History of Hillsdale County, Michigan including biographies of George Clinton Munro, Beniah Jones, and Chief Baw Beese

Munro House B&B - 202 Maumee St - Jonesville, MI 49250 - 1-(800)-320-3792

Benaiah Jones - In 1825, a surveying outfit laid out the Chicago Road following the old Sauk Trail. Boom land sales were reported in 1829. And so Benaiah Jones, whose judgment proved to be rare, chose the point on the St. Joseph River where it crossed the Chicago road. This important junction was to eventually become the village of Jonesville. DEATH: 16 Aug 1863, Victoria, Grimes Co., Texas. He was followed one year later by W. P. Jones III and his family who settled five miles to the east on the St. Joe River. The Jones' little settlement, Jonesville, being on the Indian Sauk Trail which later became a toll road known as the Chicago Turnpike (and is now U.S. Highway 12), was the first trade center, the first county seat, had the first hotel, the first general store, the first gristmill, was an overnight stop on the Sauk Trail between Detroit and Chicago, and had the first organized school district in the interior of Michigan. The county seat remained in Jonesville until 1841 when it was moved to Osseo. In 1828, Benaiah Jones brought his family from Painesville, Ohio, and settled on the west bank of the St. Joseph River, starting the first village to be incorporated in Hillsdale County. Jonesville became an important center of civilization in the 1830s.

Captain Moses Allen - was impressed with the land and returned in 1827 soon after the survey to take up land in what is now Allen Township. He was followed the next year by Benaiah Jones, Jr. who became the first settler in Fayette Township. He and his family found shelter in Captain Allen’s corn shed while they built their first log cabin on the west bank of the St. Joseph River near the junction of what is now M 99 and U.S. 12. This homesteading family’s settlement was to grow into the village of Jonesville, the oldest town in Hillsdale County. Moses Allen fought in the War of 1812, later serving as a captain in the Michigan militia. He became the first "white settler" in present-day Hillsdale County, settling here in April 1827, two years after working on the Chicago Road (present-day US-12) survey. The area once known as Allen's Prairie, now constitutes the village of Allen. When the Allen's built their cabin, their closest neighbor was fifty miles away. Soon, more settlers moved to the prairie. Allen had claimed his tract, but it was not until 1829 that the U.S. government declared the land "ready for sale." That summer he began building a log tavern, but died in October. His widow completed a tavern that same year along the Chicago Road. The area's first school was built here in 1831. Moses Allen is buried in Allen Township Cemetery. Captain Moses Allen and his family were the first white people to journey down the Sauk Trail in 1827, and settled in what was to become known as Allen's Prairie, later shortened to Allen. Hillsdale County's recorded history began in 1825 when the Chicago Turnpike (Sauk Trail) was surveyed. Michigan Militia Captain Moses Allen, an enlisted veteran of the War of 1812, was a member of the original survey crew. At a location that now constitutes the dead-end corner of M-49 and US-12, there stood an abandoned French fur trader's log cabin. To this lonely outpost in the wilderness Captain Allen moved his family from Monroe in 1827, and thus became the first recorded English-speaking white settler in Hillsdale County. His name is perpetuated in the village of Allen, but it was first known as Allen's Prairie.

George Clinton Munro - was another prominent early resident of Jonesville—and was considered one of the wealthiest men in the area employing a black footman to drive his carriage. He operated a grist-mill and general store and carried on business abroad. His colonial mansion was erected in 1840. It was the first brick building in the County and still gives an aura of stately manner with 12 foot ceilings in the parlors and two wings on either side of the main structure. Before he was finished with the various additions, the house had twenty rooms (It now is a unique bed and breakfast establishment). Munro was famous for hosting many prominent and well-known guests from the U.S. and from Europe as well.

Ebenezer O. Grosvenor coming to Jonesville in 1840, established the first store in partnership with Richard Varnum and later organized the first bank in the village. Grosvenor served as Colonel under War Governor Austin Blair. He later became Lieutenant Governor and State Treasurer. During his time as Lt. Governor, Grosvenor was on the planning commission for the new state capitol. His Italianate mansion on Maumee Street near the Munro House now serves as a museum for the Jonesville Historical Society.

