Pontiac Village and City 1820s

 

EARLY SETTLERS OF THE 1820s.

Among those who came in 1820 and 1821 were Judah Church, Abner Davis, Eastman Colby, Alexander Galloway, Rufus Clark, Enoch Hotchkiss, James Harrington, G. W. Butson, John Edson, Joshua S. Terry, Joseph Harris, Stephen Reeves, and Captain Joseph Bancroft.

 

 

RECORDS OF DEEDS, executed by Stephen Mack (from the original patent mentioned in Part I) to the following parties:

 

The consideration for each of the above-described lots was one dollar.

On the 29th of May, same year, Harvey Williams reconveyed lot No. 8 to Stephen Mack for the sum of forty-five dollars.

A "STAR-CHAMBER" COURT AND A NOVEL NOMINATION. In the course of the hilarious proceedings it was proposed by one of the party that an impromptu court be organized for the trial of various and sundry individuals, against whom charges had been preferred. The high court was organized with Hon. Solomon Sibley on the bench (a wooden one, with three legs), and at once proceeded to business. Judge Whipple was among those who were found guilty of misdemeanors, and the sentence of the court was that he should strip to his nether garments and dance steadily for half an hour on the mill floor, and Sheriff Morris was directed to see the sentence properly executed. A cheap fiddler with a cracked violin was on the ground, and the judge was denuded of his superfluous clothing, and, in the presence of the august assemblage, was soon deep in the intricacies of the mazy dance. He held on bravely for the first fifteen minutes, amid the plaudits of the company, but at length, his sentence, like Cain's of ancient memory, became greater than he could bear, and his tottering, limbs refused to follow the orchestra. In vain the sheriff and his minions urged him -- "On with the dance!" Tired nature could go no further, and he succumbed, and "became as a little child," and the penalty of the law had no terrors for him. Finding him incorrigible, a committee was appointed to consider his case, and deal with him as they might deem best.

After consultation and a warming of the inner man, they took him to the back window of the mill and held him by his heels suspended on the outside over the flume below, where a ragged stone wall and a mass of crossed timbers awaited his precipitation in the yawning depth. He was then informed that one of the number would proceed to count, slowly and solemnly,-one-two-three-four-five, and if, at the sound of five, he surrendered and agreed to finish his dance, all right; if not, down he must go, headlong. The judge bore up, like the brave man he was, until the count reached " three," when he cried, " Enough!" and was marched back in triumph, and soon completed his task, when he was exchanged for a fresh victim.

One culprit had made up his mind that he would fare better in running an Indian gauntlet, and he carefully stowed himself away in Colonel Mack's new barn, under some marsh hay in the loft. The sheriff's posse, after diligent search, assembled at the barn, tolerably well satisfied that the delinquent was there hidden.

After a hurried consultation, one of the party said, "Gentlemen, we have hunted high and low, and there is little doubt but he is in this barn; and there is just one way to bring him out." "How is that?" said the crowd. a "Burn, him out!" The idea took at once, and a pile of hay was quickly gathered on the floor, and soon the trembling fellow heard the flames snapping and crackling. No longer doubting that he was to be roasted alive, he sang out, "Hold on! I'll come down!" And he was speedily taken to the mill and compelled to perform his allotted part in the farce. The flames in the colonel's barn were quickly extinguished, and the fun went on as before.

During the "celebration" the subject of nominating a delegate for Congress came up, and after mature deliberation the company concluded they had the right material, and proceeded to make the nomination after a form not laid down in the statutes, but altogether original and very imposing.

Political preferment was evidently as eagerly sought after in those days as at the present time, and candidates were not wanting who were willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of the country. As they presented themselves, they were taken, one at a time, and dumped into one of the hoppers of the rear mill, while the miller stood at the spout and carefully examined the flour as it came from the rapidly-revolving stone. Handling the first sample with the air of a connoisseur, he gravely remarked, "That is rather inferior stock; it might, however, pass for fair middlings!"  Of course, they wanted no such material as that, and the victim was unceremoniously dragged out of the hopper and hustled to one side, while the next in order suffered himself, like a "lamb led to the slaughter," to be "put through."  "Well, that is a little better; would make a fair article, but there is too much bran!" And so on through the list, until it came Judge Sibley's turn, when the miller tested the article very closely, and, knowing the judge was the favorite, remarked, with great apparent satisfaction, "Ah, that is the thing; that is super-extra, -- the best brand we make!" And accordingly the judge was unanimously nominated.

These reminiscences of other days simply show that