Portland MI 1910 - contributed by Paul Petosky
Town 6 north, range 5 west, in the government survey,
is now known as Portland township, having as boundaries
Lyons township on the north, Dunby on the south, Clinton
County on the east, and Orange township on the west.
Besides having a rich agricultural region, Portland derives
from tbe Lookiog-Glass and Grand Riven, at Portland
village, valuable manufacturing power, and in these substantial and enduring elements of prosperity the township
is rightly to be considered as fortunate beyond many of its
neighbors. The Grand River flows from south to north in
a sinuous course, entering the town at section 33, and leaving it at the line between sections 4 und 5. On section
33—or, more properly, on the line between sections 28 and
33—it receives the watere of the Looking-Glass, which
comes from section 36 in a northwesterly course.
Towards the construction of the Detroit, Lansing and
Northern Railway, which traverses the township and has
stations at Portland and Collins villages, Portland has
contributed liberally not only by voted subscription, but by
individual assistance as well. Oct. 9, 1866, the township
voted, by two hundred and fifty-four to twenty-four, to
grant aid to the enterprise to the extent of fourteen thousand seven hundred dollars, and it is said that almost as
muoh more was received by way of individual subscriptions.
Nov. 20, 1869, the township voted, by two hundred and
seventy-four to fourteen, to extend fifteen thousand five
hundred dollars as an aid to the construction of the Jonesville, Marshall and Grand River Railway, but the road was
not finished, and the aid was not called into service. The
road-bed is, however, graded, and it is likely that the enterprise may before long bo carried to successful issue.
The soil of Portland is especially adapted to the cultivation of wheat, of which it yields large returns. On the
openings it is a gravelly loam, and on the timber-lands
heavier, but still highly productive. There never was
much waste-land in the town, and what Utile there was is
now the husbandman's servant.
Portland village, covering a tract of territory that measures just one mile and a half square, lies upon the Grand
and Looking-Glass Rivers, and at about the centre of the
village the two streams make a junction. Each river possesses at this point a power of no small value, and this
consideration was naturally the motive that actuated the
founders of the village in making a start where they did.
During the past decade Portland has mado a pronounced
advancement alike in population, business, and enterprise.
In 1870 the population of the village was one thousand and
ten aud in 1880 it was one thousand seven hundred and
ninety, or a gain of nearly eighty per cent. The increase
in enterprise is shown in the erection of numerous Sue
business-blocks such as few similar towns can boast A certain substantial and prosperous growth must necessarily
mark Portland's progress, for it is the centre of a fine
agricultural region, it must always bo a manufacturing
point, and is, moreover, a station on the Detroit, Lansing
and Northern Hail way, with the prospect of having at no
distant day a second railway at its very doors.
THE PIONEERS OF PORTLAND
Although Elisha Newman made the first land-entry in
the township of Portland (June, 1833), he did not become
a settler until three years later, by which time a few settlers
had located in the town. From Mr. Newman's story, it
appears that early iu 1833 he was visitiug friends in Ann
Arbor, and during an evening conversation discussed with
others the subject of unlocated lands lying west of Ann
Arbor. One of the company (Joseph Wood) remarked
that he had been out with the party sent to survey Ionia
and other counties, and that the surveyors were struck by
the valuable water-power at the mouth of the Looking-Glass River, saying there would surely be a village there
some day.
Mr. Newman was at once taken with the idea of locating
lands at the mouth of the Lookiug-Glass. Following up
his impulse, ho mad« ready to start at once, and, accompanied by James Newman and Joseph Wood, went out to the
Looking Glass on a tour of inspection. Being satisfied with
the locution, lie returned Kastward with his companions, and
at While Pigeon made his land-entry.
