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

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HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

which is still standing there, being now used as a marbleshop. It was also used as a court-house, as the people did
not consider themselves able to build one. A jail, however,
would be less expensive and even more necessary. A rude
but substantial structure was accordingly erected at Jonesville in 1835, which served for the detention of criminals
while the county-seat remained at that point.
Among other enterprises of this fertile period was one
which resulted more successfully than most of them did.
A single settler had located on the site of Hillsdale City, in
1834; another came in 1835, and built a tavern. During
the latter year several gentlemen of Jonesville and elsewhere
purchased land there, and in 1836 they built a mill and
made other improvements. The details are given in the
history of the city of Hillsdale. Suffice it to say here,
that this offspring of the flush times did not collapse when
the financial bubble broke, but continued to progress with
steady pace until it is now one of the most pleasant and
thriving cities of Southern Michigan.
In 1837, as before stated, came the great crash, the beginning of the celebrated " hard times." There have been
several other periods known by that disconsolate name, but
that extending from 1837 to 1840, or a little later, was the
" hard times" par excellence, in comparison with which all
other times have been years of luxurious ease.
In the spring of 1837 money was plenty, and all the productions of this region were exhausted by the heavy emigration of that year and the year before. Provisions and
other necessaries were brought in from Ohio, and brought
a very high price. Flour was worth nine dollars a barrel,
oats seventy-five cents a bushel, and other farm products in
proportion. The next fall, after harvest, and after the financial collapse, everything had fallen to half the previous price,
and ere long a still lower depth was reached. Wheat was
only thirty-five cents a bushel. Pork and beef brought two
dollars and a half a barrel, in " store pay." Farm products
could hardly be sold for money at any price. Salt was considered a cash article, and was not included in the general
designation of " store pay." A man could hardly exchange
a barrel of beef for enough salt to cure another with.
When the crash came the State suspended work on the
Southern Railroad before it reached Hillsdale County. Another road, which was projected from Adrian to Marshall,
and surveyed through Hillsdale, was also abandoned.
Among other enterprises of the day, we find an act
passed in March, 1837, incorporating the Adrian and Coldwater Turnpike Company, to build a turnpike between
those two places, through Hillsdale County. Addison J.
* Comstock, E. C. Winter, Henry Wood, George Crane,
Samuel Comstock, Rockwell Manning, and Hiram Cowles
were appointed commissioners to take stock. There were
to be nine directors, and the above gentlemen, with Hiram
Alden and L. B. Crippin, of Coldwater, were made the
first board of directors. Six toll-gates were provided for;
but if the proposed road should intersect the Chicago road
before reaching Coldwater, there were to be no gates on

that road, which was under the control of the United States.
The toll was fixed at six cents for twenty hogs or sheep;
twenty cents for the same number of cattle; ten cents for
*: a two-horse wagon and team, and three cents for each ad

ditional horse; fifteen cents for each two-horse coach or
pleasure-wagon, and five cents for each additional horse;
five cents for a two-ox cart, and five cents for each additional yoke, etc., etc. Sleighs and sleds half-price. The
line was located through Jonesville, leaving Hillsdale at
one side. But the whole scheme fell through, as did nearly
all similar ones in this county. Before the turnpikes
could be built the railroads came, and then people thought
they could get along without the more humble kind of improvements.
It was in the forepart of 1837, just as the "hard
times" were about to come down upon the country with
crushing force, that the Legislature of the young State of
Michigan embarked in a grand scheme of internal improvements. A loan of five million dollars was authorized,
and a board of commissioners of internal improvement organized, who in March, 1837, were directed to survey and
build three railroads across the State. Of these, the
southern road was to run from near Monroe, through
the southern tier of counties to New Buffalo, on Lake
Michigan.
Almost as a matter of course there were various routes
proposed, and much heated discussion regarding their respective advantages. The two routes which were surveyed
by the examining engineers, ran,-one of them through
Tecumseh, in Lenawee County, Jonesville, Coldwater, and
thence westward to New Buffalo; the other through Adrian,
Hillsdale village, Branch (then the seat of justice of Branch
County), and thence westward to the same destination. The
latter route was adopted, though the line was afterwards
deflected so as to run fiom Hillsdale through Jonesville
and Coldwater, and thence through Branch.
New townships were rapidly being formed. In 1836
Adams was created from Moscow, leaving the latter township with its present boundaries, and itself embracing not
only the present town of Adams, but Jefferson, Ransom,
and the east half of Amboy. The same year Pittsford was
formed from Wheatland, embracing the present Pittsford
and Wright, and leaving to the former town the present
Wheatland and Somerset. Scipio was also formed from
Fayette in 1836, embracing the whole of township 5, south,
range 3, east.
In 1837 the new town of Adams was subdivided by the
creation of another called Florida, the name of which was
afterwards changed to Jefferson, and which, on its formation,
embraced Jefferson, Ransom, and the east half of Amboy.
Adams was thus left to its present boundaries. The same
year both Litchfield and Reading were formed from Allen.
The former, as now, embraced survey-township No. 5, in
range 4; Allen, after the two towns were taken off, contained only survey-township No. 6, in the same range; while
Reading embraced survey-townships 7, 8, and fractional 9,
in the same range, now comprising the townships of Reading and Camden. In 1837, also, the township of Somerset
was formed from Wheatland, both, after the division, having
their present boundaries.
Thus at the end of 1837 there were no less than eleven

organized townships in Hillsdale County,-indicative of
at least some scattered settlements in all except the extreme southern portion. The hard times did not stop