William Walton Murphy and William Howell set up a law practice in 1837. Believing the time had come, Murphy then established the Hillsdale County Gazette. When Hillsdale became the county seat, the paper became the Hillsdale Gazette. Because of this Murphy then founded a newspaper entitled the Jonesville Telegraph which evolved into the present Jonesville Independent. Murphy distinguished himself by representing the U.S. as Consul General in Frankfort-on-Main in Germany in 1861. The beautiful Georgian style brick house built by Murphy still remains on the corner of Chicago and Germain Streets. William Walton Murphy, a founder and vestryman, was Abraham Lincoln's consul-general to the German city of Frankfort.

Chief Baw Beese. This area was inhabited by Chief Baw Beese and his peaceful tribe of Potawatomies who welcomed the white man and helped them to survive.  Though Chief Baw Beese did not take part in the Black Hawk Rebellion, his little tribe was moved west in 1840 with the other Indians from Michigan. On the day he left, children were let out of school to bid him goodbye. It's said he sat in his carriage during the procession and wept. The last tribe of Huron-Potawatomies, In 1832, a company of militia under Major Benaiah Jones from Hillsdale County went to the Black Hawk War, but the war ended by the time the militia reached Niles along the Chicago Military Road. Among the Indians reportedly never agreed to relinquish the land was Chief Baw Beese, a Huron-Potawatomi with a Scottish name for half-penny. Baw Beese, a council or peace chief, was one of the Indians of the so-called Huron-Potawatomi who had agreed to a treaty to relinquish land on the Huron and Raisin Rivers and to move west of line running straight north from the flagstaff of Fort Defiance, to a point on the Grand River--a line roughly marking the boundary between what now constitutes Hillsdale and Lenawee counties. In return for this the Baw Beese band was to receive $400 per year forever. The Moquago band at Nottawa Seepe (Near present day Athens, Michigan) was to receive a similar amount. Payments were made at Nottawa Seepe until the Baw Beese band was moved west. Thereafter, only the Moquago band received the payments, the last of which was made in 1910. Consequently, Chief Baw Beese considered himself a landlord and treated the early settlers as his guests, from whom he could and did demand rent. It has also been reported that he attempted to charge the settlers for the water flowing out of Baw Beese Lake. Historical research has revealed long-lost details about Baw Beese and his people. Those first settlers credited Baw Beese and his tribe of about 100 for helping their pioneer families by providing meat and traditional medicinal care through the long hard winters. The Potawatomies were known as successful planters and growers of maize (corn), who fished and hunted in fruitful locations. Baw Beese led his people around the county to three primary spots. The first was near the shores of Baw Beese Lake (supposedly named after the old chief by an early settler, Colonel William Fowler), where they fished; the second was near the corner of Squawfield and Waldron Roads, where they grew maize; and the third was just south of Somerset, where they hunted. The native inhabitants also made excursions into Ohio and Indiana, as well as into neighboring Michigan counties. Most Southern Michigan Indians had been relocated to reservations in Iowa and Kansas by 1838. However, because the majority of settlers in Hillsdale County admired and appreciated the local Indian population, Baw Beese and his people continued to co-exist with their white neighbors until the autumn of 1840. After one of the local pioneer`s wrote a letter to then President William H. Harrison requesting the removal of Baw Beese's people from the land he had rightfully purchased, federal troops were sent to roundup the "Red Men" to be escorted out of the county. It was a sad day when Baw Beese left. Schools were let out to bid the old chief and his people farewell. With Baw Beese driving a horse-drawn buggy in the lead, the federals took the Indians from the camp at Squawfield, through Jonesville and Litchfield to Marshall. From Marshall they went west, then down the Mississippi, up the Missouri River and eventually to a reservation at Council Bluffs, Iowa where Baw Beese feared his mortal enemy, the Sioux. Later, many members of the Hillsdale County band were relocated to the reservation north of Topeka, Kansas. Descendants of Baw Beese's village remained on that Kansas reservation throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. There is some historical evidence that some of the original inhabitants hid in the forests, or were hidden by settlers, and remained in the area. Other reports indicate that small groups of the Indians taken west returned to Hillsdale County and took up the ways of white men, eventually assimilating into the Euro- American culture. Even before the Indians departed, the first school in the county was opened in the tiny settlement of Allen by Hiram Hunt in 1831. A school was also opened in Jonesville in 1832 and was attended by the youngest son of Baw Beese. Jonesville later became the first organized school district in the state.