Newman did not return for a permanent settlement until
the spring of 1836, and meanwhile, in November, 1833,
Pluto Rogue bought a piece of land on section 28, in the
bend of the Grand River, where he proposed to set up a
trading-post. He brought a small load of pork, flour, and
whisky with him, put up a tent, and opened traffic with
the savages in short order. Unaided he rolled up a log
cabin near where tho Detroit, Lansing and Northern depot
now is, and when he brought the house into decent shape
went over to Hunt's at Lyons for his family, whom he hud
left there against such time as he should have affairs prepared for their comfort.
Although Mr. Bogue was an Indian trader he was a
land-owner and bona fide, settler, and he may therefore be
rightly considered the first actual settler id Portland township, as well as in what is, now Portland village. He was,
moreover, tbe pioneer storekeeper in the village, for as the
white settlers came he enlarged his place of business, and
for a time his establinhmeol was considered, by settlers as
well as Indians, a band of supplies. He built in 1836 a
framed store to replace his log shanty. That building, it
is said, was (he first framed structure erected in the township. Mr. Bogue died in 1839, and was buried just west
of his store, where other burials had been made, and where
it was proposed to lay out a ccmotery, but the project was
shortly afterwards abandoned.
The second settlement in the town was made in December, 1833, by an Englishman, John Milne, who located in
section 20 upon the river's bank, and who is accredited
with having erected the fin-t house known to Portland
township. Bogue's first habitation, it will be recollected,
was simply a tent.
Bogue remained the sole occupant of (he present villagesite until the spring of 183G (although a few settlers came
previous to that to the country just north and west of him),
when, in the latter part of the month of May, the Newmans
put in an appearance for tho purpose of permanently occupying the land bought by Elisha Newman in 1833, and of
urging forward his originally-conceived project of utilizing
the power oo the Lookiug-Glass River. In the party were
Elisha Newman, Samuel B. Smith, Ahoerou Newman, Lyman Bennett, and James Newman. Almeron and James
Newman and Lyman Bennett were accompanied by their
families. Bennett brought two yokes of oxen and a wagon,
and James Newman a pair of horses and a wagon. A few
supplies had been brought out at the same time, but the
major portion of.their goods was en route by the lakes to
Grand Haven.
Id a sketch of Portland pioneer life, Almeron Newman
says: "On our arrival we found that Philo Bogue had
erected a small frame building on the bank of the Grand
River, a little to the left of his dwelling-house, and that he
himself was then in New York making his first important
purchase of goods, which he sold to the citizens, doing a
pretty fair business. Mr. Bogue lollowed this occupation
with good success until the summer of 1839, when he
sickened, and died on the 25th of July.
" On our arrival here we found the post entirely clear.
The Indians, of whom there was a small tribe under the
charge of Squagan as their chief, had their home at this
point, but had left and gone below Boguc's, on the flats of
Grand River. The Indians had their burying-ground on
the point of ground formed by the intersection of the Grand
and Looking-Glass Rivers where the foundry now stands.
They had do buildings except one very nice wigwam, which
afforded temporary shelter for our women at night while
we were buildiug houses, which wo were not long about.
We got lumber at Libhart'a mill, on Libhart Creek.
" We did not bring many of our goods and but few provisions with us, but shipped theui around the upper lakes
to Grand Haven, thence up the river to Lyons, Grand River
being navigated at this time by a pole-boat called the ' Napoleon.' Time passed, and provisions grew less. We
heard nothing of our goods, and it was therefore determined
that Lyman Bennett and myself should take a trip to the
mouth of the river to see what we could learn and lay in
some supplies if necessary. Accordingly, we procured a
heavy, clumsy, square-toed white man's build of a canoe,
and started down stream in the morning with a Chicago
merchant in with us who had been to New York after
goods. The river was high, and with a strong current.
With little exertion on our part we made very good headway, aud in due course of time arrived at Grand Haven.
