and after the taking effect of this act, and the inhabitants thereof entitled to all the rights and privileges to which by law the inhabitants of the other counties of this territory are entitled.

"Sec. 2.

That there shall be a county court established in each of said counties; and the county court of the county of Cass shall be held on the last Tuesday of May and on the last Tuesday of November in each year. * * *

"Sec. 4. That the counties of Van Buren and Berrien, and all the country lying north of the same to Lake Michigan, shall be attached to and compose a part of the county of Cass.

"Sec. 8. That there shall be circuit courts, to be held in the counties of Cass and St. Joseph, and that the several acts concerning the supreme, circuit and county courts of the Territory of Michigan, defining their jurisdiction and powers, and directing the pleadings and practice therein in certain cases, be, and the same are hereby made applicable to the circuit courts in said counties.

"Sec. 9.

That the said circuit courts shall be held at the respective county seats in said counties, at the respective court houses or other usual places of holding courts therein; provided, that the first term of said court in the county of Cass shall be holden at the school house near the house of Ezra Beardsley, in said county.1 * * *

"Sec. 10.

That the county of Cass shall be one circuit, and the court for the same shall be held hereafter on the second Tuesday of August in each year.”

It will be noticed that this act provided for a "county court," a judicial institution of which few citizens of the county at this date have any direct knowledge. The county court was established in Michigan by a territorial act of 1815, and the first session of the Cass county court was held also at the house of Ezra Beardsley, in November, 1831. In April, 1833, the county court was abolished in the organized counties of the territory. The institution was revived in 1846, and continued until its final abolition in the constitution of the state adopted in 1850. The last term of county court held in Cass county commenced August 5. 1851, with Judge Cyrus Bacon on the bench.

DIVISION INTO TOWNSHIPS.

Following the act of organization of civil government came an act dividing the new county for political purposes. The original townships as defined by this act were four in number. Technically they were: Townships 5 and 6 and north half of township 7, in range 16 west, to be a township by name of Pokagon. Townships 5 and 6 and north half of township 7 south, in range 15 west, to be a township by

'The first term of circuit court in Cass county was opened at the house of Ezra Beardsley (instead of the school house), at Edwardsburg, and its business was completed in two days.

name of La Grange. Townships 5 and 6 and north half of township 7 south, in ranges 13 and 14 west, to be a township by name of Penn. All that part of Cass county known as south half of township 7 and fractional township 8 south, in ranges 13, 14, 15 and 16 west, to be a township by the name of Ontwa.

This division was no doubt influenced, in part, by the density of population in the various parts of the county. We have already stated that the county was settled by a wave of immigration directed from the west and south rather than from the east. There is proof of this in this formation of townships. On the west was the rectangular township, Pokagon, six miles wide by fifteen long, and including the present Silver Creek, Pokagon and the north half of Howard. This was the oldest settled portion of the county, and at the date of organization Pokagon prairie contained a large per cent of the entire population of the county.

To the east of Pokagon was the township of La Grange, exactly parallel in extent and of the same width, comprising what are now Wayne, La Grange and the north half of Jefferson. This was also a comparatively well settled portion of the county. Each of these townships contained an area of ninety square miles.

Alongside of La Grange on the east, and comprising a double width of townships, was Penn, embracing in its one hundred and eighty square miles of area the present townships of Penn, Volinia, Marcellus and Newberg, besides the north half of Calvin and north Porter.

wa.

This left a strip across the entire southern side of the county, and in width a little more than six miles, to comprise the township of OntSuch were the four original political divisions of Cass county. It will be interesting to trace the process by which fifteen townships were carved from these four, that process illustrating very graphically the growth of the county from a sparsely settled region to a poulousness that made smaller political divisions both practicable and necessary.

Before this, however, let us call attention to the fact that Cass county comprised at one time, as respects political and judicial functions, the two adjoining counties of Van Buren and Berrien, as provided for in the organic act quoted above. So that at the period now under consideration, Berrien county was a part of Cass and was organized as one township under the name of Niles. Van Buren county and the territory north to Lake Michigan remained a part of Cass county until 1835, and was originally a part of Penn township.

Naturally, the rapid filling up of the county with settlers in a short time called for a subdivision by the legislature of the original townships. The first act for this purpose was dated March 29, 1833, and provided for three new townships, Porter, Jefferson and Volinia.

"All that part of the township of Ontwa, in Cass county, situated in ranges 13 and 14, west of the principal meridian, shall comprise a township by the name of Porter; and the first township meeting shall be held at the house of Othni Beardsley."

This is not the Porter township as we know it today. It was, as technically defined, the east half of the original Ontwa. It contained all of the present Mason, a part of Calvin and all the present area of Porter except the three north tiers of sections. For the act which gave it its present area, see forward, in connection with the township of Newberg.