Much of the story of Baw Beese Lake is folklore handed down a century and more ago, Baw Beese Lake was the favorite camping ground of a tribe of Potawatomi who roamed the region under the leadership of their chief, Baw Beese. The Potawatomi, as a nation, were fierce and war­like, but this particular band of one hundred and fifty, or so, was peace-loving, kindly and unaggressive. They had no permanent village but appear to have wandered here and there as inclination dictated. Always, however, they returned to the banks of the spring-fed lake with its abundant fishing and its surrounding forests filled with game.

Here they erected a few bark cabins and planted scattering patches of maize. Here were their dead. The spot was included in that cession of land from original owners to the U.S. Government concluded by the treaty of Chicago. Strangely enough, it seems to us who were taught that Baw Beese was a mighty Chieftain, his mark does not appear among the fifty-five Potawatomi signatures upon the treaty, but we like to think, and it is possible, that some reason other than importance, kept him from that conference.

Be that as it may, he was su­preme as a chief of that democratic race, over his group, and to the end of his days considered Hillsdale County his personal property. He went so far, at one time, as to try to collect fees and rentals from the government, like any lord of a manor levying upon his tenants. Failing in this, he and his companions remained in their ancestral forests, complacently disregarding the terms of the treaty whereby western reservations were provided for the Potawatomi.

Since there were then no white settlers to dispute possession, no move was made to eject them and, unmolested, they pursued the even tenor of their ways. In 1827 the first white family made its difficult way into Hillsdale County, coming by sledge over the frozen trail from Wayne County. Heading the party was Captain Moses Allen, a veteran of the War of 1812, and a member of the crew that surveyed the Chicago Road. He brought his young wife and children and located on the fertile prairie later called by that name. Chief Baw Beese cordially welcomed these white people into his realm, assisting them in every way within his power, and a friendship which stood the test of time was cemented by smoking the pipe of peace, with both Captain and Mrs. Allen.

The next year, when Benaiah Jones settled at the junction of the trail and St. Joseph River, five miles from the Allens, Baw Beese extended friendship to him and his ever enlarging family, and a situation of brotherly affection was created which was unique in the struggle between red and white. Had it not been for their Indian neighbors, the early settlers in Hillsdale County would have fared badly during the first hard winters. Though they were scions of sturdy stock, resourceful, and inured to hardships, they would have succumbed to the privation and exposure if Baw Beese had not come to their rescue. In fact, Captain Allen did succumb and was buried as fittingly as possible upon his claim. But his girl-wife and her little ones came through unscathed, and no small share of credit must be given to the faithful chief, who would often appear at the door laden with game and maize, a wild turkey, or a quail, throw it at their feet, stoically receive thanks, and, in all probability, join them in a meal which he had provided.

Chief Baw Beese is described by one who was his friend as tall and handsome, dignified and courteous, a noble specimen of Indian manhood, highly respected and loved by his white associates. When Chief Baw Beese was a lithe and handsome youth, he loved and wed a beautiful maiden and they set up their wigwam on the shores of the lake. After many happy moons together, a daughter was born to them whom they named Wenona, the replica of her mother and the pride of her father’s heart. Wenona’s birth cost the mother her life; she was buried in the lake, and the young Chief was left desolate. Though he married again and had Sons and daughters, none was as dear to him as Wenona, the child of his lost love.

The years passed. Princess Wenona grew to woman­hood and was given in marriage to a member of a neighboring tribe. She did not love him, having bestowed her affection upon her cousin, Ash-Te-Wette; but she tolerated him, and all went well until one day Wenona discovered that he had stolen and sold outside the tribe her pony, a wedding gift from her father. Blind with rage, she seized her knife and stabbed her husband to death. The neighboring tribe demanded the penalty. Indian law was “an eye for an eye” and Baw Beese was faced with the duty, as chief, of executing his own daughter. Unflinchingly, as became his rank, he fulfilled the law and then, brokenhearted and alone, he bore Wenona’s slender body away in his arms.

