lent their assistance was Isaac Pierce, who sometimes furnished teams to take them on to the next station. Among those who received assistance was a mulatto woman named Kirkwood, with two little girls, who came along in the fall of 1842. She said the girls were her children by her former master, Kirkwood. According to her story, Kirkwood became encumbered by debts, and herself and children were about to be sold on an execution. He, wishing to save his children from perpetual slavery, ran them and the mother off to the Ohio River, closely followed by the Southern chivalry. He secured a boat and started to cross the river, but was ordered back. His only response was a more vigorous pull at the oar, when the crack of a rifle was heard, and Kirkwood fell dead in the boat. She succeeded, however, in reaching the Ohio shore, where she was secreted and passed along over the road. Her story was doubted at first, but was soon proved to be correct.

During Davis' connection with the underground railroad —which was as long as it existed--he assisted on their way to freedom seventy-five men and from eighty to ninety women and children, worth, according to the Southern estimate, from seventy-five thousand to one hundred thousand dollars. Messrs. Fitch and Gorham, of Marshall, were detected in aiding the fugitives. Suit was bought, and a judgment of two thousand dollars obtained against them. A considerable portion of this was made up to them by friends of the cause. Zach. Chandler gave one hundred dollars, and Isaac Davis twenty-five dollars. Several people in Climax gave smaller sums.

Mr. Davis lived a quiet, peaceful life on his farm, gradually increasing its size till it reached three hundred and eighty acres. He assisted in the formation of the first Congregational Church, the earlier meetings being held at his house. Later in life, when the weight of increasing years began to tell upon him, he turned over his farm to his youngest son and took up his residence with a daughter in Ingham County, where he and his wife still live, in the enjoyment of excellent health for persons of their great age. During a long and active life he has lived at peace with all, and can now say that he never had a lawsuit in his life.

PARVIS C. PEARCE.

Among the successful and well-to-do farmers of Climax township is Parvis C. Pearce, who was born in the town of Geneseo, Livingston Co., N. Y., May 23, 1817. When thirteen years old his family moved into Niagara Co., N. Y., where he grew to manhood, receiving but a limited education. Mr. Pearce can hardly remember when he was not his own master. At an early age he had to work at what-` ever he could get to do,-his earnings helping to support his mother and grandmother, clearing land, splitting rails, and logging, when other farmers' boys of his age were either in school or doing the light work on the farm. In 1842 he married, after which he commenced for himself. He worked by the month and day, and also worked land on shares. In 1848 he determined to emigrate to Michigan, where land was rich and cheap. He came with his wife and two children to Climax, and worked by the month, while his wife

worked for her own and her children's board. The following winter he took up an eighty-acre lot, paying one quarter of the price down. He then worked a farm in Charleston, and in the following year built a small log house, doing the work, save making the doors, himself. He commenced improving his land summers, and in the winter split rails, selling them for one dollar per hundred. In this way hunger was kept at a distance, and year by year saw new improvements. To the farm of eighty acres he has added from time to time, until he owns three hundred and twenty-seven acres of land, two hundred improved, mostly by himself, while the log house and barns have been replaced by a fine house and outbuildings, together with orchards and all that goes to make a fine farm. He has also helped his children in life. In politics Mr. Pearce is a Republican He married, Sept. 28, 1842, Miss Eliza Kelly, daughter of Hugh and Anne (Logan) Kelly, who was born Dec. 12, 1823, in Geneseo, N. Y. There have been born to them ten children, as follows: Jane, born Oct. 13, 1843; Lucy, July 15, 1846; Jennings, April 10, 1849; Sayda, May 16, 1851; Perry, May 29, 1854; Ida, April 18, 1857, died Aug. 28, 1859; Nora, March 8, 1860, died March 31, 1860; Nora, July 28, 1861, died in infancy; Abraham L., Dec. 13, 1864; and Dolly, June 28, 1866.

NEHEMIAH ELWELL.

