Climax Prairie land entries

From Black Hawk Slept Here

Figure 1. Earliest land entries on Climax Prairie and vicinity

Introduction

Which were the choicest lands on Climax Prairie? Who were the purchasers?

Climax Prairie is located in Climax and Charleston Townships, Kalamazoo County, Michigan. Southwest Michigan had a number of small praries, all of which attracted Euro-American settlers to the region. Climax Prairie is a typically-sized one -- about two miles long by a half-mile to full-mile wide.

The would-be buyers who got here first (and had money) usually selected land on these prairies if they could. Here they could put the plow to the land and start growing crops without losing time in first clearing trees. On the larger prairies they would locate their homesteads on an edge of the prairie where they would be close to good cropland on one side, and water and wood on the other.

Figure 1b. Legend for map of earliest land entries on Climax Prairie and vicinity

The map in Figure 1 was compiled to determine the extent to which this settlement pattern held true on Climax Prairie. The idea was to identify which lands were bought by the first buyers and to see if the prairie lands were really the first ones chosen.

Land Office records

Ideally one would like to know the order in which buyers walked in the door at the land office, selected their lands, and put down their money. Stories were later told of trips to the land office. It would help corroborate those stories and link them to other events if we knew just when these buyers went to the land office.

Using data that are available online at the Bureau of Land Management web site, we can know who, but not when. We can get some rough approximations as to when the buyers went to the land offices, but we don't know exactly when.

Figure 2. View facing southeast from M Avenue, which lies on the north edge of the section. October 28, 2007

The rough approximations are useful, just the same. Data from Section 35 in Charleston Township will serve as an example.

Figure 3. Land patent records for Section 35, Charleston Township, Kalamazoo, MI)

Figure 3 shows the results for a search for the land patent records for Section 35 in Charleston Township, Kalamazoo County (Township 2 South, Range 9 West). Note that there are five unique document numbers, and that all the land entries were recorded at the White Pigeon Prairie land office.

Further details are available for each of these entries. We will examine the second one, the one for Andrew L Hays, more closely. (Hays was not a farmer nor was he a resident of Kalamazoo County. He was a physician who lived in Marshall, in Calhoun County. Hays bought the land here on Climax Prairie for investment purposes. More information about these activities is in the article titled, "Andrew Hays, Land Speculator".)

Figure 4. Land patent record for Andrew Hayes in Charleston Township -- an example of the data available online

The information for this land patent is listed under four separate tabs. The first is a description that identifies the patent. To make the map in Figure 1, one piece of information was taken from this page -- the fact that the parcel Hayes bought was 80 acres in size. That item helps to interpret the information under the next tab.

Figure 5. Example of the Legal Land Description data available online in the land patent records at the BLM website

The next tab is the "Legal Land Description." We see that this 80 acres was located on the west half of the northwest quarter of the section, which would have been directly behind the photographer of the scene in Figure 2.

It's not a "fractional" section, which makes it a relatively uncomplicated one to decipher. It's a regular rectangular parcel obtained by successive halving and quartering of the square mile that constitutes Section 35. Sometimes, where there were lakes or streams, the land put up for sale was not in such regular shapes, and "fractional" sections were sold of the odd-shaped or odd-sized pieces that were put up for sale. It's harder to tell from those descriptions just which land was meant. ([Were there any fractional sections on Climax Prairie?])

Figure 6. Example of a land patent document

Under the third tab one can view the land patent document itself. Sometimes there are data transcription errors which can be discovered by comparing with the original document. At least one such error was found in producing the map for this article. And sometimes there is additional information that can be useful in historical interpretation. For example, this particular document says Hays was the assignee for Lyman Daniels -- Lyman Daniels paid for the land, but Andrew Hays was the owner. That piece of information is useful to an understanding of what Hays said many years later about his activities at the land office during the Black Hawk war.

Selecting the earliest land entries

The issue date and document numbers can give some idea of which land entries were the earliest ones. The earlier issue dates usually indicate earlier trips to the land office. But it is not possible to determine from these records just how much earlier an entry was made. The time it took for a patent to be issued could vary, depending on the workload at the General Land Office, among other things.

The issue date and document numbers can give some idea of which land entries were the earliest ones. The earlier issue dates usually indicate earlier trips to the land office. But it is not possible to determine from these records just how much earlier an entry was made. The time it took for a patent to be issued could vary, depending on the workload at the General Land Office, among other things.

There is another way to get at the question of first choices, though. The land office at which buyers made their purchases is identified on the patent records, and the land office moved. Before 1831 buyers of land in Calhoun and Kalamazoo counties had to go to the Monroe Land Office to make their purchases. In 1831 a land office was opened at White Pigeon Prairie. All sales of lands in southwest Michigan were then conducted at that office. In 1834 the office moved to Bronson, which later changed its name to Kalamazoo.

If we select all of the land purchases that were made at the White Pigeon Office as opposed to later ones at Bronson or Kalamazoo, that's a reasonably useful way to identify the earliest of the settlers for this region.

