North Adams, MI (Main Street Looking East) (1911) - Postcard from Paul Petosky The first settlers on the site of this village were William Cutler and Stephen Birdsall, who came from Niagara Co., N. Y., about the month of June, 1835. Mr. Cutler located 120 acres of land where North Adams now stands, and Birdsall settled immediately east of him, afterwards moving west of the village. Mr. Cutler was accompanied by his wife and one child, and a second man, John, now living east of North Adams, was born in 1840. Mrs. Culler died about the winter of 1840-41, and her husband married again in August, 1841. His oldest child, Byron, who came with him to the State, is a resident of Clinton County at this time. Five children were born to Mr. Cutler by his second wife,— two sons and three daughters, —and of these the only one now living in the township is George Culler, of North Adams. Mr. Cutlers first dwelling at his new location was a log house, which stood a little in the rear of the present postoffice, and in it he kept tavern —the first in the township. A frame was subsequently built over it, and the log part torn out. In 1851 he built the hotel now owned and occupied by H. W. Comfort, and known as the "Comfort House." In honor of Mr. Cutler the settlement which grew up around him was called "Cuttlers Corners" and long bore that name. About 1846 he erected a small frame building, and in it established the first store in the village, afterwards associating with him William Foote. Mr. Cutler died in July, 1869. The store he built is yet standing on its old site, on the north side of the street, nearly opposite the "Comfort House," and is at present tilled with a stock of millinery and fancy goods. H. W. Comfort, proprietor of the hotel previously mentioned, is a native of Elmira, Chemung Co., N. Y., and in his early manhood was engaged in the lumber business at Troy, PA. from which place he emigrated to Michigan in 1843. He stopped for a short time on the old Warner Buuday farm in Somerset, and aided in reclaiming a nursery which had belonged to the latter, and which had been allowed to run down. From then he removed to Moscow village. He has since lived in Ohio, and has occupied the hotel at North Adams since Dec. 1, 1873. The oldest post office in this locality was called Adams, and was first kept by Salmon Sharp, at his residence on the north line of the township. It was established as early as 1836-38. Mail was carried by Mr. Sharp's brother, Sheldon W. Sharp, over the route which extended from Adrian to Jonesville, via Addison. Norman S. Sharp succeeded his father as postmaster, and the office was subsequently moved across the line into Moscow, and kept by Benjamin I. Kenyon (father of Albert Kenyon), still retaining its original name. Meanwhile a post-office was established at Cutler's Corners and called North Adams, with William Cutler as first postmaster. The Adams post-office was continued for some time under charge of Mr. Kenyon, and finally withdrawn from the list, all mail going thereafter to the North Adams office. The village itself from that time began to be known by the same name as the post-office. The present incumbent of the latter office is M. F. Lamb. Although numerous lots had been sold "by metes and bounds" to parties locating here, the village was not regularly surveyed, platted, and recorded until 1871. The proprietors as it was laid out were Franklin Noyes, 0. C. Morehouse, L. E. Russ, William Mc Council, Ethel Judd, B. F. Vreeland, G. W. Relyea, Solomon Armstrong. Charles H. Wilbur, William H. Wilbur, John Wilbur, N. Lamb, M. K. Lamb, H. Bowman, Albert Kenyon. J. M. George, W. Mallery, C W. Knapp, James Fitton, S. S. Wiley, Esther Cutler, George W. Cutler, A. J. Spear, F. Corey, E. F. Smith, and O. C Smith. The village, unlike the beautiful town of the same name in Berkshire Co, Mass., is not surrounded by "the everlasting hills," but is located on very level ground. The North Adams Cornet Band was reorganized in 1877, and at present has 19 members, with Charles Sabins as leader. It has a very neat uniform, and, for the time it has been in practice, discourses excellent music. Adams Lodge, No, 189, F & A. M. was organized in 1863, with Albert Kenyon as first Master, It has a present membership of between 30 and 40, and occupies a room in the fine brick block on the north west corner of the street, built by a stock company, in 1868. The present officers of the lodge are: Worshipful Master, Norman S. Sharp; Senior Warden, George Stevens; Junior Warden, George Kalder; Treas., D. B. Kempton; Sec., B. D. Ackmoody Tyler, Seth Wiley. Fidelity Lodge, I. 0. 0. F has been organized body about twenty-five years. Its membership at present is not large. It occupies a room in the same building with the Masons. Summary of North Adams The village contained in December, 1878, 10 stores of various kinds, 4 millinery establishment. 1 tailor, l agricultural implement store, 4 blacksmith-shops, 1 cooper-shop, a steam saw-mill, 2 harness shops, 1 shoe-shop, a post-office, a union school building, 3 churches, lodges of Masons and Odd-Fellows, 3 physicians - Drs. Wood, W. K. Ditmars, and Frank Noyes, the latter a homeopathist, an extensive wagon and carriage-factory, owned by Z. Schoad & Co., and a population of nearly or quite 400. The place has been built up principally since the completion of the Detroit, Hillsdale and Southwestern Railway. The Crater Brothers arc contemplating the erection, during 1879, of a three-story brick building, 45 by 100, on the vacant corner north of the "Comfort House" to be used for stores, offices, and public hall. The brick block on the south side of the street West of the corners, was built by G. W. Rockwood and William Brooks the former erecting the western part and the latter the eastern. We are indebted to the following persons in this township fur information furnished while compiling the foregoing article: Norman S. Sharp and wife, James Foote, Saxton S. Bagley, Ocorgo W. Cutler, Albert Kenyon, Capt. Ethel Judd, Russell J. Fuller, H. W. Comfort, Mrs. Joseph Woolston, and many others.