In creating the township of Jefferson, the same act further deprived Ontwa of considerable territory. "That all that part of the county of Cass known and distinguished as township 7 south of the base line, and in range 15 west of the principal meridian, compose a township by the name of Jefferson; and that the first township meeting be held at the house of Moses Reames in said township." Thus was constituted Jefferson township as we know it today. The north half was subtracted from original La Grange, and the south half from Ontwa.

The third township created by the act of March, 1833, was Volinia. This name was given by Josephus Gard, the pioneer, after a Polish province named Volhynia, which was the original spelling. The act reads: "That all that part of the county of Cass known and distinguished as township 5 south, in ranges 13 and 14, west of the principal meridian, compose a township by the name of Volinia; and that the first township meeting be held at the house of Josephus Gard in said township." Volinia, as thus formed, also contained the present Marcellus.

No further changes occurred until March 7, 1834, when original Pokagon suffered its first diminishment of territory. "All that part of the county of Cass comprised in surveyed township 7 south, in range 16 west, shall be a township by the name of Howard; and the first township meeting shall be held at the house of John Fosdick in said township." This also took more territory from Ontwa, which was reduced to the two fractional townships in the southwest corner of the county.

Before the passing of the territorial form of government, three

other townships were created. The act of March 17, 1835, provides that "all that part of the county of Cass comprised in surveyed township 7 south, range 14 west, be a township by the name of Calvin; and the first township meeting shall be held at the dwelling house of John Reed in said township." Thus we see that all the new townships were being erected with the lines of the townships and ranges of the government survey, and at present these lines govern entirely with the one exception of Porter.

By the provisions of an act also dated March 17, 1835, Wayne township came into existence. This, as we know, was a part of the original La Grange. But the settlers had come in fast in the last few years, the north half of the township had filled up with people who were soon demanding a separate organization. This demand was granted. and the name of the famous Revolutionary leader and Indian fighter was applied to the new township at the suggestion, it is said, of Cornelius Higgins. The technical definition of the boundaries of the township is "that part of Cass county comprised in township 5 south, range 15 west." The first township meeting was held at the house of Elijah W. Wright, April 6, 1835.

An act approved March 23, 1836, constituted the first of the three fractional townships of Cass county. "All that portion of Cass county designated by the United States survey as township 8 south, of range 14 west, be, and the same is hereby set off and organized into a separate township by the name of Mason; and the first township meeting therein shall be held at the dwelling house of Jotham Curtis in said township." Before the passage of this act, this fractional government township was a part of Porter township.

With the admission of Michigan to statehood, the following townships of Cass county were constituted with boundaries as at present: Wayne, La Grange, Howard, Jefferson, Mason and Calvin. The remaining townships, which have since been divided, were Pokagon, Volinia, Penn, Porter and Ontwa.

The state legislature, by an act approved March 20, 1837, provided "That all that part of the county of Cass, designated by the United States survey as township 5 south, range 16 west, be set off and organized into a separate township by the name of Silver Creek; and the first town meeting therein shall be held at the house of James McDaniel in said township." Thus Pokagon was reduced to its present size, and the extreme northwest township acquired civil government.

On March 6, 1838, the township of Newberg was erected, according to the provisions of the following: "All that part of the county of Cass designated in the United States survey as township 6 south, of range 13 west, be, and the same is hereby set off and organized into a separate township by the name of Newberg; and the first township meeting therein shall be held at the house of John Bair in said township." Newberg was carved from Penn township, which on this date was limited to its present boundaries.

Also, at the session of 1838 an act was approved whereby all that part of the "township of Penn in the county of Cass comprised in township 7 south, range 13 west, shall be attached to and become part of the township of Porter."

Nine days after the establishment of Newberg the legislative act constituting Milton township was approved. "All that portion of Cass county designated in the United State survey as township 8 south, of range 16 west, be, and the same is hereby set off and organized into a separate township by the name of Milton; and the first township meeting therein shall be held at the house of Peter Truitt, Jr." This division. brought Ontwa township down to its present area.

It was five years before the final political division was established in Cass county. The fifteenth township was Marcellus, which, the last to be organized, was also the last to be settled. The government township known as township 5 south, of range 13 west, had hitherto been a part of Volinia township, but in 1843 the people living within the area, feeling competent to manage their own affairs, petitioned the state legislature for a separate jurisdiction. The act organizing the township thus defined "by the name of Marcellus" was approved March 9, 1843. The first township meeting, it was directed, should be held at the house of Daniel G. Rouse, who had framed and circulated the petition for organization.

Such is a brief account of the evolution of Cass county from an unorganized region into its present shape and its present order and arrangement of townships. So far as is known, the divisions into the various townships were never animated by any serious disputes and discussions such as have sometimes occurred in the adjusting of such matters. As stated, the townships conform to the government surveys, and in making the political subdivisions according to this plan no considerable inconvenience or confusion has resulted. The city of Dowagiac, it happens, is located on the corners of four township jurisdictions,