History of Ottawa County, Michigan with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers.

.HISTORY OF OTTAWA COUNTY.

109

i

1I

dall, is an old soldier, and gives excellent satisfaction in his office,
which he has held since October, 1876. He has also a small grocery and tin-shop in connection.
There are quite a number of old settlers residing in the village,
which was platted in 1856 by H. & Z. Steele, and has been known
as Middleville and Steele's Landing.
In 1842 there were but three houses in Lamont, that of T. B.
Woodbury, now of Fruitport, that of H. Steele, and that of Job
Calkins. J. O. Hedges lived just outside the village, and Allan
Stoddard, now eighty-two years of age, about a mile and a half up
the river.
Stephen Hedges was the first teacher, the school-house being
opposite Stoddard's, but now burnt down.
In 1866 Lamnout is described as a flourishing post village with
two churches, two hotels, several stores, a machine shop, steam
flouring mill, saw mill, etc. L. Sumner, Postma:ster, Babcock & Co.
had the saw mill, W. P. Barber was dentist, L. E. Barnard was
physician, W. D. Scott and J. Westervelt kept a drug store and grocery. Miner Hedges had a grocery, as had also A. Cassell; W. H.
Blakeny and Solomon Snyder had hotels; Johlln Rice was Justice of
the Peace and kept a livery; G. Baxter, stoves and tinware; G.
Luther, J. Luther and C. Pitman had a general store, as had also
E. Brace; Rev. L. M. Bennett was Methodist minister; J. Cilley
and W. J. P jrlee were Justices of the Peace; J. Velsey kept boots
and shoes, as also Y. Thompson; R. Tucker and A. Burdick were
blacksmiths; W. Cunnilnghamn and 0. Fuller carriage makers; R.
Coman & Co., tanners; H. M. Lane, engineer; J. A. McKay, architect and Notary Public.
In 1876 Rev. C. Doolittle is Congregational mllinister, Rev. C.
H. Fisher, Methodist; 0. G. Marvin and Scott & Walling have general stores; J. Rice has the only hotel; W. Clark, I. C. McIlvain,
L. D. Smith and M. Hedges, are physicians; J. S. Parks, tanner;
P. B. Hill, harness maker, and J. Cilley, sash and door factory.
The saw mill now owned by Frank Hedges, who inherited it
from his father, Miner, was built inll 1864, and cuts 20,000 feet a day
of hard wood, having a circular and edger. The old mill, built by
Calkins & Babcock, was burned. There are three general stores in
the village, the oldest is that of Hedges' on River street, next Walling Brothers, and then Grinlghuis. The postmaster also sells groceries as well as has a tin shop. There is one blacksmith shop. There
is no hotel, that of Squire John Rice having been burnlt downl, but
Mr. Rice still dispenses hospitality at his residence to strangers who
may be stopping in the village. Mr. Hedges has the only furniture
store.
One of the drawbacks of Lamont is the want of a railway, but
there is some prospect of the Michigan Central Railway, which controls the charter of a railway called the Grand REiver Valley R. R.,
which ran a trial line through Lamiont in 1872, building a branch
from Grand Rapids to Nunica, 22 miles off, instead of going round
to Muskegon via Holland, 80 miles. There are no engineering difficulties in the way.
The town library was commenced with 104 books belonging to
two school sections, in 1833.
One of the early settlers was Jeremiah O. Hedges, who was
born in Rensselaer Co., N. Y., in 1795, settling in Lamont in 1841,
and dying in 1868, leaving seven sons, of whom Miner, born in 1826,
died in 1881. Stephen is his eldest son, and is a prominent resident

near Lamnont. His son Silas, of the 10th Michigan Cavalry, died
in the war. John Calkins came in 1841.
There are three church edifices in Lament, the oldest being the
Methodist Episcopal, established in 1836, the Congregationalist
established shortly after, and the Dutch Reformed, who are about to
erect a larger edifice. The present Methodist Episcopal pastor is

Rev. Mr. Kitzmiller, that of the Congregationalist, Rev. Mr. Wall.
The present postmaster of
TALMADGE POSTOFFICE
is Alonzo Patterson. Bethuel Church was the first postmaster; his
daughter, Mrs. John Rice, of Lamont, shows still the first diminutive mail bag made of ribbed velvet 9x18 inches. The mail was
carried by an Indian from Grand Rapids to Grand Haven, and he
and his squaw were drowned at the mouth of Sand Creek, being
found there under water tightly clenching at roots, and the mail was
recovered. Postage on letters in that day was twenty-five cents.
The postoffice has been moved about a mile to Wolf's grist mill so
as to be nearer telegraph and telephone.
BETHUEL CHURCH,
who was one of the honored fathers of Talmadge, was born at Cambridge, N. Y., Feb. 17, 1784. At ten years of age he experienced a
change of heart, and was all his life of a deeply religious temperament. He came to Sand Creek in 1836, became first Supervisor
and a man forward in every good work. He died full of days and
full of honors in 1859, amid the universal esteem of his neighbors.
He traces his ancestry from the pilgrim fathers, and was a man of
marked force and individuality.
DEVOTED LOVE.
A case of romantic devotion occurred in 1875 in 'the family of
Daniel Angell, who with his family had settled here in 1837. As
man and wife they had lived in true conjugial love, and when Mrs.
Angell died-, it so affected her husband that he felt certain he could
not survive her loss, and accordingly he directed that her body should
be kept so that he might be buried at the same time. Sure enough
he died on the 19th of November, just two week 3 after her death,
and they were buried with one funeral.
I BIOGRAPHICAL.
WILLIAM CLARKE, M. D., L. S. A., Lamont, although but comparatively a young man, has attained, by indomitable perseverance,
I and by the aid of a good mental and physical constitution, an enviable distinction as a deep student of the art of medicine. A
native of the Emerald Isle, the doctor came to Michigan in 1864,
and taking up the study of medicine, graduated at Detroit Medical
I College in 1871; not content with this distinction, his ambition
I reached out for still hilgher honors, and for deeper researches in the
arcana of the human system and its myriad'ailments, and we find
him at the great city of New York, graduating in medicine with distinction from the academic halls of the far-famled Columbia College.
The doctor's motto being excelsior, after rapidly accumulating by his
extensive practice, sufficient means, he turned his attention to foreign degrees and graduated in 1879 at Kingston, Ontario, from
Queen's University, where the examination is unusually rigid and
the standard high. Still, on the upward ascent, we find him in the
great city of London, England, attending lectures and taking the
degree of L. S. A. on the 18th of,March, 1880, and a license to
practice medicine in Great Britain and Ireland. AU the doctor is
still young and ambitious, we dare not predict what other honors
he will carry off. He settled in Lamont in 1871, and has a very

large practice.
GEERT GRINGHUIS, general merchant, artist and portrait painter,
LamUont, is a gentleman whose aptitude for art almost entirely unassist
ed by masters, will lead to his taking rank with the recognized masters
of art in this country. He has finished a number of landscape
paintings that would stand the criticism of artists. His forte, how

-1

fr

- r