There we found a man who was running a vessel on Luke
Michigan, from whom we learned that he had seen in
Chicago some goods answering the description we gave of
ours, and he thought, too, the goods were likely to stay in
Chicago some timo unless sent for. I instructed him to get
them and forward them to Lyons, and then Bennett and I
started for home. We shipped our canoe as far as Grand
Rapids on the 4 Napoleon and at the Rapids, taking in a
supply of flour, pork, etc., polod away for home. I poled
and Bennett pulled — that is, he walked in the river or on
shore ahead of the boat and towed with a rope, while I remained on board and poled. By the time we reached Ionia
we were both utterly exhausted, and, leaving our craft there,
we put off overland for Portland, whence we despatched fresh recruits to bring the vessel up."
At this time the Newmans began work upon the task of
damming the Looking-Glass. It was a good deal of a job,
and an expensive one, but it was put through without a
hair, as was the building of a sawmill. The latter was
started December, 1830,and in January, 1837,a small run
or stone with a bolt attached was put in. The first flour
made in that mill is supposed to have been the first bolted
flour made west of Pontiac. The mill did all the grinding
for that section of the country uutil 1842, when James
Newman and Peter M. Kent built in the same place the
one now carried on by Newman & Rice. Peter M. Kent
was a millwright, and came to tbe settlement in June,
1836, for the purpose of building Newman's saw-mill.
William Henry also came to the settlement in June, 1836,
and was in the employ of the Newmans a few years before
making a settlement of his own.
EVENTS IN 1837
In the spring of 1837, William H. Churchill, still living
in Portland, came to the village intending to locate as a
fanner. He found upon the village-site the Newmans,—
Elisha, Almeron, and James — living in a double log house
on the Looking-Glass, and, near by, the blacksmith-shop of
Lyman Bennett. There were also on the ground William
Dinsmore, a shoemaker, and a man named Cogswell, who
was probably an employee in the Newman mill. Philo
Bogue then had a store lower down on the Grand River.
Instead of clearing a farm as ho intended, Churchill concluded that, as there was likely to be a village in that
neighborhood in a little time, ho would put up a building
which he might use as a tavern or store as circumstances
should direct. He bought some land, and on the lot now
occupied by W. H. Stone's drug-store put up, with the assistance of Samuel Freeman and another man, a good-sized
building.
At this juncture along came David Sturgis, a Canadian,
looking for an opening; he at once bought a half-interest
with Churchill in tbe building thco giving up, the agreement being that when finished they should, as partners,
open it as a store. When they had finished it, however,
they were besought by Joshua Boyer (a comer to the township in 1835} to rent it to him for a tavern-stand. Agreeing to let him have it, Churchill & Sturgis opened their
store near where A. F. Morehouse's office is, and for some
time afterwards carried on a flourishing trade. Boyer
opened his tavern, and called it the " Mansion House."
Before Boyer'a advent as a landlord, however, William
Moore, who, with Daniel Moore, came from Lyons about
1837 and settled on what is now known as the Culver place
(within the present village limits), kept what was called a
house of entertainment, although, perhaps, not as emphatically a tavern as was Joshua Boyer'a Mansion House.
WADSWORTHS FOIBLES
Not long after tho Newmans set the Looking-Glass to
the business of turning a mill-wheel for them, one Abrara
S. fradsworlh appeared upon the scene and determined to
make tho waters of tho Grand River serve hira a similarly
useful purpose. He purchased some land on tho west side
of the stream, threw a dam across it, and began at once to
build a saw-mill and grist-mill near where R. B. Smith's
grist-mill stands. Although Wadsworth displayed an extraordinary amount of leal and energy in his undertakings
and promised great things, he accomplished little or nothing.
His mills he never finished, and his dam was twice carried
away by floods. Thereupon he grew discouraged, sold his
mil I-machinery to the Newmans, and departed for other
fields. He continued elsewhere, however, to fail in his enterprises, just as he had failed at Portland. His energy was
something remarkable, but his judgment was the rock upon
which he invariably went to pieces.
