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Villages and cities do not come into existence and flourish except through definite cause—a demand and a need for their being on the part of the people who occupy the contiguous country, or perhaps a broader commercial necessity. Towns may be projected and established where these conditions do not exist, but they fail to develop unless there is natural reason for development, and either remain as unnourished germs or pass entirely out of existence. Their growth cannot be arbitrarily forced. These general remarks might be illustrated by many examples, but there is one which is particularly appropriate. The site of the flourishing city of Dowagiac was selected at an early day for a village by one of the pioneer proprietors of the land. As early as 1836, the village of Venice was laid off, by Orlando Craine, on the southwest quarter of Section 81, in Wayne Township. The plat was extensive, occupying fully 160 acres of land, and it was admirably arranged. The ground was well adapted to the building of a hamlet or village, and the proprietor was a popular man, who offered his land to the people at very reasonable terms. But, notwithstanding these facts, not a single house was built, the lands remained under farm cultivation and there was no mark established to indicate the ambition its owner had once cherished. The village of Venice had no existence save on paper in the County Register's office and in the imagination of Mr. Craine. There was, in 1836, no need or de- mand for a village at the point. The sparse population; sustained the few centers of trade which already existed, and the scanty products of the country required no new outlets or markets. But in a dozen years the conditions had changed, and a village—Dowagiac—sprang up and flourished on the soil which had proven barren before. The country had become more thickly settled, and the farms better improved and more productive, but these facts were not sufficient alone to cause the growth of a village in the northwestern part of Cass County. A new force came into operation—the Mill-road—and all along its line through the fertile farming region of Southern Michigan, there were formed new clusters of dwellings, and new places of trade and commerce. Nicholas Cheesborough (quite widely known through his connection with the Morgan abduction case) had been engaged in 1847 in the purchase of right of way for the Michigan Central Railroad from Kalamazoo to Niles. As soon as it was decided to locate one of the stations of tho line at the point now known as Dowagiac, he associated with himself Jacob Benson, of Mile, and they together purchased from Patrick Hamilton (of whom we shall have much to say in this chapter) a tract of land consisting of eighty acres in the northeastern corner of the Township of Pokagon. Upon a portion of this land they proceeded to pint and lay out the village of Dowagiac, of which they made a record at the Register's office, in Cassapolis, February 16, 1848. The land was bought and the plat of the village recorded in the name of Mr. Beason. This gentleman, although he never became a resident of the village, did ranch for the welfare of the place in various ways, not the least of which was this generosity or shrewd policy in making various donations of land for the use of churches and schools (as specified in the note) and is grant to the railroad of depot site and adjoining grounds, the latter of which, by an agreement with the railroad company, is forever to remain a park. The railroad, projected by the State, was originally intended to have as its western terminus the town of St. Joseph, but the Michigan Control Railroad Company, by whom it was purchased, greatly increased its value, and promoted the growth of the villages along the line by pushing it around the end of the lake to Chicago. The little village laid out by Jacob Beason quickly received population. Enterprising men readily saw that a town, situated upon a railroad, in the midst of a rich agricultural region, and with no important stations near it, must become not only a good place for mercantile business, but a shipping-point of considerable consequence. From the very beginning of its life, the success of Dowagiac was assured. Within two years, merchants and tradesmen had assembled in considerable number, and the infant village contained nearly all of the simpler elements of industrial life. It was so clearly perceived that the village was destined to grow and thrive, that men who owned land adjoining the plat proceeded to lay out additions to accommodate its expansion, and profit by it. The first of these was Patrick Hamilton, who owned and resided on a farm in the southeast corner of Silver Creek Township. He laid out what was known as Hamilton's First Addition to tho village of Dowagiac, in the spring of 1849, the plat being recorded upon the 14th of April. This addition included the lots along the went side of Division street, extending from Nicholas Bock's Hotel north, and a« far northwest as Spruce street. Jacob Beason made a small additions to the village March 13, 1850, from the Pokagon tract of land, which ho had purchased, and Jay W. McOmber added a number of lots from his land in Wayne Township February 19, 1850 while Mr. Hamilton made his second addition to the town plat upon the 6th of the same month, and Erastus H. Spalding enlarged the area of the town by laying off streets and lots from his possessions in the summer of this year. Thus the limits of the town were gradually extended, an the actual or prospective growth of population demanded. From time to time other additions have been made, until at present the original plat forms only a small fraction of the whole city. The town has had, during its thirty-three years of existence, quite an even growth, although in some years the increase of population had been retarded by various causes. Chief among these, perhaps, was the prevalence of typhoid fever in 1852, only four years after the founding of the village, which led many persons to think the locality dangerously unwholesome. As a matter of fact, the disease was imported. Lorane Mc Arthur came home from Jackson not feeling well, and a Mr. Coan returned sick from a visit to New York. The first two cases of the fever were in the Dowagiac House. The disease rapidly spread, and many were afflicted. Some people moved away, and others who wore stricken down wore obliged to send abroad for friends to take care of them. At one time there were scarcely enough well persons in the place to attend the sick. Mr. Coan and his wife and sister died—the entire family. Of thirteen persons attacked, soon after the disease made its first appearance, eleven died—Henry Michael and a Mrs. Bull escaping. In the winter of 1857-58, and in the year 1870, there were epidemics of scarlet fever, which carried off many children. The unhealthiness of Dowagiac, however, has probably been no greater than that of the average of towns of its class in Southwestern Michigan, and the unenviable reputation which it temporarily bore after tho epidemic of 1852. ban not since attached to it. The two large fires of 1864 and 1866, which are elsewhere spoken of in detail, caused serious losses; but they cannot be considered as untoward events, viewed in the light of the great improvements they made possible.
As young as is Dowagiac, it has entered upon what
may be called the second era of its life. At first all
advancement was in the hard, straight line of utility.
There was time for none but the sternly-practical
duties of life necessities were provided; luxury
and elegance little thought of. The village, when it
was ten years old, appeared undoubtedly very crude
and painfully new. There was no special natural
attractiveness in the site on which it was built, and i:s
residents had not yet devoted their attention to beautifying their homes. About the year 1858 the well-
known writer, Grace Greenwood (Mrs. Lippincott)
paid a visit to her brother. Dr. William E. Clarke.
who had 'titled here a short time before, and during
her stay tent to that famous old literary paper of
Philadelphia, the Evening Post, a description of the
village which considerably incensed some of its people. The letter was undoubtedly a graphic
pen-picture of the Dowagiac of those days, colored all
too correctly. The bare, while homes reminded the
writer of roes eggs lying on the desert sand. She
complained about the people did not plant shade trees
in their door yards or the streets, and that the burning sun shone down pitilessly on the grassless ground
and unprotected dwellings. The letter, as we have
said, caused some ill feeling at the time it appeared,
but it had the good effect of setting people at work to
beautify the village by planting trees and cultivating
gross plats. A very general improvement was
noticeable in a short time. The village authorities, as
well as individuals, look up the work of which they
had been rather sharply reminded, and one result of
their action we find chronicled in the records under
date of 1859, in the item, " Ordered that-- be paid - 2 cents each for removing eighty-three
stumps from the streets." The planting of shade
trees was carried on for several years, until the village
was well provided with them, and now, having attained a good growth, they make the streets and private
grounds very attractive. If that person is a benefactor who causes two blades of grass to grow where
but one had grown before, how much greater a benefactor is Grace Greenwood who indirectly caused tho
growth of several hundred beautiful trees where none
(or at least a very few) grew before.
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