The Haldanes

William "Deacon" Haldane from the Grand Rapids Public Library Collection.

Anyone reading about early Grand Rapids runs across the name William N "Deacon" Haldane pretty frequently.  He is credited as having the first chair manufactory in Grand Rapids.  He was born 5 May 1807 in Delphi, Delaware County, New York, to Scottish emigrants, James Haldane and Elizabeth Preston.  In 1810, the Haldane family consisted of James and Elizabeth, both aged between 26 and 44, Elizabeth Livingstone, born 28 January 1809, and William N.  William's father died when he was 8 years old, in 1816, and by then the family had grown by two more boys, Andrew, born 8 January 1811, and James Maxwell, born 15 June 1813.  Elizabeth died 13 April 1865 at age 87, but I do not know where.  She was living with her daughter with 2nd husband, John Pierson, Rosanna Payne, in Koshkonong, Jefferson County, Wisconsin, in 1850.  Rosanna Pierson Allen Payne was born 10 November 1818 and married an Allen before 1838.  She had two children:  Elizabeth and Philander  After Mr Allen died, she married James Payne in 1845 and had six more children.  Rosanna and James Payne eventually ended up in Salem, Marion County, Oregon, where they died in 1889 and 1899.  I do not know if Elizabeth Preston Haldane Pierson had any more children, or what became of daughter, Elizabeth Livingstone Haldane.

William started working out with other farmers to earn money for his family, and, after he completed school at age 14, apprenticed himself to a carpenter and joiner to learn a trade.  He continued going to school as well as working, and became a journeyman contractor and builder at age 20.  He employed his two brothers as apprentices in his fledgling business.  William went to Painesville, Erie, Ohio in 1831 to build a church, and boarded with George Babcock.  George's niece, Sarah L Tomlinson, born in Gaines Twp, Orleans, New York 29 March 1812, was living with them at the time and she and William married there 7 August 1831.  A child, William H, was born in 1833, but only lived a month.  When William and Sarah moved to Grand Rapids before July, 1836, they brought his body with them and buried him in Fulton Street Cemetery. There was another child born and died young in Grand Rapids Brother Andrew Haldane died in Buffalo, New York on 6 September 1835, and was the first burial in Fulton Street Cemetery.  The record is not clear as to all the comings and goings of the family, and perhaps Andrew had been in Grand Rapids and gone back home for some reason.  Brother James Maxwell Haldane worked as a contractor in Grand Rapids until his early death 14 September 1856 of consumption.  He is also buried in Fulton Street Cemetery.  He lived on a farm on the lower West Side near the river.

From the Grand Rapids Eagle, 29 October 1857.

In 1838 William and Sarah went to Summit County, Ohio and lived a few years, returning to Grand Rapids in 1841 with a circular saw and a lathe, the first machinery used here to build furniture.  Brother James M also traveled to Ohio, but to Medina County, and there married Emeline E McIntyre.  James and Emeline only had one son, Arthur William, who was born in 1844.  After 1870, I can find no further trace of him, and Ruebey Statira Tomlinson Ferris says that he died young.

Albert Baxter says this about James:  "SASH, DOORS AND BLINDS. In the beginnings of the village the skilled carpenter and joiner usually carried in his chest the tools necessary for the making of mouldings, casings, sash, doors and blinds. These things were plainer and simpler in construction than now, fifty years ago, when all the work was patiently wrought by hand. Haldane, Burnett, Woodward, Covell, Blakely, and other early comers of the craft, usually peformed (sic) their own work in this line. James M. Haldane was perhaps the first to make a specialty of manufacturing window sash and blinds to be kept on hand for sale. His shop was on Prospect Hill in January, 1842, where he advertised to supply farmers and others at short notice."

William and Sarah Haldane had another male child, F H, who is buried with them in Fulton Street Cemetery with no dates.  To make up for their childlessness, they helped raise two of Sarah's nieces, Jane Tomlinson, born 6 July 1835, daughter of oldest brother, David Tomlinson, who married William Perkins of Buffalo, New York, and Reubey Statira Tomlinson, born in 1858, daughter of another brother, John Tomlinson, who married Jay Floyd Ferris, founder of Ferris Coffee & Nut.  (There was a note by Reubey that a daughter of Rosana Payne had visited the Haldanes before 1875, but was not "chosen" to be a member of the family as she was.)

The following biography is from American Biographical History of Eminent and Self-Made Men, Michigan Volume Two, Fifth Congressional District, Cincinnati:  Western Biographical Publishing Company, 1878, p 46-7

Here is what Dwight Goss said about William Haldane in his History of Grand Rapids and its industries, Chicago, C. F. Cooper & co., 1906, p 180 :  "William Haldane was among the pioneer cabinet-makers here. He came in 1836; and in 1837 built a frame dwelling on Prospect Hill, southeast corner of Ottawa and Pearl streets, where now is the Michigan Trust Building. Subsequently he erected a brick house on the same spot, which was twice extended downward, on account of street excavations through the hill. Mr. Haldane was well known and respected by all the old residents. He died March 5, 1898."

