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BATTLE CREEK BY A. D. P. VAN BUREN
Samuel Convis lived then in a log house that stood on the site of Dea. Leggett's residence. Further west, across the river on the hill, was Nathaniel Barney's log tavern, and a mile beyond, down the river, was the log home of Nedebiah Angell. Isaac Toland and Daniel Thomas were in their log cabins near the river, south of what is now Oak Hill Cemetery. The former was really the first settler in the city limits. This was Battle Creek in the fall of 1834, with one exception. There is another building to be added—the first public building erected in the settlement. It was a log structure and stood on the west part of the grounds now occupied by the old Union block. The lumber needed for it was floated down the Battle Creek from Bellevue. Deacon Salter was the builder and received for his labor eighty dollars. This building was the school-house for the embryo village. Besides the settlers above named, there came this same autumn, Dr. Asahel Beach, Zebedial Stiles, Luther Phelps, Jonathan Lamb, Josiah Gilbert, David Howell, Deacon Salter, Joseph Farnsworth, and some others.
The school-house being ready, in casting about for a schoolmaster, Warren B. Shepherd was selected, who in this log building, during the winter of 1834-35 taught the youth of the settlement.
The old school-house long years ago disappeared; the old schoolmaster ha also gone; he sleeps near the spot where, over forty years ago, a young man
Michigan
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