In the 1700’s the Sauk Trail extended across a broad stretch of land that would later be called the state of Michigan. If Michigan’s lower peninsula is a mitten, the Sauk Trail might have been a bracelet across the state more of less where the wrist would be, from Detroit on Lake Erie to St. Joseph on Lake Michigan. The Potawatomi Indians, Native Americans who lived in the area, used the trail, as did early European trappers and fur traders, to move between the two settlements. Roughly half way between the two Great Lakes was a large open prairie surrounded by beech, maple, walnut and elm trees and teaming with deer, rabbits and other game where the Potawatomi hunted and gathered food. The Potawatomi named the area “Chuck-sey-ya-bish” meaning cold water after the many lakes and streams in the area.
In the early 1800’s as part of the Westward Expansion, the U.S. government expanded the trail to ease the passage of migrating settlers. The government renamed the trail, which later extended toward the south, the Chicago Road creating a route to another growing outpost at the southern end of Lake Michigan. Around 1820 the first European settlers made a home in the area drawn by trade with the Native Americans as well as the fertile farmland, abundant game, and opportunity. The government encouraged settlement of the area through generous grants offered to those hardy enough to work the land. With the completion of the Erie Canal in the early 1820s, settlers answered the call.
By about 1830 roughly fifty white people lived in Coldwater. In 1832 residents built the first school to accommodate the nine students who lived near enough to attend. In 1834 a Baptist church was constructed followed in 1835 by the construction of a Methodist church. That year the village of Coldwater was officially incorporated. In 1837 a malaria fever outbreak hit Coldwater killing 32 of the towns 140 residents and leading angry residents to tear down a mill dam thought to be the source of the fever. In 1837 sixteen members organized the Presbyterian Church.
Samuel Butcher, my 3rd great grandfather, arrived in Coldwater sometime before 1840. He migrated with his wife from England, where he was a farmer. Samuel had two sons, Samuel and Henry, both of whom were young boys when tracks were laid and the first trains came to town. The 1800s saw the construction of several railways but one that influenced Coldwater’s growth was a Michigan Southern line extending from Detroit to Chicago. The rail significantly reduced the cost of getting livestock and grain raised in Coldwater to the major markets in Chicago and Detroit.
Joseph Stone, also a 3rd great grandfather, and his wife Susan arrived in Coldwater in about 1860. Joseph’s daughter, Sylvia would eventually marry the younger Samuel Butcher. Unlike the Butchers who were relatively recent immigrants, the Stones had been in the country for several generations moving most recently from northern Vermont. By this time the town was growing rapidly, Westward expansion was well underway.
Phoebe Baldwin, my 4th great aunt but unrelated to either the Butchers or the Stones, had moved to Coldwater ten years earlier, sometime in the late 1840’s, and had also been in the country for generations having come from Connecticut where her family lived since the late 1600s.
When Civil War broke out men from Coldwater, young and old, answered the call joining the Union Army. Many, including Samuel and Henry Butcher, both in their early 20’s, fought with the 1st Michigan Light Artillery. Joseph Stone was in his 40’s when he fought with the 5th Michigan Cavalry. After the war they came back to Coldwater and resumed farming as the town continued to grow. In 1866 the first hospital was established and with trains now running through town on the way to Chicago a hundred new buildings were built and new industries grew including flourmills, an oil mill, breweries, factories building sleds and wheel barrows, and even small factories making cigars. By 1870 there were so many cigar makers that workers organized to form the Cigar Makers Union.
Some families moved on from Coldwater. The younger Samuel Butcher and Joseph Stone moved on to Minnesota sometime in the 1870’s or early 1880s, where they both lived in Granite Falls. Henry Butcher stayed in Coldwater and continued to farm. He passed away in 1913. Phoebe Baldwin passed away in Coldwater in 1856 at the age of 43.
In the 1920’s State Route 12 was constructed as an east/west highway largely replacing the railroad. Then, in the late 1950s and 1960’s, Interstate 69 was constructed passing north/south through Coldwater. Cars had come to Michigan.
Today Coldwater remains a small city of a little over 10,000, home to the Coldwater High School Cardinals, the Wing House Museum and, like every town at the intersection of a major state route and an interstate highway, a Wal-Mart Super Center. But much of the area surrounding Coldwater remains a landscape of small farm and woods dotted with small lakes and stream, much as it was when the Native Americans foraged and hunted in the area centuries ago.
Sources: Branch County and Coldwater Historical Societies, History of Michigan Railway.
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