We are looking south down Ottawa Street and the cross street is Pearl.  The house on the left is Haldane's, circa 1865, and has already been "extended downwards" once by the grading of the road, shown in the picture.  The original wooden Haldane house, shown at the top of this post, was moved across Ottawa street, but is not identifiable in the picture.  It was later moved one block north to the corner of Ottawa and Lyon, and torn down in 1888.  Deacon lived in that house and ran his business from there until 1847, when he moved the business to a building on the east canal and ran his machinery by water power.  In 1853 he had a shop next to the Sweet's Hotel  on Canal (Monroe) where he used steam power.  In July of 1854 Deacon partnered with E W Winchester in the furniture business for a year.  At this time he also built the Gothic cottage, pictured above, with cream colored bricks brought from Milwaukee, and was the first fine brick residence in the community.  In his back yard Deacon grew grapes to make wine and became something of a local wine connoisseur, and was a member of the Grand River Horticultural Society for the rest of his life.

This house and property was sold in 1872 for $11,000 to the city for a proposed city hall.  The city sold it to Daniel H Waters on 5 July 1885, and bought the land where the city hall was eventually built.  The property next to Sweet's Hotel was furnished with a large brick building which was later sold to I M Weston who incorporated it into the Weston building.  With the proceeds of the sale, Deacon bought a lot at 55 Jefferson Avenue, opposite the foot of State Street, and built a brick house where the family lived until their deaths.  It was later the Lyzen Funeral Home.

The Lyzen Funeral Home in 1925, 55 Jefferson St.

This is 1882 with the fire bell tower.  Can you imagine how the bell sounded in that house?  Later arc lights were added to the tower for street lighting.  The house has been "extended downward" again and is showing signs of disrepair since Haldane no longer owns it.  You can also see this tower in the banner picture at the top of the page, and the roof of the house.

The same house in 1888.  The fire bell has been moved to the new city hall building clock tower.

The Houseman building, finished in 1883, is the building that can be seen to the left of the Haldane house, above, though the Haldane house does not show in this 1888 shot.  It looks like there is an empty lot there.  The long street is Ottawa, with Pearl crossing it on the right, and the cross street in the left front is Lyon.  To the right had been the house of William H Powers.

The Michigan Trust Building, built in 1892, at 40 Pearl Street NW, on the site of the Haldane house.  It gained a little width and height by 1916.

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Albert Baxter has this to say about another talent of William Haldane:  "A FEW CUTTERS. The pioneer who needed a sleigh, if he had some carpenters' tools, generally managed to hew out a rough and rather heavy one for himself, and with a little aid from the nearest blacksmith made it serviceable; though sometimes a "pung" was constructed with no ironing. Undoubtedly the first cutters made and marketed here were built by a cabinet maker-William Haldane. Wishing to take a winter trip to Ohio, in the fall of I837, he made for himself a "gooseneck" cutter, with a square box, and tall knees the better to get over low bushes or stumps. But immediately came along the young man who kept the first bookstore in Kent and wanted to buy it. Haldane sold it, and proceeded to make another. This caught the eye of another ambitious young merchant, near the Eagle Hotel, who purchased it, giving $5 extra for a little nicer finish. A third cutter was disposed of similarly, each buyer advancing the price, to outdo his predecessor. Those were sold at $75 each and upward-such vehicles as now, if they were fashionable, would be marketed for perhaps $20 or $25."

And this:  "MANUFACTURE OF FURNITURE AND CABINET WARES. To most people of the present day it may seem incredible that, but little more than half a century ago, the rough slab bench or the three-legged stool, was not infrequently an article of kitchen furniture, but such is the fact. The pioneer.who had an ax and saw and jackknife and auger deemed himself qualified to fit out his cabin with a plain table, a square-post bedstead, and a few seats, to begin housekeeping. Not many brought to their new homes in the woods a good outfit; but soon they saw the day of improvement. About 1835 came into the settlement at Grand Rapids two or three who set up foot-lathes and were instrumental in the change from the era of square work to turned work. When William Haldane built his house in 1837, no sooner was the rough sheathing on the frame, and the roof shingled, than he moved in upon a rough board floor. Mrs. Haldane relates that blankets sufficed to cover the windows temporarily, and were not very inconvenient doors. Her husband, being a mechanic, made a door and some sash, and traded other specimens of his work for 8 by 10 window glass. He cut from an old bootleg hinges for his door. They put up a squarepost bedstead, put in the bedcord, put thereon a straw bed and retired, feeling that they had a comfortable home of their own; and she says she does not know but they were as happy in those days as they have ever been. The house was at the head of what was then and for more than twenty years called Justice street, now the southeast corner of Pearl and Ottawa streets, and here for many years he carried on the cabinet making business."