Nehemiah Elwell, Sr., was born in Danbury, Conn. From Danbury he went, prior to his marriage, to Albany Co., N. Y., where he married a Miss Martha Babcock. Mr. Elwell was a shoemaker, and worked at his trade until the infirmities of age compelled him to quit the bench. After his marriage he moved into Schoharie County, and from there to Monroe Co., N. Y., where he owned a farm. He remained in Monroe County a few years, when he sold, and purchased a new farm in Niagara Co., N. Y., which he cleared and improved with the assistance of his sons. In 1830 he again sold and came with his son to Climax, and again settled on a farm of wild land, the east half of the northwest quarter of section 15, which Nehemiah, Jr., had entered for him the year previous. The town was organized, and he was elected highway commissioner and fenceviewer. On this farm he lived, and died at the age of sixty-two years. Nehemiah Elwell, Jr., was born in the town of Berne, Albany Co., N. Y., Oct. 31, 1811. He lived with his father until he was of age, when he commenced business on his own account. He had always worked at farming, and we find him working at whatever he could find to do that would earn him an honest penny. In the fall of 1835 he came to Detroit by steamer, and thence on foot to Climax, in Kalamazoo County. bought for himself the west half of the northwest quarter of section 15, in Climax, and the balance of the quartersection for his father. He then returned to New York, and the following year came with his father's family to the new home. They came through Canada with a team and wagon. On his father's land they built a log shanty, where they all lived in common until 1840, young Nehemiah clearing and improving the land, which he has lived to see in a fine state of cultivation, while cleared farms, school-houses,

He

churches, and villages have taken the place of the forest. After his marriage, in 1840, he went on his own lot, living in a log house he had previously built, and which did good service for many a year, but which has been replaced by a handsome new house, built in 1876. The farm he has cleared and improved, and on it he intends to pass the remainder of his days.

In politics Mr. Elwell was first a Whig, then an Abolitionist and Free-Soiler, and is now a Republican. At the first township-meeting he was elected constable and collector, and has since been highway commissioner. Mr. Elwell is a man whom to know is to esteem and respect,a man with many friends and no enemies. He married, Sept. 17, 1840, Ruth Whitford, daughter of Eli and Nancy (Sims) Whitford, who was born March 14, 1818. There have been born to them the following children: Homer N., born May 10, 1842; Martha M., May 2, 1845; Byron E., July 25, 1848, died in infancy; Warren, March 19, 1851; Louisa P., Sept. 27, 1853; and Hubert, Aug. 26, 1855.

Homer N. Elwell enlisted, Aug. 6, 1862, in Company E, 25th Michigan Infantry, as a private; was promoted to second sergeant Sept. 14, 1863; acted as orderly during the campaign of 1864; was in the battles of Tubb's Bend, Ky.; Kingston, Tenn.; Mossy Creek, Tenn.; Rocky Face; Resaca; Dallas; Culp's Farm; Atlanta; Utoy Creek; and Nashville, Tenn., and was mustered out June 26, 1865, at Salisbury, N. C.

HOLLAND GILSON.

Among the early settlers of Kalamazoo County there are none who better deserve the name of pioneers, or who have seen more of the hardships and privations of pioneer life, than Mr. and Mrs. Holland Gilson. He was born in the town of Putney, Windham Co., Vt., Dec. 4, 1800. When Holland was five years old his father, Oliver Gilson, moved to the town of Grafton, in the same county, and went upon a farm for which he had traded with his brother Solomon. Another brother served in the war for independence. On this farm Oliver and his wife (formerly Miss Mary Leonard) lived and died. Growing to manhood among the rugged hills of the Green Mountain State, Holland early learned the lessons of industry which have resulted in a home and competency for his old age. He was early set at work, making his opportunities for an education limited. When he was seventeen years old his father hired him to an elder brother, who crossed the mountains

anew.

In

and took jobs at building stone fence. At the age of eighteen years he bought his time and a yoke of oxen of his father, for which he was to pay one hundred dollars and help in haying three years. He then went to Rutland Co., Vt., and for three years followed stone-wall laying. He then carried on his father's farm a few years. Having married, he bought a small farm, from which he made a scanty living. In 1834, having sold his farm, he came to Michigan and stopped in Kalamazoo, working on the Territorial road for Crane & Burdick. The following September his wife and family came on with Maj. Lovell's family, who came from the same township. In that spring he put out crops for Mr. Lovell on his Climax farm. After the arrival of his wife he hired a shanty and began life Mr. Gilson worked out by the day and month, while Mrs. Gilson, who has been a true pioneer wife and mother, nobly did her share. She often left her four little children in the care of the eight-year-old daughter and went a mile or more to wash and clean house for others. During the winter of 1835-36, Mr. Gilson ran a saw-mill in Otsego. In the spring of 1836 he bought a yoke of oxen, borrowing the money to part pay for the same. Again he worked in a saw-mill, buying with his earnings some stock, and began to think of a home of his own. 1836 he bought of Thomas P. Sheldon the quarter-section he now owns, borrowing fifty dollars of the purchase-money. His land was entirely new, and there were but one or two log huts between his farm and the prairie. The next winter (1836) he built a shanty of boards, the ends on the ground and leaning against a tree, keeping a fire all night for warmth. They built a log house with only a lower floor of boards and no windows, and with few conveniences or comforts. In this house the winter was passed, suffering with cold, and having little but potatoes and coarse flour. In this way several years were passed, each working hard to keep the wolf from the door, at times selling wheat for twenty-five cents per bushel, and being hardly able to pay their taxes. But industry and economy such as theirs must have its reward, and now they are in possession of all that is needed to make life comfortable; with their farm grown to two hundred acres, besides eighty acres given to their son. They are passing the evening of life respected and esteemed by all. In 1826 he married Miss Mehitable Beckwith, daughter of Asa and Sarah (Reding) Beckwith, born Sept. 1, 1806, in Alstead, N. H. They have had six children,-Sarah, born Feb. 20, 1827; Mary, March 13, 1828; Hollis, Oct. 3, 1830; Holland, Feb. 11, 1835; Alice, July 31, 1840; and Annie, Feb. 10, 1846.

