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    Alpine Township
    Alpine Township
    Alpine Township
    Ebook187 pages48 minutes

    Alpine Township

    By Mary Rasch Alt

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    About this ebook

    Alpine Township s roots are in harvesting. Native Americans harvested cranberries near a lake by the same name, Cranberry Lake. After logging out the forested area of the township, starting 160 years ago, farmers found peach trees, then apples, and a variety of fruit grew well on the rolling hills of this area referred to as the Ridge. The name Alpine came from the combination of two words, all pine, in reference to the trees that grew in abundance in the township. Today Alpine Avenue has become a major commercial district on the northwest side of Grand Rapids, in western Michigan.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateApr 25, 2007
    ISBN9781439618837
    Alpine Township
    Author

    Mary Rasch Alt

    Mary Rasch Alt was raised on a farm in Alpine Township, where her parents, Herman and Bernadette Rasch, third-generation landowners, were born and raised. Her husband, Bill Alt, was also raised on a farm in Alpine. They raised their son, Phil, in neighboring Wright Township. Along with Alt�s passion for history and photography, she loves to travel. Alt has been a freelance writer and photographer for the Grand Rapids Press for 20 years. She is on the Alpine Township Historical Commission and is a member of Western Michigan Genealogical Society and Seneca County Historical Society in Ohio. Alt has compiled these photographs from the collections of founding families in Alpine Township, the Alpine Township historical files, and her own collection.

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      Book preview

      Alpine Township - Mary Rasch Alt

      questions.

      INTRODUCTION

      It was the Treaty of Washington in 1836 that opened land north of the Grand River to settlers and speculators.

      In 1837, Solomon Wright brought his family from Wayne County, New York, to Kent County and settled on a piece of property next to Indian Mill Creek on the road we call Four Mile Road today. The Wright family is thought to have been the first white settlers of Alpine Township. Many were to follow and locate first on streams or near lakes. Soon the heavily forested area north of Walker was surveyed, sectioned, cleared, and busy with very productive farms.

      On April 5, 1847, a group organized the 36 square miles of North Walker. It met at a schoolhouse. The name for the township, All Pine, was suggested for the heavy concentration of pine trees in one area of the township. It was shortened after Adelia (Hubbell) Hills suggested Alpine.

      At this first meeting, township officials were elected: Edward Wheeler, supervisor; C. D. Shenich, clerk; Casper Cordes, treasurer; and William H. Withey, John Coffee, John Colton, and John Tuxbury, justices. The next meeting was held at Edward Wheeler’s home, which was a central location in the township. Soon a small log school was erected on a corner of the Wheeler farm and was used to hold the township’s meetings. In about 1860, a wood frame town hall was built on the northeast corner of section 21, the location of the present Alpine Township Historical Museum.

      This area of Michigan was nearly all forest before the pioneers came. The township was only a seasonal residence for Native American tribes in Michigan. On the northwest edge of the township is Cranberry Lake, named for the fruit Native Americans harvested there.

      In 1839, John Coffee and Richmond Gooding came to Alpine Township and settled five miles west of the Wright family. They named their post office after the township they left in Ohio—Pleasant.

      It was not long before sections of Alpine Township were being claimed, cleared, and farmed by families by the name of Hills, Brown, Snyder, Hildebrant, Waterman, Dole, Card, Ruthardt, Rogers, Hilton, Denison, Herrick, Tuxbury, Lillibridge, Pearsall, Snowden, Cassidy, Davenport, Thome, Buck, Miller, Umlor, Boyd, Childs, Withey, Ballard, Fox, Scheidel, Cordes, Chase, Wheeler, and Platte. All can be found on the 1855 plat map and census records. Some of these same families have remained, enjoying the rich fruits these founding families hewed out of the forest.

      One of Michigan’s great explorers, John Ball, also purchased land in Alpine Township. He could see the richness of the lumber and goodness of the land when he surveyed it.

      Family and faith gave these early settlers the strength to work from dawn to dusk building a life in this new wilderness of Michigan. As more families came to homestead in the township, churches and schools were organized and then buildings were built.

      Logging was a major industry at the township’s beginning. At one time, seven sawmills were located on Indian Mill Creek. There are several small lakes in the township. It is interesting to see what is said about the streams in the township in the 1881 History of Kent County, Michigan, as the amount of water running through these streams has changed:

      The source of Mill Creek is Cranberry Lake, which is situated on the line between Kent and Ottawa Counties. From there to Pickerel Lake, on Sec. 10, Mill Creek is but a small rivulet. From Pickerel Lake to its mouth, it is fed by several small streams, one of which comes from Downer Lake on the southeast quarter of Sec. 10. The main stream passes about one and one-half miles north of the center of the township, thence southeasterly until it unites with the Grand River in the southwest corner of Plainfield. For a distance of five or six miles from its mouth, the water power is sufficiently good for manufacturing purposes.

      Even though Alpine Township was named for its pine trees, oak, beech, and maple made up two-thirds of the township’s wooded area. After the logging-out period, this good land was tilled for excellent yields of corn, wheat, and oats. Peach Ridge and Fruit Ridge Avenues were named for the orchards that were found to flourish on what is now known as the Ridge.

      Along with the families came schools. Those early schools were not only for the children’s learning but also were a great avenue for social gatherings. Imagine the loneliness of a family who came from an area that was more heavily populated to this wilderness with no neighbors within five miles, no schools, and no churches.

      According to the 1881 History of Kent County, Michigan, Antoine Cuvier’s son was the first child born to the early settlers in the township in 1838. The Cuvier family house was located one mile east of Erastus Clark’s house.

      The first death was that of a Mr. Nicolls, who died in 1839 on his land in section 31.

      The first marriage was that of Electa Hilton to Allen Meeker in the autumn of 1844. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Elder Jones.

      In

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