The Converse Mounds and the West Side Court House

The Converse Mounds

In the section on Archaelogy in his History of the City of Grand Rapids, Albert Baxter wrote:

"The burial grounds of the Indians at the village below the Pearl street bridge, west side, comprised also a number of mounds, which since have been defaced and leveled in the construction of streets. And there, as elsewhere, in some of them it was found that beneath the buried remains of Indians of the tribes found here by the whites, were other and earlier deposits of similar character, in which were relics of the origin of which these later tribes professed to have no knowledge. The grading and working of streets on the west side of these rapids, displaced most of that portion of the mounds above the general level, and therein were found a variety of beads, rings, bracelets, and silver trinkets, along with the skeletons exhumed. Usually the bones were reburied, and the other articles appropriated by the discoverers."

And, later:

"A number of them were on the west side of the river within the city limits. In grading these were only cut down to about the general level, and in this process many bones and implements of comparatively recent deposit were found. But it was in deeper excavating, for sewerage and for laying gas and water pipes, that older and more interesting articles were discovered-often in deposits directly under those of the burial places of the Indian tribes that were here when the white people came. Four mounds silver (about thirteen pounds), and one of copper (about fourteen pounds), with bone husking pegs, copper axes, bear's teeth  with holes drilled in them, and other curiosities, which Mr. Coffinberry sold to the Curator of the Peabody Museum in Salem, Mass., for $200. An offer of $100 was made by the Smithsonian Institution for the Norton mound relics; but these, under previous stipulation, belonged to the Kent Scientific Institute. With all these deposits were found human bones that had the appearance of having been divested of flesh before they were placed in the pits or cists; generally the long bones with the relics and the craniums on top, upright in position and very near together. Louis Campau, the pioneer fur trader here, said that the natives had no knowledge of the origin of these mounds; only knew them to be the work of human hands; had great veneration for them, and a propensity for being buried on or near them. They were mute evidences of earlier occupation, probably by a different race of people."

And:

 "In 1882, in leveling a mound near the west end of Pearl street bridge, skeletons were exhumed; and there Mr. Coffinberry found a copper spear point or needle, six or seven inches long, one-fourth of an inch in diameter in the middle, tapering to a smooth rounded point at one end and to a sort of flattened shank at the other. Silver beads also were dug up. He thought these antedated the Ottawa and Chippewa occupation here, or that of any tribe -of the-past two or three centuries. A writer in a Detroit paper, describing similar needles found in Canada, suggested that they were Indian sewing needles, used in the construction of bark canoes, garments, and other things, and called attention to a similarity in shape between them and the sewing machine needle of the present day."

I will attempt to interpret this map drawn in 1836-7 by Noah Brookfield.  The first horizontal line is Bridge Street, below that currently Allen Steet/Sibley Street, then current Lake Michigan Drive.  The ferry shown started at Ferry Street on the east side and terminated in an indian trail that turned into Stocking Street.  There is a railroad bridge there, now.  The next horizontal down is West Fulton, then Wealthy Avenue.  The vertical streets are, from the river, current Front Street, then West Division now Seward Street, then Straight Street,  for a long time the western boundary of Grand Rapids.

The Court House on the West Side

This map, courtesy of Barbara Vandermark, was drawn by Henry Hart in 1853.  Notice that the streets have different names than they are now known by.  I was intrigued by the drawing of the court house and jail on the south side of Bridge Street, and Court Street, which was later changed to Tremont, and then to Douglas.  I had to search quite a while to find out about that building, but finally found a reference in Baxter's History of  the City of Grand Rapids:

"KENT COUNTY JAIL. The first Kent County Jail was in one corner of the Court House on the Public Square, that was built in 1838. Under an act of the Legislature, March 28, 1838, it was provided that prisoners apprehended in Ionia and Ottawa counties should be placed in the Kent county jail. After that building burned in 1844, until 1854, the county was dependent upon rented quarters for a jail. For some years the cellar under a building which stood on the east side of Canal street, between Lyon and Pearl, was used for jail purposes. During the ten years after the original jail was burned, the county was to considerable expense for the keeping of its prisoners in Barry and Ottawa counties. In May, 1847, the Supervisors advertised for proposals to build a county jail, but nothing came of it. In March, 1851, proposals were invited for a site for a jail, and also for the building of one, and in May of the same year the County Clerk invited proposals for the building of a jail and Sheriff's residence. This resulted in the procurement of a site a few rods south of Bridge street, west of Front street, and the building thereon of a two-story frame residence for the Sheriff, with a jail at the rear, of heavy oak plank, sheathed on the inside with sheet iron. This was not a remarkably secure place of confinement, and there were several escapes therefrom. It was occupied and used, however, from the beginning of 1855 until March, 1872."

In an interesting turn of events, Harriet street, in the map above was actually named Court Street for a while, and then changed to Scribner.