Ceresco Dam

From Black Hawk Slept Here

The Ceresco Dam is located where the Kalamazoo River flows from Marshall Township into Emmett Township. At the time of the Black Hawk war, a man named John Bartram had bought much of the land here. His house was just east of here.

John Bertram came directly from England about the year 1832 and bought largely in Marshall and Emmett, and built his house in the town of Marshall, about half a mile east of the village of Ceresco. After buying his lands, he still had about $10,000 on interest in a Detroit bank. He undertook to carry on farming on the English plan, on a very large scale, and run through with considerable of his means. After a few years' trial, which proved a failure, he removed to Illinois, where he staid but a few years, and then returned to England. It is said to be a fact that Henry L. Dwinell split some 44,000 rails for him, enough, at any rate, to pay for a quarter section of land. …. As early as 1832 this township attained something of a notoriety for patriotism, when that noble Briton, John Bertram, so resolutely took the war path, fully uniformed, armed and equipped, to drive back Black Hawk, the invader, and this hard-earned reputation was well sustained during our late struggle for national liberty, by the "rising generation " in this town.

-- Calhoun County business directory for 1869-70 (1869), page 241