. By the census of 1874, we find its showing so
different and its condition improved to such an extent that
the following figures will prove interesting:

Population (539 males, 470 females).................. 1,009
Number of acres of taxable land..................... 22,496
" " land owned by individuals
and companies............... 22,579
i" " improved land................ 12,769
" " land exempt from taxation.. 83
Value of same, including improvements............ $9,690
Number of acres in school-house sites............... 5
" " church and parsonage sites... 2
i" " burying-grounds................ 4
" " railroad right of way and
depot grounds................. 72
" farms in township......................... 196
" acres in farms............................... 21,312
Average number of acres in farms.................... 108.73
Number of acres of wheat sowed in 1874........... 3,053
i(" "t harvested in 1873...... 2,700
t" " corn " " 1...... 1,394
" bushels of wheat raised in 1873........ 39,470*
l" " corn " "........ 42,867
" " all other grain raised in
1873........................... 14,284
" '" potatoes raised in 1873..... 5,886
" tons of hay cut in 1873................... 2,278
" pounds of wool sheared in 1873........ 25,942
((" " pork marketed in 1873...... 124,659
it " butter made in 1.873......... 68,508
i" t" fruit dried for market in
1873........................... 25,880
" barrels of cider made in 1873........... 647
" acres in orchards in 1874................ 527
" bushels of apples raised in 1872....... 26,443
" i" " " 1873....... 21,780
" " cherries " 1872....... 20
" " (" " 1873....... 23
" {" strawberries raised in 1872. 3
c" " " " 1873. 3
" currants and gooseberries
raised in 1872.............. 2
" currants and gooseberries
raised in 1873.............. 2
Value of all such productions for 1872............... $6,221
" " " 1873............... $6,215
Number of horses in township, one year old and
over, in 1874......................................... 473
Number of mules........................................ 12
" work oxen................................... 31
" milch cows................................ 523
* Second in county.