CHAPTER XL.

LENOX TOWNSHIP.

The principal stream in Lenox is Salt River, which runs due south through the eastern part of the township, affording motive-power for several mills along its course; next in importance comes Deer Creek and some of its minor tributaries, which afford water for agricultural and other purposes. With these streams the township is fairly watered.

Pure spring water is obtainable by digging a few feet in almost any spot in the township. The original settlers of the township were men of sterling worth, of great enterprise and of untiring industry. Among those who have left their names as the proudest portion of the history of the township are Abner Stevens, Phineas D. Pelton, Richard D. Bailey, Lanson Flowers, Ebenezer Brooks, John Church, Beverly Robinson, Thomas F. Dryer, Apolas A. Fubler, Owen Sheridan, Silas Leonard, J. R. Crandall and many others of equal prominence. The descendants of the larger part of the above are still inhabitants of the township, though many of them are to be found throughout the entire county.

ORGANIZATION.

The township of Lenox was organized in the year 1837. The first township election was ordered to be held at the dwelling-house of Sterling Case. There came a call from the Legislature through Linus Gilbert for the organization of the town in 1837. It was proposed by the inhabitants that the three oldest men in the town should give the name. Benjamin Haight, Mason Harris and Israel Dryer were selected, each selecting a name. The choice of Messrs. Haight and Harris was similar to those of other townships in the State. The choice of Israel Dryer was adopted, and the name of Lenox confirmed. The members of that committee died in the town at an advanced age, Mr. Dryer being near eighty-eight. Of the first voters, about forty in number, only five are living, viz., Oliver Cromwell, Hiram O. C. Harris, Justus R. Crandall, Thomas F. Dryer, of Lenox, and Ebenezer Brooks, of Armada. First Supervisor, Benjamin Haight; Thomas F. Dryer, first Clerk, served eleven consecutive years. In the absence of all political lines, peace and harmony prevailed for many years. Regarding the profits of office in those early days, Mr. Dryer thinks the whole township business was done for several years for $100 per year, or less, and his charges as Clerk did not exceed $10. He also had the pleasure of boarding the three Highway Commissioners about three days each year free of charge. The early settlers had a flourishing town library, which was well read for several years.

FIRST MEETING.

The first town meeting was held at the house of Sterling Case, April 3, 1837. William Francis, Thomas F. Dryer and Simon P. Miller were Inspectors, with Alanson Flower, Clerk. The election resulted in the choice of the following officers: Benjamin Haight, Supervisor; Thomas F. Dryer, Clerk; Justus R. Crandall, Collector; Jacob E. Hall, Mason Harris, Justin Corey, Eben Carl, Justices of the Peace; A. T. Corey, A. Flower, Jacob E. Hall, Assessors; Eben Carl, Abner Stevens, Eben Brooks, Road Commissioners; Carlos W. Brown, Justus R. Crandall, James M. Millard, School Commissioners; Oliver Bates, William Miller, Poor Directors; Mason Harris, William Miller,

Alan. Flower, T. F. Dryer, School Inspectors; Justus R. Crandall, Justus Elsworth, Constables; Allen Hacket, A. Flower, Eben Brooks, C. W. Brown, William Miller, Jacob E. Hall, Lyman Bates, Silas Leonard, William Warner, Overseers of Highways. The principal officers elected annually since 1837 are named as follows:

TOWN ROSTER.

Supervisors-Benjamin Haight, 1837; B. Wright, 1838; County Commissioners, 1838-43; Aldis L. Rich, 1843-45; Justus R. Crandall, 1845-48; Leander Millen, 184849; Carlos W. Brown, 1849-50; Justus R. Crandall, 1850-52; Aldis L. Rich, 1852-53; Thomas F. Dryer, 1853-54; Justus R. Crandall, 1854-56; Carlos W. Brown, 1856-57; Justus R. Crandall, 1857-58; George W. French, 1858-59; Justus R. Crandall, 1859– 63; Milo Selleck, 1863-64; Daniel Bates, 1864-70; Lucius H. Canfield, 1870-77; Adam Bennett, 1877-80; Lucius H. Canfield, 1880–82.

Clerks --Thomas H. Dryer, 1837-47; John Haire, 1848-50; Justus R. Crandall, 1852; N. C. Knott, 1853; Justus R. Crandall, 1854; William G. Carl, 1855; Mason Harris, 1856; Milo Selleck, 1857-58; Daniel Bates, 1858; William H. Mellen, 1860; Abram S. Devall, 1861-63; John W. Leonard, 1864-65; Benjamin L. Bates, 1866-67; William H. Sutfin, 1868-69; Adam Bennett, 1870; Isaac N. Cook, 1871-73; Elias Duvall, 1874; Theo M. Giddings, 1875; Isaac N. Cook, 1876; Clarence E. Fenton, 1877; William Wiethoff, 1878; Chester S. Fenton, 1879; Avander H. Shafer, 1880-81.