On one occasion, however, his energy and judgment combined to put hini in the way of a paying speculation.
Despite his repeated failures, he was a sanguine person, and
he found, moreover, plenty of people who gladly manifested confidence in him. To some of these people, resident in Portland, he proposed, in the year 1849, the scheme
of locating mining lands iu the Lake Superior region, there
being at that time a high fever abroad in favor of miningland speculations in that newly-doveloped country. Wadsworth's proposition to his coadjutors was that the should
supply tho funds for building a vessel and equipping her for
a voyage to the mining-country, and that he, personally directing the voyage,'would locate the mining-lands for his
friends and himself, and as a natural result they would all
make their everlasting fortunes. Tbe confiding Portlandites
were carried away with enthusiastic and golden anticipations
touching the tempting bait held out by Wadsworth, and
with one accord they entered into the project with open
purses. Wadsworth built his vessel at Portland, rigged it
sloop fashion, named it tho " North Star," loaded it with
provisions, and set sail one day amid the general hurrahs
and wild enthusiasm of the villagers, who to forcibly express their delight improvised an old mill-crunk as a cannon
and made the welkin fairly ring.
Wadsworth poled down the river and out into the blue
waters of Lake Michigan, but how he progressed thereafter
and what happened to him and his gallant bark and crew
are not matters of such certain elucidation. In a general
way it may, however, be narrated that neither he nor his
gallant crew, nor yet his gallant bark, returned to Portland
to cheer and sustain the hearts and hopes of the trustful
capitalists who had sent the noble Wadsworth forth upon
his voyage of discovery. In short, the noble Wadsworth,
rightly estimating that he might wait a long while before
having so bright an opportunity for the gathering in of a
handsome supply of shekels, sold his gallant bark and her
load to the first man who would buy, and, leaving the question of discovering iron-mines to be solved by other brains
than his, made off with his booty, and, so far as heard
from, lived a life of shady seclusion ever after. His life
was a failure, and in poverty he closed it.
VILLAGE PLATS
April 8, 1846, E. S. Johnson, deputy register, recorded
the pint of the village of Portland, west of tho river, laid
out by Abram S. Wadsworth and Junius H. Hatch, and
thus described: " The east corner of lot number one, being
seven hundred and sixty-two feet east of the south quarter-post of section twenty-eight, town six north, range five
west, which quarter-post is the north quarter-post of section
thirty-three, on which last-named section tho village plat
is situated."
March 7, 1846, Abram S. Wadsworth laid out the village of Portland east of tho Grand River. Jane 22,1847,
Almeron Newman recorded Newman's addition, and June
6, 1865, Almeron and James Newman platted an addition
east of the Grand River.
Wadsworth's addition was recorded May 7,1857, Enoch
Sanborn's addition Nov. 5, 1867, and Hervey Bartow's
addition (in sections 28 and 33) in September, 1867.
Aug. 20, 1869, L. W. Van Horn recorded an addition
on the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section
28, west of the Graud River, and Nov. 10, i860, William
T. Smith, Chas. Storm, D. H. Stringham, and others
platted D. H. Stringham's addition, on the northeast fractional quarter of section 33. Ou the northeast fractional
quarter also of section 33 James Newman recorded an addition Juno 30, 1870, R. B. Smith an addition Oct. 8,
1870, on the southeast quarter of section 28, and Hiram
W. Green an addition Dec. 29, 1870, on the east half of
the north half of the southwest quarter of section 28.
Charles H. Maynard and Orville S. Satterlee platted an addition, in May, 1871, on the north half of the southeast
quarter of section 33. The last plat appears to have been
made Sept, 23, 1871, by Enoch Sanborn.
