The Menges Family History Pages

Lenawee County, Michigan

Raisin Township, Lenawee County, Michigan:

New Yorkers migrating westward prior to the opening of the Erie Canal bypassed the Michigan Territory and settled in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and states farther west. Michigan just then was hard to reach and hardly anybody supposed that the soil was worth owning even when you got there. The reason for this, as most Michigan historians state, was twofold: the extensive Black Swamp that surrounded the area between Monroe and Detroit was right where the incoming settlers would want to drive their wagons, and the bad press given the area by Edward Tiffin, surveyor-general of the United States.

After the close of the war of 1812, Governor Cass of the Michigan Territory requested a survey of the land taken over from the Indians. Tiffin made the survey and in turn reported that the country was a land of swamps, lakes, and sand hills, and cited an earlier report to Thomas Jefferson by Jame Monroe asserting that the region "will never contain a sufficient number of inhabitants to entitle them to membership in the confederacy." These reports plus others along the same vein, gave Michigan very bad press indeed. What the easterners did not know was that beyond the old lake beds with their ever-present bogs, was high ground so productive that if a man were strong and industrious and could pay cash for eighty acres of land, he was fixed for life. A new land law passed in 1820 set the price of land at $1.25 an acre; which meant that, for as little as $100, a man could purchase that eighty-acre farm. A few settlers did break through to the high ground, sending letters back east telling what they had found -- a mixture of prairies, oak openings and woodland abounding in clear streams, fine lakes and cold springs, with rolling country well adapted to good roads.

These were not particularly good economic times, as there were rising prices in the East, a depression in 1828-1829, and a "tight money" policy by the United States Bank, which made it difficult for prospective settlers to obtain the cash to buy land and finance the journey westward. But those hearing about this delightful land wanted above all other things a way to get into it. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 provided just such an opportunity. Bruce Catton, in his book Michigan, A Bicentennial History pages 76 to 78, gives us a glimpse of what it was like to ride the canal boats from the interior of New York to Buffalo, and the trip by lake boat across Lake Erie to the ports of Monroe and Detroit.

"The boats on the Erie Canal were crowded. Rates were fantastically low, all things considered; 0ne cent a mile per passenger, two cents if the boat company provided food, five cents for an express" boat that traveled day and night. The boats were long, oblong blocks, inexpressibly clumsy and sluggish by modern standards, representing, in the late 1820's, an unheard-of speed: one of the express packets could go a hundred miles in twenty-four hours, as much as an emigrant wagon could do in a week and, on the whole, much more comfortable.

"The comfort of course was comparative. The main cabin was narrow, low ceilinged, fuggy as the black hole of Calcutta, both sides lined with bunks, tables in the center for meals, bar and galley at the rear, tiny cabin for women passengers forward, means of ventilation grossly inadequate and shut off entirely in rainy weather. To stay alive most passengers remained on deck as much as they could, although someone had to stay alert and give the warning cry, "Low bridge!" so that everyone could lie flat when the boat passed under a highway bridge, the overhead clearance being almost nonexistent. All in all, it was no pleasure excursion, although in the main the travelers seem to have kept up good spirits; they were moving more rapidly and more cheaply than they had ever expected to do, and the fact that the freight rate (on farm produce or on household goods) had abruptly dropped from the freight wagoner's thirty-two dollars a ton to a flat dollar tended to help people to overlook incidental hardships. Besides, this was not an era when people really expected to be very comfortable, anywhere.

"At Buffalo, the folk who wanted to go to Michigan changed from canal packet to deep-draft Lake Erie steamer - or, in some instances, to schooners or sloops, because most of the common carriers at this time moved under canvas -- and the accommodations were a little less straitened than those on the canal, although Lake Erie was often stormy, the boats were all rather small, and a battened-down cabin containing two dozen mortals who had been seasick for twenty-four hours or more can hardly have been attractive. With whatever difficulties, the steamer or windjammer finally got to the western end of Lake Erie, and now the really trying part of the trip began.

"Most of the travelers disembarked at Detroit, although some were put ashore at Monroe, a settlement that had sprung up around the mouth of the River Raisin, and others went to Port Lawrence, near the mouth of the Maumee, a place that presently changed its name to Toledo. No matter which port he used, the emigrant now found himself obligated to travel over roads that were just a hand's breadth short of being altogether impassible."

Roads leading into the Michigan Territory radiated from Detroit, Monroe and the Maumee country in Ohio. From the Monroe area, what was known as the La Plaisance Bay Trail (now M-50) came up northwesterly to intersect with the Old Sauk Trail (later the Chicago Military Road and now U.S.-12) which led down across the southern part of the peninsula, following an old Indian route. Stagecoach lines had been established on these roads, and at intervals of twenty miles or so, there would be an inn to provide food and lodging and a change of horses. Around these inns, little towns began to develop. The Clinton Inn, located in the Village of Clinton on the Washtenaw-Lenawee County line, was the second of these stops on the road from Detroit to the west. Another route followed the high ground or ridge that formed the shoreline of ancient Lake Erie. The road, now known as the Ridge Road, ran southwest from Detroit to Adrian and may have been another possible route used by Jacob Menges. We know that several of the allied families lived along this road, which leads us to believe it was the route into the area used by the Giffords, Covells and Goulds.

The majority of the newcomers came by way of the Great Lakes, making the journey from Buffalo to Michigan by steamship or sailing vessel. Detroit was the major point of entry. There the pioneer secured a wagon, if he had not brought one along, and necessary supplies for the subsistence of his family until the land he proposed to clear and cultivate started producing. Some settlers landed at Monroe and smaller ports, and sizable numbers came northward overland from Ohio and Indiana into the southern counties of Michigan.

