A Thumbnail History of Battle Creek and Calhoun County, Michigan
Looking around Calhoun County today, it is hard to imagine that a thousand years ago the area was occupied by a sophisticated mound-building Native American culture. We know little about the mound builders because their structures were plowed under by pioneer farmers and the copper and flint implements the pioneers reported having found in those mounds have disappeared. All we do know is that pioneers found a deserted earthen fort in Pennfield township and large, artificially constructed hillocks in Bedford and Battle Creek townships. We suspect that the mound building culture was related to similar communities found from Canada to Mexico and that it disappeared sometime around the time of the Crusades, but, because the mound builders left no written records, we are not certain. Their way of life and disappearance remain among the most intriguing mysteries in the history of Calhoun County, Michigan.
We do know more about the Native American groups which followed the mound builders. After the first civilization disappeared, members of the Potawatomi, and to a lesser extent the Ottawa and Chippewa tribes migrated to the area and established their own agrarian culture. Their civilization was peaceful and well developed. embers established permanent villages in the county, cultivating large gardens, and tapping the abundant maple trees for syrup each spring. We know about these Native Americans because they were here when the first European descendants arrived and recorded their experiences for later historians.
After the Revolutionary War, the United States appeared on a map as thirteen small colonies clinging to the edge of a huge and largely unexplored continent. Heeding the advice of Boston editor Horace Greeley to "Go west, young man," many Easterners were eager to move to the territories in the hope of finding richer land and new opportunities. The problem for the new nation was how to organize western settlement in the most workable manner. The government devised such a plan and formalized it in 1787 with the passage of the Northwest Ordinance. According to the law, the land first had to be legally procured from the Native American groups that inhabited it. The federal government bought most of what is now the lower peninsula of Michigan from the Potawatomi after negotiating the 1821 Treaty of Chicago. Next, surveyors were sent in 1824 and 1825 to what would become Michigan, to map the area, name land features, and draw political boundaries. This area was named the county of "Calhoun" after then United States Vice President John C. Calhoun. Finally, a land office was opened in White Pigeon to sell property at a price of $1.25 an acre and the area was officially opened to settlement. Settlers were urged to explore the area, mark their claim, and travel to White Pigeon to pay for the desired property in cash.
The first non-Native American settlers arrived in Calhoun County in 1831 and within the next five years sparse settlement had spread throughout most regions of the county. Most settlers came from New York and New England via the Erie Canal to Detroit and then continued overland to Calhoun County. The trip took 6-8 weeks and there are many stories of how grueling the early pioneers found it to be. Two years after the settlers arrived, the county organized as a political unit under the Territorial Government. In 1837 the Territory of Michigan became the State of Michigan.
During the early years, Marshall (named for Supreme Court Chief Justice S. S. Marshall) was the county's main center of population and commerce. After Michigan became a state Marshall's leaders lobbied to have the community become the state capital, just as Ann Arbor lobbied to become the site of the state university and Jackson lobbied for the state penitentiary. Marshall's bid passed in the State Senate but failed in the House and Lansing became the capital in 1845. The Rev. John D. Pierce, one of Marshall's founders, became the state and nation's first Superintendent of Schools and is considered to be the "father of education" in Michigan.
The community which became Battle Creek was first settled in 1831. Most city land had been purchased by New Yorker Sands McCamly and Jonathan Guernsey who resold it to early settlers. The town was originally called 'Milton." It was organized as a village in 1850 and a city in 1859 by which time it had overtaken Marshall in population and economic activity. After a popular vote it was named "Battle Creek" after the river flowing through it. Many of the town's original settlers were Quakers who carried their advanced social beliefs to the frontier with them. Battle Creek was a major stop on the underground railroad and conductors Erastus and Sarah Hussey helped hundreds of fleeing slaves on their journey to Canada.