Treasurers Justus R. Crandall, 1837; William A. Edwards, 1838; Gabriel Cox, 1839-40; Israel Dryer, 1841; Carlos W. Brown, 1842; John Church, 1849; Russell W. Green, 1850; Leander Millen, 1851; Alvin Davis, 1852-54; M. Van Winkle, 1855; John Church, 1856; Sabin Harris, 1857; Alvin Adams, 1858; Martin L. Dryer, 1859-60; Asa Blanchard, 1861-63; Tolcot Bates, 1864-65; Elijah Sutfin, 1866; David L. Carl, 186768; Benjamin L. Bates, 1869-70; Ephraim Fullerton, 1871; James M. Rowley, 1872; Adam Bennett, 1873-76; E. P. Fullerton, 1877; Russell T. Hazleton, 1878; Denis La Furgey, 1879-80; Calvin A. Smith, 1881.

Justices of the Peace--Ebin Carl, Justus Corey, Jacob E. Hall, Mason Harris, 1837; Gabriel Case, 1838; Justus R. Crandall, Hanson Flower, 1839; Abner Stephens, 1840, Aldis L. Rich, 1841; Justus R. Crandall, 1842; Mason Harris, 1843; Apner Stephens, 1844; Benjamin Haight, 1845; Justus R. Crandall, 1846; Aldis L. Rich, 1847; Leander Millen, 1848; Thomas J. Goodsell, 1849; Justus R. Crandall, 1850; Elias Suttin, 1851; Leander Millen, 1852; C. W. Brown, 1853; J. R. Crandall, 1854; Elias Sutfin, 1855; William Hare, Mason Harris, 1857; J. R. Crandall, 1858; C. W. Brown, 1859; Leander Millen, 1856-60; John Church, 1861; J. R. Crandall, 1862; Walter C. Hulett, 1863; Daniel Tewkesbury, Newell H. Roberts, 1864; David L. Carl, C. W. Brown, Edward L. Raymond, 1865; Orland T. Green, J. R. Crandall, 1866; Daniel Tewkesbury, 1867; 0. T. Green, 1868; Edward L. Raymond, 1869; William R. Sutton, 1870; Daniel Tewkesbury, 1871; J. R. Crandall, 1872; Orlando T. Green, 1872; Leslie L. Miller, Josiah J. Robinson, 1873; Clarence E. Fenton, 1874; Justus R. Crandall, 1875; James B. Davis, 1876; Asa Blanchard, 1877; Isaac Lemmon, 1878; Clarence E. Fenton, 1879; Zenas Corey, 1880; Jared O. Jackson, 1881.

The agricultural production at the end of the first decade after its organization exhibits a fair proportion. We quote from a good authority: There were seventy-nine farms, with 2,637 acres of improved, and 5,147 acres of unimproved land, at a total cash value of $51,700. In live stock the showing was as follows: Horses, 74; milch-cows, 291; working oxen, 129; other neat cattle, 253; sheep, 1,111; swine, 396; value of live stock, $12,330. Wheat, 1,910 bushels; corn, 7,590 bushels; all other kinds of grain, 9,468 bushels; potatoes, 1,849 bushels; wool, 2,800 pounds. Dairy products-butter,

15,700 pounds; cheese, 7,900 pounds. Value of orchard produce, $201. The showing at the end of the second decade from the above was: Acres of improved land, 10,018; woodland, 9,840; other unimproved land, 19 acres; cash value, $711,640. In live stock the subjoined is a correct statement: Horses, 571; milch-cows, 728; working oxen, 24; other neat cattle (other than oxen and cows), 704; sheep, 888, swine, 663; total value of live stock, $120,905. Of agricultural products there were: Bushels of wheat, 19,902; corn, 19,265; all other kinds of grain (principally oats, barley and rye), 59,717; potatoes, 12,483 bushels; wool, 14,917 pounds. Dairy products-butter, 53,940 pounds; cheese, 4,340 pounds. Value of orchard products, $4,005. Population, 1880, 2,516.

SCHOOLS.