Usually a man who proposed to settle in Michigan would come west alone to look over the land, decide where he wanted to settle, and purchase the tract if it had been put on the market. Then he returned east, packed up his family and his possessions, and brought them to the new home. We do not know if Jacob Mangus made a preliminary trip to the Michigan Territory to look over the land or if he purchased the Raisin Township farm sight unseen. We do know that he was in the Monroe land office on May 20, 1830, to purchase land from the U. S. Government. We also know that his entire family was in Michigan in time for the 1830 Census taken on September 27, 1830. Jacob could have landed in Monroe and than struck out for Lenawee County on the La Plaisance Bay Trail that ran from Monroe through Tecumseh, although the Bay Trail was not an improved road until 1840. His land purchase was the second parcel of land south of La Plaisance Bay Trail (now M-50), being the most northern parcel of Raisin Township (north-east corner). His farm house and buildings were located on Shull Road, which is one mile south of the present M-50, off Billmyer Highway. According to land records in the Lenawee County Courthouse in Adrian, Jacob stayed on this land until 1835, when he sold the remaining half of his land to Stilman Blanchard. Jacob had sold the first half of his land to his son Daniel in 1832. The next record we have for Jacob is the purchase of a town lot in the village of Tecumseh in 1837.

It has always been a mystery as to just what happened to Jacob Mangus and his son John Mangus. The last information we have on these two ends abruptly in 1837 and 1830, respectively. The last record we have for John is the 1830 Michigan Census wherein he was listed in Raisin Township as being married, age 15 to 20, with a daughter under five years of age. The last record we have for Jacob is the previously mentioned town lot purchased in Tecumseh in 1837.

It is assumed that John and his family moved to another state, probably farther west, as they do not appear on the 1840 Michigan Census. A family story reports two Mangus "went west" and were living in the San Francisco area. There may be some truth to this story, but it is believed that the Mangus who went west were either Daniel Mangus who went to the west coast of Michigan or his two children, Mary Ann and Jacob, who moved to the Napa Valley area of California.

As for Jacob, there are several possibilities; (1) Jacob could have died before 1840, with his remains being buried in one of the rural cemeteries in Lenawee County (a check with the sexton of the Brookside Cemetery in Tecumseh shows no record for Jacob in Brookside) or returned to Seneca County, New York for burial, (2) Jacob could have been missed on the 1840 Michigan Census, (3) Jacob could have moved from Michigan, possibly to join his son John in a western state and (4) Jacob could have returned to New York or Pennsylvania.

Although Jacob was not a young man (he was age 53 in 1830), he could have moved to another state and possibly remarried. This is suggested by the fact that neither he or the younger children appear on the 1840 Michigan Census. The younger children re-appear in Michigan on the 1850 census. A check of the 1840 census for New York State and Ohio does not reveal a Jacob Mangus.

Most of Jacob's children, except for the two who remained behind in Seneca County, John who moved from Michigan and Daniel who moved to Berrien County in western Michigan, continued to reside in Lenawee County. They did, however, move from Raisin Township to Tecumseh Township, which lies west of the city of Tecumseh. Their descendants can still be found there today, although the Mangus name is carried only by those lines descended from Daniel and Fleming Mangus.

Henry had two sons, one of whom was killed in the Civil War and the other having had all female chilrren. Jacob, Jr., who stayed behind in Seneca County, New York, had one son that died young with his remaining children being all female. John may have had male descendants, but at the time of the 1830 Michigan Census, he had one daughter. Daniel, who went to Berrien County, Michigan, had one son, Andrew Jackson Mangus, whose descendants can be found in Jackson County, Michigan.

Abraham or Abram Mangus resided in Lenawee County and had one son, Frank J. Mangus. Frank in turn had all female children. The youngest two boys, Solomon and Fleming, also resided in Lenawee County. Solomon had a son Charles H. who never married. Fleming is probably the progenitor of the largest number of Jacob's descendants carrying the Mangus name. His son Solomon was the father of 11 children, six of whom were male. All told, there are a large number of Mangus descendants in Michigan, mostly in the southeast area with concentrations in Lenawee and the surrounding counties of Monroe, Washtenaw and Jackson. The descendants of Jacob's brother Christian Menges can be found in the Battle Creek area.

NOTE: The subsequent movements of Jacob Menges from Turbot Township to the Town of Fayette to Raisin Township can be chronilogically matched to the death of his father, Conrad Menges, and the death of his father-in-law, Christophel (Stoffel) Moll. Jacob used his inheritance from his fathers estate to purchase land in Northumberland County. By 1920 he had sold all this land and had moved to Seneca County, New York, where he used the money to purchase new land. Stoffell Moll died in 1826-1827; Jacob and Mary had received her inheritance by 1830 and this money was no doubt used to finance the trip to Michigan and the purchase of land in Lenawee County.

Note: Conrad Menges seems to have gotten off to a good start in the Colonies as the fortunes of this immigrant seem to rise rather rapidly after his marriage into the Bechtel family. It is not known just when Conrad's father-in-law, Peter Bechtel, died, but it could have been around the turn of the century. Assuming there was an inheartance, it would account for Conrad's ability to buy the valuable Turbot Township land in Northumberland County.

Note: Union chuches were ecumenical arrangements in which the Lutheran Congregation and the Reformed Congregation co-exist as separate congregations in one church building. On one Sunday the Lutherans worshipped and the next Sunday, the Reformed worshipped. There was only one cemetery for both Lutheran and Reformed. In the early days, people were buried in rows, in order of their death.

Note: The Mennonites were the first German immigrants into the Colonies, arriving in 1683. The Mennonites (actually German-Quakers) were originally from Switzerland and were driven out of that county. The Amish were off-shoots of the Mennonites.