Isaac Shurte
From Black Hawk Slept Here
Militia company captain - Cass County
Some references to Isaac Shurte in History of Cass County (1875)
From page 115 (referring to the year 1829):
Wayne, LaGrange, and the north half of Jefferson Townships were organized under the name of La Grange, with an election to be held at the house of Isaac Shurte.
From page 188, the first page of the chapter on LaGrange Township:
In 1829 the Wrights, John Ritter, Isaac Shurte, David Brady, John and Thomas Simpson and others made entries and commenced settlement. The first entries of land were made in 1829 by James Dickson, on section eight; Isaac Shurte, on fifteen...
From page 190, in the same chapter as the above:
The first election was held at the house of Isaac Shurte, on the 5th of April, 1830 and was the only election, of which there is any record, held in that year.
From pages 305..., a biography of Isaac Shurte
Isaac Shurte was born near Pearson's Mills, New York, July 11th, 1798. When one year old his parents moved to Sussex County, New Jersey, where he lived until twenty-one years old, when he started for Ohio - going on foot to Pittsburg, a distance of between five and six hundred miles. At Pittsburg he bought a small skiff in which he rowed down the Ohio River to Cincinnatti--then a smart little town--from thence he went across the country to Butler County, where he remained until September, 1827, when he came to Michigan. He first settled at Niles, where he built a cabin, and remained two years, when he sold out for twenty dollars, and removed to La Grange, where he has resided ever since.
On the way out from Ohio his children were very sick, which, with broken wagons and muddy roads, made him feel at times almost homesick and discouraged, but with the courage that was characteristic of all pioneers he would push ahead. He brought with him, from Ohio, three yoke of cattle, one pair of horses, milch cows, hogs, &c. Of the stock brought along he lost heavily the first winter from a lack of feed.
The first winter he threshed wheat at the Mission, getting every ninth bushel as wages--at this rate he could earn one bushel a day. After earning the wheat he took it to Ford's mill to get it ground and then boated it over to the Mission and bolted it on a hand bolt belonging to that establishment.
Mr. Shurte bought the claim for his present homestead of a man named Loux, giving in exchange a horse, saddle and bridle. For two bushels of seed wheat, he traded to Israel Markam a cut of leather, (a strip wide enough for two soles across a side of leather,) and then went seven miles to borrow a harrow to put it in with. The grain was sown among weeds and grass, and, much to his surprise, made an excellent crop.
In 1830 he bought the first fanning mill used in the Township, which was manufactured by a man named Parker, then living near the present site of Cassopolis. Mr. Shurte says, "we lived the first two years after coming to La Grange on corn and buckwheat bread, excepting wheat bread for company and on rare occasions. The yarn for all our wear, both woolen and linen, was spun in the house, and for a number of years after coming to Michigan we did not have a cotton sheet in the house."
In 1832 he planted an orchard. the trees for which were procured from a New York man named Jones, he had but little faith and called them "Yankee trees," but after they came into bearing was so well pleased that he filled up all vacancies.
Mr. Shurte was a captain in the Black Hawk (Soc) war and several times was ordered out for service and expected to provide himself with three days' rations, when it was more provisions than they had in the house. He has always been noted for keeping good stock, especially horses, of which there are but few better in the country.