During the years before the Civil War not only Battle Creek but also much of Calhoun County was firmly rooted in anti-slavery and pro-suffrage beliefs. In 1840, LeRoy Township was the first political subdivision in the nation to vote a majority for the anti-slavery candidate for President, John Birney. Sojourner Truth, noted abolitionist and women's rights advocate, was attracted to the area by its reputation for acceptance of liberal social beliefs. She came originally to settle in the Bedford township community of Harmonia, but eventually moved to Battle Creek. Marshall harbored deep abolitionist sentiment and in 1847, as a town, fought off Kentucky bounty hunters who tried to kidnap the African-American Crosswhite family to return it to slaveholders in the South. As soon as the Kentuckians pounded on the Crosswhite door much of the male population of Marshall came out to oppose them in what became a near riot. In the excitement, the Crosswhites fled to Canada and were not captured.
The first land in Albion township was purchased in 1830 by Noble McKinstry and Ephraim Harrison. The community was settled in 1831 and formally incorporated as a village in 1856. Albion College was founded by the Methodist Church in 1839 as the 'Wesleyan Seminary of Albion" and became a center for all subsequent development in the town.
Other, smaller towns flourished as well. In 1831 the first home was built in Athens township by Warren Nichols. Nichols shared the area with many members of the Potawatomi tribe. In 1840, as a result of national policy dictated by Andrew Jackson and Congress, the Native American population was "removed" to the western territory (now Oklahoma) in a forced match. Gradually, the Potawatomi returned and established a permanent community near Athens which remains today. The village of Homer was settled in 1832 when the first grist mill was built there. It was formally incorporated in 187 1. Tekonsha (named for Chief Te-Kon-Qua-Sha) was organized in 1836 and Ceresco (named for Ceres, goddess of harvests) was formed in 1839 when the first flour mill was built there.
Calhoun County was considered a desirable place to settle for two primary reasons--the availability of good land for agriculture and the abundance of water power. In the days before the widespread use of steam technology, mills depended on running water to turn their wheels to saw lumber, grind grain, and weave fabrics. With one exception, the village of Harmonia, early settlements in the county clustered around the best sources of swiftly running water. These included Marshall on Rice Creek and the Kalamazoo River, Battle Creek on the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, Burlington and Tekonsha on the St. Joseph River, Albion at the "Forks," and smaller communities along those and other rivers as well. Originally, too, settlers thought that they could ship their products to market on the Kalamazoo and St. Joseph Rivers to Lake Michigan and across to Chicago, but no steamboats were ever designed that drafted shallowly enough to navigate those waterways. That point became moot when the railroad first crossed the county in the 1840's, bringing additional population and prosperity.
The non-Native American population of the country grew in the early years from one family in early 1831 to 10,600 persons in 1840; 19,169 in 1850; 29,398 in 1860; and 36,571 in 1870. .
Calhoun County sent hundreds of its young men to fight in the Civil War, including 30 African American soldiers who fought with the 102nd United States unit. After they returned, the business of building a prosperous, mature community began in earnest. In a census of county business taken in 1873, over 100 businesses were tallied, employing 1,038 persons and producing goods worth $2,750,000 annually, an enormous amount of money by the standards of the day. Included in those businesses were 20 flour mills, 21 sawmills, 6 machine shops, 5 carriage and wagon factories, 2 furniture factories, 2 pump factories, 3 stone yards, 5 banks, and various stores, taverns, hotels, publishers, and small businesses.
By the 1870's Battle Creek had become the population center of the county. In the early 1850's a small group of religious reformers known as the "Seventh Day Adventists" had settled in the community and began their missionary work in earnest. They established Battle Creek as their world headquarters. In 1866 the Adventists built a health spa which they called the "Western Health Reform Institute" on North Washington Avenue and made the fateful decision to hire the son of one of their members, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, as its medical director. By 1878,Kellogg, who was a marketing genius, had vastly expanded the institute and renamed it the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Due to his promotional skills, the 'San' as it was known, attracted people from all over the world to come to stay in its luxurious surroundings and learn the principles of healthy living. Eventually, experimentation in its Vegetarian kitchen led to the discovery of how to manufacture flaked cereal, which brother Will Keith Kellogg and San patient C. W. Post eventually parlayed into two of the largest industries in the world, the Kellogg Company, and Post Cereals. During the late 19th century the economy of the city shifted from its base a" milling and manufacturing center to become the focus of the national health reform movement.