The school of District No. 2, Lenox, was organized from the original territory. The first officers were: Charles Corey, Moderator; Thomas Warwick, Assessor; David Burt, Director. The first schoolhouse was built of wood, with a board roof, 16x17 feet in area, and cost $67. It was built by David Burt in 1851. The old house was burned in 1860, and a new frame building erected on the same site, in 1861, at a cost of $650. The first teacher was Jane Harris, now the wife of Robert Haore, of New Haven; her salary was 9 shillings per week, for which sum she had to superintend the education of seven pupils. The early schools of the township are referred to in the following reminiscences of Mrs. Amelia Bancroft Crawford. This lady's first essay in school-teaching was made in Lenox in 1840. The building was a primitive log one, located just west of Thomas Dryer's. In riding on horseback twelve miles to reach her school, she had to pass over about three-quarters of a mile of submerged land and many other places of less distance in like condition. The next day after her arrival, she was examined by Justus Crandall, Mason Harris and Alanson Flower. The day following, in order to commence her school, she crossed the stream on a fallen tree, and then to reach the schoolhouse had to hold to the fence for a distance

of forty rods. This was owing to the condition of the stream, occasioned by a heavy storm and the lack of a bridge. In order to attend church, she had to travel "afoot and alone" three miles to the old Baptist Church at Ray Exchange. About the year 1846, while returning home from the Gould Schoolhouse, at Berlin (a distance of eight miles), while crossing a small stream, the girth broke, and, although we give the name of terra firma to the place where she landed, her wardrobe was so well drenched that the prospect of a winter ride of six miles in the evening was indeed uninviting ever afterwards. took charge of the Hall School in 1860. There she enjoyed the most active school term in her school experience of thirty-five years. She enjoyed molding the juvenile minds of one school in Bruce for five consecutive summers. Some of her pupils graduated at the Romeo Academy and one at Ypsilanti Normal School.

She

The schools of the present time number nine, one of which is graded. The Directors are Alonzo Claggett, Albert E. Burt, F. M. Grout, C. Klopstock, John S. Parker, Asa Blanchard, Robert Carpenter, Zenas Corey, Matthew McClatchie. School No. 1 was attended during the year ending September, 1881, by thirty pupils, the entire number of pupils being fifty-one. The expenditure for the year was $308.82. No. 2 (Fractional District) claims sixty-two children, of whom fifty attended school. The expenditure was $300. District No. 4 claimed fifty-two pupils, of whom forty attended school, at an expense to the town of $290. The number of children belonging to Fractional District No. 5 was 105, of whom sixty-four attended school, the expense being $371. District No. 6 claimed 101 pupils, of whom sixty-nine attended school, the expenditure for the year being $431. Fractional District No. 9 holds the only graded school in the town. The number of pupils belonging is 219, of whom 192 attend school. The expenditures for 1881 amounted to $1,409.42. District No. 10 School was attended by fifty pupils, the expense being

$336. District No. 11 claimed forty-nine children, of whom thirty-eight attended school during the year 1881. Expenditure, $277. District No. 12 claimed 121 pupils, of whom ninety-one attended school. The expenditure for school purposes in this district for the year ending September 5, 1881, was $620.

New Haven was formerly known as New Baltimore Station. It is situated on the Grand Trunk Railway, thirty miles northeast of Detroit and ten miles northeast of Mt. Clemens. The village contains a population estimated at 620 inhabitants. It is distant from the village of New Baltimore five miles. The principal exports of the place are lumber and general agricultural products. Its chief manufactures are lumber, flour and heading. The village contains five general stores, one dry goods store, two boot and shoe stores, one drug store, one stove and tinshop, one harness shop, two wagon-shops, one cooper-shop, two blacksmiths, one livery stable, one grist and one saw mill and a good hotel. The resident physicians are M. Bates, A. Gunn, Peter McGregor, Ed N. Harris and Ed B. Harris. Tolcott Bates is the present Postmaster. The depot of the Grand Trunk Railway, with a settlement called Ridgeway, is partly in Lenox Township and partly in Richmond. The village contains three churches-Baptist, Congregational and Methodist--and a graded school. Fruit, grain and lumber are the shipments. The first meeting of the citizens of New Haven, under the village charter of 1869, was held at the Lake Hall, May 3, 1869. Morgan Nye and Adam Bennett were Inspectors of Election and William H. Sutphin, Clerk. Benjamin L. Bates was elected President; W. H. Sutphin, Recorder; Morgan Nye, Treasurer; Isaac Cook, Adam Bennett, Assessors; Ephraim Fullerton, Conrad H. Gordon, Myron Bates, John Millard and William G. Carl, Trustees.

1870 --President, Ephraim Fullerton; Recorder, William Sutphin; Treasurer, Myron Bates.

1871-President, Morgan Nye; Recorder, William G. Carl; Treasurer, Niles Gidding. 1872-75-President, Justus R. Crandall; Recorder, Clarence E. Fenton; Treasurer, Jacob D. Seaman.

1875-76-President, Adam Bennett; Recorder, Justus R. Crandall; Treasurer, Jacob

D. Seaman.

1877-President, Adam Bennett; Recorder, Justus R. Crandall; Treasurer, Russell

T. Hazleton.

1878-President, Clarence E. Fenton; Recorder, Justus R. Crandall; Treasurer, Russell T. Hazleton.

1879-82-President, Adam Bennett; Recorder, Justus R. Crandall; Treasurer, Russell T. Hazleton.

