|
The township of Dayton, as first organized, extended from the middle of T. 13 N. R. 14
W. to the north line of the county and from the west county line, nine miles east.
Afterwards the townships of Beaver, Denver, Troy and the west half of what is now
Lilley, Merrill, Lincoln and Sherman Townships, for a total of 216 square miles, 24 miles
long by 9 miles wide were taken from this territory. Dayton Township of today is located
in the south-west corner of this area, only 36 square miles, 6 miles wide and 6 miles long. Mr. Jacob Barnhart built the first settler's cabin, and Mrs. Barnhart was the first white woman who came to this settlement. This was in 1855 and before Dayton was a township. The Barnhart brothers and sons, with the help of Sylvanus Reed made a road from Big Prairie to the land they had located in Dayton, bridging the streams and otherwise making it passable for bringing their families into the wilderness. About the same time Mrs. Margaret Preston moved with her family into the area and settled on land later owned by her son, Shinar Preston. N. D. Macomber, M. D. Bull, David Robertson and John Maynard were among the first to commence the hard task of making a home in the forest. In the same year, Edward Nelson Jones bottom forty acres of land, but finding he could now pre-empt land, being a minor. He went back to New York State and married Lizzie Glazier, thus acting like the sensible man he was. He returned in 1856 with law and manhood to support his claim, and pre-empted more land. It will be seen by this little incident that a man without is of but little account anywhere, and that a boy can sometimes be a man in the eyes of the law if he only has a wife. Chauncy Tibbitts located on the land later owned by Mrs. Jane Kingford. Jason Doud settled on land later owned by Ephriam Utley, which is now a centennial farm. Caleb Wilcox and sons made a road to the west side of Dayton Township, bringing the family in the fall of 1856. M. W. Scott and William Martin came in December of same year and built a shanty on the land later owned by George Martin. Mr. M. W. Scott moved onto the land where he resided in March 1857. John Lewis, Jason Doud, Horace Gooch, Mortimer Olds and Asa Carpenter, settled in section 8 of Dayton. Of these men, Lewis married Miss Abbie Macomber and had a large farm here. Doud moved to Oregon, Gooch was killed in the Civil War, in the charge at Falling Waters, Olds died young and Carpenter moved to Manistee. The first town meeting was held in the spring of 1857 in a small log house then owned by James Quick, later the property of Maggie Robertson. M. W. Scott was elected Supervisor, M. D. Bull, Clerk, and David Robertson, Treasurer. James Quick honorable citizen and brave soldier, died at Washington, near the close of the war of the rebellion. In 1856 the settlers were not numerous enough to undertake a Fourth of July celebration, but they gathered at the house of Jacob Barnhard, to witness the marriage of Miss Sarah A. Barnhard and Willard Wilder. This was the first wedding in the settlement. Mr. Wilder afterwards enlisted in a Michigan regiment, and gave his life for his country. The next year the settlers arranged to hold a celebration on July 4th. near M. D. Bull's, then the center of the settlement, but some of them were doomed a disappointment. Amos Wilcox, a young man chopping on his own land, fail to show up the night before the celebration. He was found killed by the limb of a tree he had cut down. The neighbors brought him home, made him a coffin, and while the friends were waiting and wondering at the celebration, they buried the dead Pioneer on a hill in sight of his father door, for there was no grave-yard to receive the dead yet. Accidents sometimes cast a gloom over the settlers and some had bad, bad luck. Mr. Horace Jenny had his house burned down and lost his entire stock of household goods, but so far from being discouraged, he went to work and built a better house and Mrs. Jenny went to Newaygo and earned money to replace the thing lost. Good will and friendliness prevailed and if one sometimes ran short of the necessaries of life his friends were glad to help him, for a neighbor at that time, was worth dividing the last johnny- cake with. Dayton Township had only one post office located in the township. Willcox Post Office was established on May 28, 1898. This post office was located in the Dayton Center Store and had only one postmaster, Miron M. Dake. The office was discontinued on Oct 31, 1903, with the mail going to Fremont. The office was named for Henry Willcox, Assistant Postmaster at Fremont, who assisted in getting it established. In 1917, A. Griswold and Son had the store and sold general merchandise. He bought veal, poultry, eggs, butter and cream. The telephone number was 245-2L-1S (The line number was 245 and the store was two long rings and 1 one short ring. Other lines for Dayton Center were 248, 255 and 363. North Dayton line number was 350 and the Devil Lake line was 362. Most of these farm line would have from 10 to 20 customers and some time even more, per line. These farm phone lines were owned and maintained by the farmers on the line themselves. |