PORTLAND'S PROGRESS
After keeping tavern a little while Joshua Boyer was
appointed postmastor upon the creation of Portland as a
post-office, and then Churchill & Sturgis, feeling the need
of more room to keep pace with the requirements of their
rapidly-increasing business, removed from their small store
on the Looking-Glass to the building first occupied by
Boyer as a tavern. Soon after that Sturgis sold his interest in the business to Hesekiah Smith, and in a short time
the Utter, deciding to go it alone, withdrew and built a store
on the opposite corner, where Loomis & Powers now have
a store. About this time a bridge was built across th3
Grand River, near where the upper bridge is now located.
Before that, however, Daniel and James Nicholson had
opened a store on the west side of the river.
NEWMAN'S CARDING-MACHINE
As already related, Wadsworth sold his mill-machinery
to Almeroo Newman, who proceeded at once to set up a
carding-machine on the Looking-Glass. Newman was by
trade a clothier, and his little factory at Portland was the
first establishment of the kind put into operation west of
Pontiac. The story goes that when Wadsworth saw Newman make a "go" of his carding-machine, he exelaimed
(with perhaps some bitterness of thought at his own failures), " Well, (hat is the first thing that ever succeeded in
Portland!"
PORTLAND IN 1843
A. F. Morehouse, who located in the vicinity of Portland in 1843, says that at that time the village contained
Samuel Northern's tavern and Churchill & Smith's store on the east and the store of the Nicholson Brothers on the
west side of the river, Almeroo Newman's carding-machine, James Newman's mill, Hiram Harrington, Alfred Olin, and
Milton Sawyer's blacksmith-shops, Joseph Roe's tailor shop (Mr. Roe located in Ionia in 1837), Wilson & Co. pottery,
and the shoe-shops of William Diusmore, 0. D. Parker, and David Smith. There were also the families of A. S. Wadsworth (the mill-builder), Philo Boguo, Joshua Boyer, Moses
B. Beers (the village doctor), William H. Arms, A. F. Morehouse, and Christian Klimper (carpenters), and Isaiah
Decker, Samuel SutlitF, and Charles W. Ingalls (farmers). The fourth store in the village was built on the corner
opposite Hexekiah Smith's, and occupied by Nicholson & Berry. The building is the one now used by F. M.
Cutchcoii.
As to other early Portland merchants, there were Chas.
W. Ingalls, S. J. Fox, Beebe & Griswold, and one or two
whose names cannot now be recalled. Beebe & Griswold
kept store in the lower portion of the building known until
the summer of 1880 as Welch's Hotel, which James Harrington built for a tavern, and of which he was the first
landlord. Speaking about taverns, Portland must have
done a brisk business in selling ardent spirits during the
year 18-15. In that year—so the township records report
— tavern licenses were issued to Joshua Boyer, James Harrington, Charles Taylor, and George W. Dickinson, while
licenses as retailers of spirits were granted to Hezekiah
Smith, William K. Churchill, S. J. Fox, and William
Wilkinson.
THE VILLAGE INCORPORATED.—OFFICERS
By act approved March 30, 1809, the village of Portland was incorporated and described as being contained
within limits as follows: "Commencing at the centre of
section twenty-seven, town sis north, range five west;
thence west one and one-half miles to the west quarter-stake
of section twenty-eight; thence south one and one-fourth
miles; thence cast one and one-half miles; thence north
one and one-fourth miles to the place of beginning."
The first election was ordered to be held at B. H. Schofield's Hall, on tho first Monday of May, 1869, for the
purpose of choosing a president, clerk, assessor, treasurer,
marshal, and two trustees for one year, two trustees for two
years, and two trustees for three years. At that election
there was but one ticket offered, and for that ticket seventy-three votes were cast. William Root and Milton Sawyer
were the judges of election, and George Whitney clerk.
The officials elected were: President, R. B. Smith; Clerk,
George Whitney; Treasurer, James M. Webster; Assessor,
George Hill; Marshal, N. T. Sanborn; Trustees, William
W. Bogue, Hervey Bartow, Almeron Newman, L. K.
Showman, William Dinsmore, and Milton Sawyer.
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