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Cass County, Michigan, USA

Tree: Nederlandse voorouders

Notes:
Cass County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the population was 51,104. It is part of the South Bend–Mishawaka, IN-MI, Metropolitan Statistical Area which has a total population of 316,663, and is sometimes considered part of Greater Michiana. Cass County has numerous lakes and is popular for fishing and boating.



History



The county is named for Lewis Cass, the Michigan Territorial Governor at the time the county was created in 1829. Cass later served as the United States Secretary of War under President Andrew Jackson, thus making a case for including Cass County as one of Michigan's "cabinet counties".



Cass County was not so heavily forested and had more fertile prairie land than other nearby areas of Michigan, and thus during early settlement it grew more rapidly in population. As early as 1830, a carding mill was started in the county on Dowagiac Creek, a branch of the St. Joseph River. Although the Sauk Trail (Chicago Road) passed through the southern part of the county, early settlement did not come primarily from eastern Michigan. Instead, settlers from Ohio and Indiana who had heard of the prairie lands came to occupy them, reaching the Michigan Territory over a branch of the Chicago Road leading from Fort Wayne, Indiana. The population of Cass County was over 3,000 by 1834.



Among the most prominent early settlers of Cass County were Baldwin Jenkins and Uzziel Putnam, who both came from Ohio by way of the Carey Mission in Berrien County. Jenkins had been born at Fort Jenkins in Green County, Pennsylvania, and had migrated to Tennessee, but then left that state to avoid the presence of slavery. Putnam, who had lived in Massachusetts and New York, came to Cass from Erie County, Ohio, by way of Fort Wayne. These settlers, and their families, established the nucleus of the village of Pokagon on Pokagon Prairie in 1825. The next year, a settlement was made on Beardsley’s Prairie, where the village of Edwardsburg was laid out in 1831.



The village of Cassopolis was platted in 1831 and intended as the county seat, although no settlers yet lived there, because it was the geographical center of the county.



Cass County became known early on for the anti-slavery attitudes of its population. Pennsylvania Quakers made a settlement in Penn Township in 1829, which later became a prominent station on the Underground Railroad. One established Underground Railroad route ran from Niles through Cassopolis, Schoolcraft, Climax, and Battle Creek, and thence along the old Territorial Road. In 1847, a group of Kentucky slave owners came to Cass County to reclaim slaves who had escaped, only to be "surrounded by crowds of angry farmers armed with clubs, scythes, and other farm implements", resisting their attempt.

Birth

Matches 1 to 3 of 3

	Last Name, Given Name(s)	Birth		Person ID	Tree
1	Moorlag, Albert Elry	Tue 18 Feb 1879	Cass County, Michigan, USA	I319608	Nederlandse voorouders
2	Moorlag, Lucille Florine	Thu 21 Dec 1911	Cass County, Michigan, USA	I319614	Nederlandse voorouders
3	Moorlag, Maude May	Fri 18 Aug 1882	Cass County, Michigan, USA	I319617	Nederlandse voorouders

Death

Matches 1 to 2 of 2

	Last Name, Given Name(s)	Death		Person ID	Tree
1	Ball, Stephan	Fri 14 Feb 1851	Cass County, Michigan, USA	I346006	Geneagraphie
2	Berry, Susan	Sun 26 Jun 1853	Cass County, Michigan, USA	I346013	Geneagraphie

Marriage

Matches 1 to 1 of 1

	Family	Marriage		Family ID	Tree
1	Moorlag / Thomas	Sun 26 Oct 1879	Cass County, Michigan, USA	F125295	Nederlandse voorouders