The life of Judge Sleeper was comparatively uneventful, and marked by few incidents save such as occur in the lives of most successful men. He was emphatically a man of affairs,"-industrious, sagacious, enterprising, and publicspirited,-early developing those qualities which contributed to his success in after-life.

The family from which he sprang is one whose history in the United States dates back to 1607.* In that year two brothers came from England, and settled in Hampton, N. H. Four of their grandchildren went to New Chester, N. H., now Bristol, where they became prominently identified with the history of that locality, and reared large families; and, according to genealogical record, Judge Sleeper's descent is traced to one of these branches. He was born in Bristol, N. H., Nov. 4, 1805. His father was the eldest in a family of twenty children, -eighteen sons and two daughters,-and died when John was eight years of age. He was a successful farmer, and his estate included a portion of what is now the village of Bristol. Upon his decease an elder brother (Walter Sleeper) moved on to the farm, and with him John resided until he was fourteen years of age, at which time he was apprenticed to a woolen manufacturer, with whom he remained seven years; but the avocation proved uncongenial to his tastes, and he abandoned it as a means of obtaining a livelihood, and in 1828 entered the employ of Philip Winegar, a prominent business man of Union Springs, N. Y. In 1835 he formed a còpartnership with Winegar & Son, in the dry goods and grocery business.

The following year (1886) he was married to Miss Sarah, the eldest daughter of the senior member of the firm.

During Mr. Sleeper's residence in Union Springs (a period of fourteen years) he became prominently identified with its interests, and filled many positions of trust and responsibility. He was elected supervisor of the town of Springport, and officiated as clerk, inspector, and justice of the peace. In 1839 he and his father-in-law came West to look at some

*This statement is erroneous. The first settlement in New Hampshire was made at Portsmouth in 1623. The year 1627 would be more nearly correct.

The

land owned by the firm. He was favorably impressed with the location and natural advantages of a tract in the town of Comstock, and concluded to turn his attention to farming, and in May, 1842, started for his future home with his family, which consisted of his wife and three children,— Lewis, Henry, and Eliza. Arriving upon his farm, he immediately commenced to clear and break up land, and in October began the erection of a house upon his land, into which the family moved in December of that year. town at this time was sparsely settled. Galesburg had not reached the distinction of a village, and the family endured many privations and hardships incident to a life in a new country. Mr. Sleeper at once took a leading position among the citizens of Comstock. He was elected supervisor of the town, besides filling many other minor offices. In 1848 he was elected probate judge, and changed his residence to Kalamazoo, where he lived until the spring of 1860, when he returned to the farm. During his residence in Kalamazoo he was trustee of the village, and took a prominent part in the organization of the County Agricultural Society, and was its treasurer for several years. After his return to Comstock he held the position of county superintendent of the poor, county drain commissioner, and, in 1865, was again elected supervisor. While engaged in the duties of his office he contracted a cold, which caused his death on the afternoon of May 19, 1865.

Mr. Sleeper was emphatically a self-made man. He early established methodical business habits, and his energy and perseverance, coupled with integrity of character, rendered his life a success. Politically he was a Republican, and an able exponent of the principles of that organization. He was a man of large experience in the affairs of the world, of decided abilities, and of marked industry. In social life he was refined, unselfish, and courteous, attracting to himself the warm friendship of In his business life he the intelligent and cultivated. was just and honorable in all his dealings, and had the respect and confidence of those with whom he was brought

in contact.

