Like many of those who first plowed the virgin soil, he moved away, as emigrants began to pour in and fill up the county, and where he passed the final years of his life cannot be ascertained. Melville was a native Scotchman, and a a blacksmith by trade, although he never plied this avocation in his pioneer home except in his own behalf or to meet the pressing necessities of a neighbor, when his knowledge of the art possessed by mythological Vulcan proved most acceptable. He certainly can claim priority of purchase. Jennings, in Section 24, and which he purchased of the United States Government September 24, 1829. Melville belongs the credit of having first located in the township, and on the land now owned by Mrs.

Hudson purchased this land, eighty acres, of the United States Government, November 26, 1830, and after disposing of the same, returned to his former home in Ohio, with his love for pioneer life thoroughly satiated. History of Cass county, Michigan (Waterman, Watkins) by Alfred Matthews 1882Įarly history of Milton and Ontwa are so intimately connected that it is with difficulty they can be appropriately separated together they form one harmonious entirety, for, from Edwardsburg, which was the first stopping-place of the early settlers, they naturally radiated into the surrounding country, and the boundaries of this township, lying so close to Edwardsburg, its attractive landscape did not fail to arrest the attention of the adventurous pioneer, who were not slow to avail themselves of the broad acres laid out so temptingly before them, which invited cultivation.Ī goodly portion of Beardsley’s Prairie being in this township, it enabled the pioneers to reap almost immediate returns for the labor bestowed in cultivating its surface, while the luxuriant herbage afforded sustenance for the stock brought in at this early period, so that although their methods of living were necessarily very primitive, they never lacked for the absolute necessities of life.Īccording to the belief of numerous parties, and they certainly have excellent reasons for it, John Hudson, who came from Ohio, was the first settler in this township, and he located on the farm now owned by Allen Dunning, Jr., in Section 11, which was purchased by his father in 1836. History of Milton Township in Cass County, Michigan

Milton township mi