The early selections

The map in Figure 1 shows the early land selections, defined as those made at the White Pigeon land office.

The largest cluster is centered on Galesburg and the land along the Kalamazoo River. Some of those lands were presumably chosen for their value as a future town site, rather than for agriculture, though some of the land to the south and northeast is good agricultural land. The second largest cluster is centered on Climax Prairie and a lobe of near-prairie savanna land to the southwest of the prairie.

So it can be seen that the prairie, indeed, seemed to be a magnet for settlers, though it was not the only one.

Note: All of the land in all directions around Climax prairie was savanna. I'm glossing over an issue here.

The early purchasers

Who were the early purchasers of land on Climax prairie? Did they live here? Were they non-resident speculators? Do any of them have connections to the Black Hawk war?

The following table summarizes some of the known information. The column headed "Militia service" indicates whether or not the buyer did militia service during the Black Hawk war scare. The number of Michigan land patents is taken from the online database of land patent records General Land Office mostly based on land records and county histories. In the cases of commonly-found names, a bit of educated guesswork was applied to determine which entries belonged to the same person as the one settling on Climax Prairie, and also to reconcile variant spellings. "Residence" refers to the place of residence during the early 1830s, after the initial land purchase was made. The information in this column was obtained from the land patent certificates and supplemented with information from the county histories and census records.

Some additional notes about these land buyers:

(Note that there are also separate articles about some of these buyers -- especially those who did militia service at the time of the Black Hawk war.)

• Charles Andrews -- residence stated on first land purchase was Onandaga County, New York -- the 1869 Kalamazoo County history lists him as living in Augusta, on Water Street (h.6) - the 1880 county history says he was in the employ of Caleb Eldred when he came, and that he was in the milita that was involved in the Young's Prairie episode (page 327) -- a Charles Andrews held various offices in Comstock Township in the 30s and 40s, but this isn't necessarily the same person
• Jarvis D Adams -- no other land entries -- an investor and officer of the company that published the "Kalamazoo Mail" (newspaper) -- came in 1833 to find land -- wanted to buy the NW quarter of section 10 but had to settle for the southwest quarter (kalamazoo-1880, page 328) -- was a justice of the peace in Climax Township in 1855
• Titus Bronson -- not listed in Barnett's militia roster -- had 19 land entries in Kalamazoo, Washtenaw, St. Joseph and Van Buren counties

• Daniel O Dodge -- came to Climax in summer 1832, farmed here, was a volunteer in a late callup of the militia
• William Eckler -- a resident of Kalamazoo County -- there are two other land entries in Michigan for William Eckler, but it is not clear whether or not it's the same person. One is in Van Buren County and one in Oakland County. Those entries do not list Kalamazoo County as the place of residence.-- Served in the militia as a private in Harrison's company, with service dates May 21-Jun 21.
• Daniel B Eldred -- two land entries at the White Pigeon office, both shown on the map -- His house in Climax still stands. It's on land that was entered by Daniel Dodge or Stephen Eldred, though.
• Stephen Eldred
• Henry L Ellsworth -- also entered land in Kalamaoo, Oshtemo, and Prairie Ronde townships, and in Oshtemo Township in Allegan County -- not listed in Barnett's militia roster -- Appears to have been a non-resident investor. His residence is given as Hartford County, Connecticut. Some of his land entries were made for him by Erotas P Hastings of Wayne County

• James M Fellows -- came to Kalamazoo County in 1829 -- 4SG in Harrison's company in the 1832 militia -- later moved to Goodhue County, Minnesota
• Joshua Garritt -- a resident of Litchfield County, Connecticut, at the time of his purchase -- no other land purchases in Michigan
• John F Gilkey -- a farmer who resided on Gull Prairie (Section 10 in Richland Township) -- purchased much other land on Gull Prairie and elsewhere
• Andrew L Hayes -- a physician and early settler in Marshall, MI -- 15 land entries in Kalamazoo, Calhoun, and Barry counties
• John Munger -- residence on certificate: Clark County, Ohio -- no other land entries -- not on militia roster -- listed as a resident tax payer on section 25 in 1844 (kalamazoo-1880, page 318) --
• David Page -- a physician who was one of the first settlers in White Pigeon (1827) -- received patents for 7 purchases, five in St. Joseph County and two in Kalamazoo County -- first clerk of court in St. Joseph County
• William Price -- William Price 2nd on the land patent certificates -- four land entries in Kalamazoo County and one in Calhoun -- all four Kalamazoo ones were in Charleston township, two in section 28 and two in section 26 -- apparently came from Cayuga County, New York (the place of residence listed on the first certificate) and moved to Kalamazoo County, and then to Calhoun (the last of the four Kalamazoo certificates lists his place of residence as Calhoun County, but that one may not be his entry because he isn't identified as "2nd" on that one) -- not listed on the militia roster, but the issue dates on the certificates and the document numbers suggest he was not as early a settler as most of the others -- there is a William Price in the 1880 county history who is listed as having held many offices in Oshtemo Township and at the county level (in the late 30s and 40s) but that William Price is not identified as "2nd".