NATURAL FEATURES.

First Views. As the early emigrant approached this region. his step was not only arrested by its beauty, but its varied attractions soon induced him to select a home in so favored a locality. He had passed through different portions of this wild territory, but had seen no spot that combined so many desirable natural features. Here was heavy timber land, a rich heritage in itself; here were the oak-opening and burr-oak lands, almost ready for the plow; here was a matchless prairie, that only needed to be fenced and cabined for fine farm-homes; and, furthermore, this inviting region was traversed midway by a beautiful valley, with a stream of bright water flowing through it. No wonder the sturdy emigrant paused in admiration; he had found a region that had won him at first sight.

John Mullet, in December of 1825, ran the exterior lines of this township, and traced it down in his field. notes as "town 2 south, of range 10 west." The subdivision lines were run by Robert Clark, Jr., in February of 1827.

It has the following surroundings: Richland on the north, Charleston on the east, Pavilion on the south, and Kalamazoo on the west. The Michigan Central Railway runs east and west through the centre of the township.

The Kalamazoo River enters Comstock just below the centre of the eastern line. It here bends to the south, then, turning, winds in a tortuous course some three miles westerly, where it turns northward, and flows out of the township near the middle of its western line. Its banks are low, as a strip of bottom-land, varying in width from a quarter to one-half of a mile in width, lies on each side of it. Every river has its channel for the dry season, and its flood-plain, which it covers in times of overflowing." The waters of the Kalamazoo are usually clear, and the alluvial deposits have not, of late years, been abundant or frequent enough to have added to or enriched these bottoms. In the eastern and western part, on south side of the river, they have been cultivated, and the soil has become. harder and more productive. Much of the rest is yet too soft and wet for tillage. The soil is a dark mould on top, with a whitish sand below. What the fertility of these flats will be when they are fully reclaimed,—and that they can be is conceded,-time and cultivation will tell. They were once, except some 30 acres of marsh in the eastern part, heavily wooded with such trees as usually grow on bottom-lands in this latitude.

From these bottoms arises, on both sides of the river, a second terrace, narrower than the first, but, like it, irregular in width. It has a soil of sandy loam, and was once

* By A. D. P. Van Buren, Esq.

sparsely wooded with oak and hickory. From this grade you ascend a few feet to one that is somewhat broader, with a sandy soil in the eastern part, and in the western part, north of the river, a heavier loam, with gravel, which, on section 21, crops out in beds of small bowlders. Its timber, like the second grade, was oak and hickory. Toland Prairie lies on this plateau, just west of Galesburg. It spreads so far towards the river on the south that it narrows the second terrace, and then broadens out in a circular range to the foot of the uplands on the north, from whence it sweeps back to the village on its eastern side. This prairie, of some 500 acres of land, is nearly oval in shape, and formerly had a wide fringe of burr-oak land extending entirely around it, from which several strips of burr-oak trees were scattered along the low places in the uplands some two miles northward. The soil of the prairie is of a dark vegetable mould, and some 12 inches deep.

The Kalamazoo, in its course from Hillsdale County to Lake Michigan, flows through many picturesque regions, yet in this entire distance it has but this one prairie lying on its banks. The first settlers called it Paragon Prairie, and in the earliest township records it bears that name. This was a most fitting name. For, when they first discovered it, was it not a model of beauty? And there is beauty also in its native Indian name, Notawa-see-pe, a prairie lying by a river.

From this third terrace there is an ascent, varying from 25 to 100 feet, by which you reach the sparsely-wooded and park-like oak openings on the north side. From the brow of these uplands you can look over the beautiful valley, some two and a half miles wide, to the parallel range of uplands on the south side of the river, and the geologist, referring to the melting of the ice in the Champlain period, will tell you "these bluffs were the banks of the Kalamazoo, when, with its deep, broad, and mighty current, filling the entire valley, it flowed on to Lake Michigan. Many ages have passed since it receded from its ancient high-water mark along the upland ridge at your feet, while flood-plain after flood-plain became dry, and terrace after terrace appeared, as the broad current lowered and dwindled to the narrow stream now murmuring along the bottom of the valley."

These oak openings have an undulating surface, which in places breaks into irregular ridges or low, sweeping hills. The soil is a gray loam, with a gravel and clay mixture along the northern border of the township, while sand predominates in the southern portions of these uplands.

On the south side of the river it is by an equal ascent, varying from 25 to 100 feet, that you go from the third terrace to the uplands. With the exception of some 400 acres of openings in the southeast corner of Comstock, all