Other events would shape Battle Creek's history during this period, too. The construction of an U. S. Army base at Camp Custer in 1918 further underpinned Battle Creek's prosperity. And in 1930, W. K. Kellogg endowed a charitable foundation in the city, which has become one of the largest in the world and which has consistently supported the development of the county and city.
Marshall always remained the center of county government. The old Greek Revival courthouse was replaced by a "new" large Italianate style building in 1875 which housed county offices and the courts That building was replaced in 1955 by the new" County Building on Green Street which still stands in 1998. The economy of Marshall was more prosperous in its early years than later in the 19th and 20th centuries. That early prosperity resulted in the building of many beautiful homes during the mid-1800's but after Marshall's 'boom period passed, those homes were maintained partially because there was little money to teat them down and build new structures. That lack of contemporary prosperity ultimately proved to be fortunate because it encapsulated Marshall as a uniquely intact architectural example of a 19th century community. Later the community recognized its assets and organized to presence many of its architectural treasures under the leadership of Harold Brooks in the 1950's and '60's. Those preservation efforts have been repeatedly recognized at a national level and have established Marshall as a tourist center and one of the most beautiful towns in the nation.
Albion remains a respected cultural center, not only for the county, but for the state and nation. Albion College is recognized as one of the best small private educational institutions in the Country, attracting top students and faculty to the city. The College has provided a stabilizing influence in the community, which has allowed it to grow, and many businesses to prosper.
Many of the smaller towns in Calhoun County have stayed viable as agricultural centers and bedroom communities for Albion, Marshall, and Battle Creek. Small businesses, school districts, and retail centers have developed in Homer, Tekonsha, Athens, Burlington, and Union City. Those communities have remained stable examples of midwestern small town life since their founding in the 1830's. Other Calhoun County towns, like Steamburg, Harmonia, Abscota, Secolia, Aldrich's Corners, and Partello have nor been as fortunate. Time has erased them from our county plat books, but they, like the larger communities in the County, have contributed immeasurably to the mosaic that is Calhoun County.
Wherever we look in Calhoun County we sense the ghosts of the pioneers who went before us. As we more toward building our future, we must nod our heads and touch our hats to their memory, and promise always to keep faith in a community that remains as much theirs as now it is ours.
--Jane Ratner
SUGGESTED READING
Battle Creek 150 : sesquicentennial 1831-1981 Battle Creek, Mich.: Battle Creek Sesquicentennial Committee, 1980.
Carver, Richard W. A History of Marshall. Virginia Beach, Va.: Donning, 1993.
Coppernoll, Catherine and Karen Rietsma. Homer, Michigan: a young people's history Homer, Mich.: C. Coppernoll and K. Rietsma, 1982.
Evert, L. H., ed. History of Calhoun County, Michigan With illustrations descriptive... Philadelphia, L. H. Evert co., 1877.
Gardner, Washington. History of Calhoun County, Michigan; a narrative account... Chicago, Lewis Pub. Co., 1913.
Gelitman, Susan. Bedford's best: in honor of Bedford's sesquicentennial (1837 to 1987). Bedford, Michigan : [Historical Committee], 1987.
Lowe, Berenice Bryant, 1896-1983. Tales of Battle Creek. Battle Creek, Mich. Albert L and Louise B. iller Foundation, 1976.
Massie, Larry B. and Peter Schmitt. Battle Creek, the place behind the products: an illustrated history. Woodland Hills, Calif. : Windsor Publications, 1984.
Passic, Frank. From the archives: a pictorial history of Albion, Michigan Historical Society. Dallas, Texas : Curtis Media Corporation, c 1991.
Rust, E. G. History and directory of Calhoun County. Battle Creek, MI : the author, 1869.
The Tekonsha story, 1830-1975. Tekonsha, Mich. Tekonsha Community Bicentennial Committee, 1975.
Children at the Altrusa Day Care center, c. 1925.