He was gone for days and never revealed the spot where he laid his daughter, but years ~ after the red men had all left the county, the skeleton of an Indian girl with a silver cross around her neck and other marks of distinction about it, was accidentally exhumed some miles south of the lake. As there was no record of any other such grave, it was assumed, and perhaps rightly, that this was the hapless princess who expiated her sin at the hands of her father.

When Chief Baw Beese was a handsome youth he loved and wed a beautiful maiden. They set up their wigwam on the shores of the lake. After many happy moons together, a daughter was born to them whom they named Wenona. She was like her mother, the pride of her father, but birth cost the life of her mother, who was buried in the lake. The young chief was desolate, and though he married again, had sons and daughters, none was as dear to him as Wenona. Wenona grew up and was given in marriage to a member of a neighboring tribe. She did not love him, but loved her cousin, Ash-te-Wette. She had tolerated him until one day she discovered he had stolen and sold, outside the tribe, her pony, a wedding gift from her father. Blind with rage, she seized her knife and stabbed her husband to death. The neighboring tribe demanded the penalty, Indian law, ‘an eye for an eye’.  Baw Beese was faced with the duty, as Chief, of executing his own daughter. He fulfilled the law; then broken-hearted, alone, astride his pony, he bore her away. He was gone for days but never revealed the spot where he laid his daughter.  Years after the Red Man had left the area, the remains of an Indian girl with a silver cross around her neck and other marks of distinction about it, was accidentally exhumed some miles south of the lake. It was assumed, and perhaps so rightly so, that it was Princess Wenona.

The White man kept pushing westward in the settlement of America. In this virgin territory where only the red man lived, he desired to settle, clear the land, and cultivate the soil. Consequently the Federal Government wished to negotiate treaties with the Indian Chiefs, with payment, which would relinquish the Indian titles to the land. It was notable that Chief Baw Beese did not sign. The early settlers were constantly seeing him, a Pottawattomie, and his band of 150 members. The old chief was good-natured; neither he nor his tribesman had any trouble with the settlers. He was always willing to give shelter or food, and equally willing to accept the same hospitality, but far be it for him to beg. It has been said that many of the early settlers might have gone hungry if it had not been for the Indian’s generosity. His band was peaceful; the settlers accepted them. Various efforts were made by the Federal Commissioners to move them out, but to no avail.

Finally in November, 1840 the Federal Government took sterner measures; it sent a detachment of soldiers to aid the commissioners. The older Indians offered little resistance but Chief Baw Beese showed great anxiety and great fear saying, “Sioux kill men, Sioux kill all; Sioux bad Indians, tomahawk squaw, scalp papoose, Ugh!” The young men would break away whenever possible and the squaws would conceal themselves so adroitly that it took some time to find them. Finally they were all rounded up and the Commissioners were ready to start. Chief Baw Beese had disowned his oldest son, Pamasaw, because he had refused to leave white wife, Betsy Merger; and Owasa, daughter of Osseo, who had married Martin Langdon, a former teacher near Grannisville, who was allowed to remain since her husband had title to his land, also.

On the day of breaking camp the sorrowful procession passed westward through Jonesville, aged Chief Baw Beese rode alone in an open buggy, drawn by an Indian pony, with his gun between his knees. An Infantry soldier marched before the buggy while on each side was another guard. The Indian wife of the Chief, a woman of sixty years, came next, mounted on a pony, and escorted by a soldier. After her came Baw Bee, whom the Chief had designated to succeed his son, Pamasaw, with about a dozen middle aged and younger squaws with papooses on their backs. They were probably the children and grandchildren of the Chief. They had an escort of six soldiers. Following was the remainder of the band moving in groups of five, ten or twenty each, stretching along the road for a half a mile or more. A few were on ponies, but most were walking, stalwart warriors with riffles on their shoulders. The squaws were more dejected, with blankets over their heads. The children seemed unaware of the future and were full of pranks.

Many of the settlers came to see their departure and as Indians saw one after another of their friends, they called them by name saying “goodbye”. They were transported to Council Bluffs, Iowa but were not happy there and repeatedly asked the Federal Government to move them elsewhere. In 1850 they were taken to a reservation thirty miles square on the Kansas River, seventy-five miles west of its junction with the Missouri River where Chief Baw Beese died of extreme old age. With the passing of Chief Baw Beese and his band of Potawatomie Indians, occupancy was forever ended in this territory.