Burton Nye was elected Clerk in 1881, and was succeeded by Justus R. Crandall, the present Clerk.

1882-83 President, Charles H. Sears: Clerk, J. R. Crandall; Treasurer, J. D. Seaman; Assessor, John C. Bates; Street Commissioner, Benjamin L. Bates; Constable, Oscar Slocum; George Welz, Isaac N. Cook, C. A. Smith and D. C. Rowley, Trustees.

PERSONAL SKETCHES.

The biographical sketches given in other pages deal with the personal history of many of the pioneers, together with that of old settlers and others, whose history is closely identified with this township.

ADAM BENNETT.

ZENAS COREY, P. O. Lenox, son of Archibald J. Corey, who was a native of Vermont, and Mary Granger Corey, daughter of Elisha Granger, a native of Vermont.

born in Sodus, Wayne Co., N. Y.; was married, and emigrated with her husband to Mich

igan. In 1833, they settled in what is now Chesterfield, and from there, in February, 1837, they went to Lenox and settled on Section 11. They reared a family of nine children under trying circumstances, two of whom enlisted in the Union service--George B. Corey, Fifth Infantry; Jared Corey, Twenty-second Infantry. Mary Granger Corey still resides on the old homestead, which belongs to Zenas and Elisha Corey. They were both drafted; Zenas substituted by payment of $125; Elisha was not called out, as the war closed. Zenas was born in Chesterfield September 22, 1834, and married May 8, 1857, to Mary L. Johns, of French descent; born at Frederick, Mich., October 21, 1842. They have resided in Lenox since that time, he having filled the office of Justice of the Peace, and other town offices; is now Postmaster in Richmond Village and Lenox Post Office; came with his parents to Lenox in February, 1837; was sixteen years old before he ever had a new pair of boots or shoes, consequently could not chase wolves and bears in the winter. They were very plenty. Many times he had to live on boiled wheat, hulled corn, potatoes and milk (if they could get them). In 1842-43, he had a new milch cow, and used to gather moss and twigs from trees to feed the cow. In the fall before the hard winter, Mrs. Corey was left with nine children on a new place, where, by working out on the place, washing, sewing, and such other work as she could obtain in a new settlement of poor people, she managed to keep the family all together to the years of maturity. Logging bees and log raisings constituted the principal holiday amusements. Sometimes at the log raisings, there would be a Corey on each corner. Their first school was in a little log house, standing within the present corporation of Richmond, about 1839, having to go one and one-half miles through the woods on trail; no road cut. In order to slide on the ice, they would fit wood to their feet and make holes with burning-irons to fasten them on to their bare feet. Their first skates were made of wood by Tipsico, the big Indian, and presented to Zenas.

JUSTICE R. CRANDALL. P. O. New Haven. He is the son of Rowland Crandall and Rhoda (Crandall) Crandall. Rowland was the son of Benjamin Crandall and Alice (Kinyon) Crandall, both natives of Washington County, R. I., and among the first settlers. Mrs. Crandall was born April, 1736, in Washington County. Rowland was born in 1769, in Hopkinton, Washington County, R. I. Rhoda, born in Westerly, Washington Co., R. I. Justice R., born in Hopkinton, Washington Co., R. I., February 23, 1807; married November 28, 1830, to Violet Beattie, who was born May 19, 1810, in Langholm, Scotland, a daughter of John Beattie, who was born in Langholm, Scotland, in 1778. His mother, Sarah Ray Beattie, was born September 1, 1742, in Langholm, Scotland, and died February 20, 1846, aged one hundred and three years, five months and nineteen days. Justus R. was married to Violet Beattie Crandall November 28, 1830, in Foster, Providence Co., R. I.; came to Michigan in 1835, and settled in Lenox May 13, in the town then called Ray. He was elected Town School Inspector, and the first Constable and Collector, in the first town meeting, in 1837; elected Justice in 1838; appointed Supervisor in 1844; elected in 1845, and has served in various offices up to the present time; was married the second time to Miss Helen Harris. She was born in Boston, Mass., May 22, 1806, and was the widow of the Rev. Lovell F. Harris, who has been missionary among the Indians and the Negroes.

ROBERT S. CRAWFORD, P. O. New Haven, was born in Oppenheim, Montgomery Co., N. Y., November 18, 1809; son of Robert Crawford, Sr., who was born in Poundridge, N. Y., February 1, 1770, and was married to Hannah Albright December 25, 1798, and in 1824 removed to Richmond, Ontario Co., N. Y., with a family of seven sons and two daughters, all of whom lived to years of maturity. One of Robert S.'s uncles, John Crawford (from whom the settlement took the name), was a soldier in the Revolution, and removed from Benton. Yates Co., N. Y., to the township of Clinton, Macomb County, in 1830, having no neighbors nearer than four or five miles. Robert S. and Jacob A. Craw