A Look Back

GRAND RAPIDS HERALD. SEPTEMBER 6, 1959. A LOOK BACK

PIONEER OF KENT’S FORESTED NORTHWEST WAS A WOMAN

(Editor’s Note: Time and progress have blotted out most of Kent County’s physical links with early days, but the colorful story of its past has been carefully preserved by area historians. Last Sunday, we traced the early history of Vergennes Township. Here is the story of another section of the county, Tyrone Township.)

By Gordon G. Beld.

The pioneer of Kent County’s heavily timbered northwestern township was a woman.

Mrs. Louisa Scot led her fatherless family into the wilds north of Nashville (now Sparta) in 1849, and became Tyrone Township’s first permanent resident.

Many person had located in Grand Rapids and throughout the southern townships by the time the Scott family pushed northward, and one settler pushed into Spencer Township in the northeast. The northwestern part of the county, however, was still covered with dense forests and uninhabited.

The other two townships along Kent’s northern border weren’t settled until several years after Tyrone. Nelson Township’s first resident arrived in 1851, and Solon’s in 1854.

Although forced to commit her husband to an institution because of insanity, Mrs. Scott determined to stay in the northern Kent Wilderness and make a home for her family.

BOARDED ROAD BUILDERS.

The Scott’s went to Tyrone to board workmen who were constructing the state road (now Kenowa Avenue) on the west line of the township. After the road was completed, they remained on their farm north of Sixteen-mile Road.

In 1850, a year after Mrs. Scott went to Tyrone, Lot Fulkerson settled in what is now the northeastern quarter of the village of Casnovia. Fulkerson built a log cabin that year and opened it as a village inn.

The cabin soon became too small and Fulkerson erected a frame building. In 1853, a post office was establish with Daniel Bennett, a resident of the Muskegon County portion of the village, as postmaster. (This is where the Archie Studer Farm is south of Casnovia on Kenowa, just south of M-37) The first store goods were sold at Casnovia by R. Hamilton in May 1862.

SPLIT BY COUNTY LINE.

Thirty years after Fulkerson arrived, in 1880, the population of Casnovia was 420. Split by the Kent – Muskegon County line and served by the Grand Rapids, Newaygo, and Lake Shore railroad, it had many industries at that time.

Located at Casnovia were the stave mill for the Grand Rapids Stave Manufacturing Company, Hanna’s Cider Mill and a Pump Factor, Hayward’s fruit drying establishment, Householder’s Co-operate, Kelly’s Wagon Shop and Tupper’s Cabinet Shop.

A Shingle Mill and a Saw and Planning Mil were each located about three miles from the Village. Most of Casnovia’s business was conducted at the grist mill or the stores of A.C. Ayres, Benedict and Brome, Milton L. Squire or Robert H. Topping.

CASNOVIA HAD TWO HOTLES.

Other establishments in the Casnovia business district during the 1880’s included two drug stores, a jewelry shop, hardware store and two hotels.

The village had three physicians and a dentist, two blacksmiths, three carpenters, a shoe maker, harness maker, livery stable operator, saloon keeper, three butchers, furniture store proprietor, mason, restaurateur and railroad agent.

Rev. H. Hunsberger was Casnovai Methodist Minister. The firs sermon preached in Tyrone was by Rev. Francis Prescott in a school house south of Casnovia in 1854. (The Hayward Schoolhouse, which was at one time at the Corner of Kenowa and 17 Mile Road). Later a Methodist Missionary preacher held meeting there every other week.

KENT’S YOUNGEST VILLAGE

Tyrone’s second village, Kent City, wasn’t settled until 1874. It’s the youngest incorporated village in Kent County in point of date of its settlement.

Focal point of the young town in 1880, was the post office, supervised by L.B. Lull, and E.D. Loop’s Hotel and Livery Stable. In addition to its stores and tradesmen’s establishments, Kent City had a newspaper published by F.E. Ackerman and a United Brethren Church.

The newspaper, the Kent County Herald, was founded at Casnovia, on March 1, 1878, but moved to Kent City, on July 2, 1880. The weekly publication had an average circulation of 500.

Early township residents found the remains of an exceptionally large beaver dam near what is now Kent City. The dam was approximately 990 feet long and from three to five feet high. It was built in a zig-zag pattern with each section about 30 feet long.

POND COVERED MANY ACRES.

Those who saw the remains of the dam assumed that it had been built many years previously because large trees were growing in the embankment. Trees killed by the rising water indicated that the pond had covered an area of between 10 and 15 acres.

When first discovered, the dam included trees that showed teeth marks of beavers. By 1870, the stream had broken through the damn in three places.

In 1870, Tyrone was still heavily forested, three quarters of its area covered by beech and maple trees with no large farm developments in the township.

TOWNSHIP ORGANIZED IN 1855.

Among the township’s earlier settlers were Jacob Smith and Harlow Jackson, who moved in near Mrs. Scott and Fulkerson in 1852. At that time, their nearest neighbors to the east were in Greenville.

In 1855, Asa Clark and his family started out from Nashville (Now Sparta) and built their cabin in the southeastern corner of Tyrone. Their only neighbors were lumbermen who came for a few months at a time to cut timber along the Rogue River. Until the close of the Civil War, the Clarks were the only residents of the Eastern part of that township.

Tyrone, which was a part of Sparta Township for several years, was organized in 1855, in a meeting at a school house near Mrs. Scott’s home. Uriah Chubb was named the first Supervisor and Albert Clute, clerk. Source: From Lottie Hersey’s 1948 Manuscript. Paper clipping from the, Grand Rapids Herald. September 6, 1959.