Blissfield

By Bob Barringer

In 1824, Hervey Bliss, who according to Duane DeLoach s Blissfield s First 150 Years stood about five feet, three inches tall, with a somewhat florid complexion and . . . blue eyes, left Monroe County, blazed a trail 20 miles through the woods, built a log cabin, and founded the village of Blissfield on the west bank of the River Raisin. In 1826, George Giles, a neighbor of Bliss in Monroe County, moved onto land on the east side of the river in a place he called Lyons. Before the river was bridged, Blissfield consisted of two separate communities, each with its own schools and downtown areas; the village retains some of that split personality. Triple bridges, once nationally famous, remain the proud symbol of Blissfield, joining what the River Raisin keeps separate and what, as floodwaters insist, the river can still force apart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Jul 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781439646021

Bob Barringer

When he noticed the lack of a central photographic collection focused on local materials, Dr. Bob Barringer, director of Blissfield�s Schultz-Holmes Memorial Library, gathered images from a number of sources, including the Lenawee County and Blissfield Historical Societies, local churches, and most notably deeply rooted local families who share their names with nearby streets and businesses.

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INTRODUCTION

Hervey Bliss, a farmer who had come from Royalston, Vermont (a town founded by his grandfather), to Monroe County by way of Ohio, set out from his farm near Raisinville to find a new home in April 1824. He found it in the inhospitable depths of a cottonwood swamp 20 miles away and returned to Monroe County in June to stake his claim and make his purchase. The land he had chosen was Congress land, claimed by the federal government and offered at a price that encouraged settlement. Bliss paid $1.25 an acre for 160 acres of wild, boggy land covered in a dense forest and located in territory only recently wrested from the indigenous people who thought little of the government’s claim. Bliss was no stranger to such concerns, having been driven from his first Michigan home by the Pottawatomie on the Macon reserve in 1819. The land he chose was hardscrabble, to be sure, and even the river was trouble, crooked and filled with fallen trees and other debris. Bliss thought that if the land could grow those trees, it could grow crops. The coming decades would prove him correct.

After hacking through the forest, Bliss cleared some space on the west side of a bend in the river and built a log cabin. He was 35 years old when he established the settlement that would become Blissfield. His claim was the second in what would become, in 1826, a new county named Lenawee that was carved out of Monroe County. Bliss’s claim was second only to the claim for what was originally called Logan and eventually became Adrian, the Lenawee County seat. By the time Bliss had established his settlement, though, a group had already settled a place farther north, Tecumseh. When the cabin was complete, Bliss returned to Raisinville. The day before Christmas 1824, he moved his family into the cabin.

The following month, Gideon West moved his family within 10 miles of Bliss, but it was another year before George Giles arrived to settle his land on the east side of the river. Giles, who had been a neighbor of Bliss and West in Raisinville, began laying plans for another settlement on the east side that he called Lyons. Others followed in steady succession, including George Stout, Almond Harrison, William Kedzie, Samuel Buck, and then other names, some of which (Lane, Goff, and Randall) remain on village streets and in telephone books. Kedzie would settle to the northeast in what is now Deerfield, a place included within the original boundaries of Blissfield Township, of which he was the first supervisor. In the beginning, in fact, Blissfield Township included much of the southern third of the present county, encompassing not only Blissfield and Deerfield, but also Riga, Ogden, Palmyra, Fairfield, Seneca, and Medina. In addition to establishing township government, these early settlers set about making a real village, complete with schools and churches. The first school was at what are now Monroe and West Adrian Streets. The first church was Presbyterian and was organized in Hervey Bliss’s new house on Monroe Street in 1829. The First Presbyterian Church building, completed in 1849, is the oldest church building in Blissfield.

Blissfield developed first on the west side. The east side, George Giles’s Lyons, was still largely covered by the cottonwood forest and would remain undeveloped until the Erie & Kalamazoo came through in 1936. Even after the development of the east side, Blissfield retained much of the west-versus-east split, with separate business areas and separate school districts that resisted mutually beneficial consolidation until 1923. The railroad did come though, and with it, phenomenal growth. By 1870, the train station moved to the east side, which had dropped the Lyons moniker and was now called East Blissfield. The other side of the river had been called the village but was now the west side. The west side would rebound in the early 20th century, though, when industry found new use for old storefronts. By the last quarter of the century, it was the east side’s business area that was in need of some fresh thought and renovation in response to changing lifestyles. Through it all, Blissfield never lost sight of its commitment to its people, and its people never faltered in their commitment to each other, exemplified by strong schools, lovely churches, parks provided by generous donations, well-supported community events, cooperative efforts to generate new business and new jobs, great baseball, and one fine library.

This book comprises images that tell the stories of Blissfield and the surrounding area. Chapter one speaks of the river, farms, and agricultural businesses. The story of Blissfield cannot be told without the river, which drew the settlers and the farms that gave the village life. Chapter two moves to the businesses—many family-run through several generations—that helped Blissfield to grow and prosper and often helped the community rebound during times of difficulty. Chapter three shows life in the Blissfield area, featuring schools, churches, celebrations, friendships, and community. Blissfield is defined by its people, who can be as divided as the early settlers who saw the community as being separated into two different places altogether but who always come together against common enemies, floods, fires, and financial distress. There is something of the Old Testament in the burdens placed upon Blissfield and its people. The very thicket of trouble from which it sprang seems determined to cling to its feet. It has seen not just floods, but great, frequent floods, and not just fire, but fires that destroy whole blocks of businesses. Meanwhile, economic changes have stripped the downtown area of its traditional and historical businesses. Through it all, the people endure and prevail. Old Testament problems demand a New Testament response: rethink, rebuild, renew.

I can no longer walk the streets of Blissfield only in the present. Long-replaced, even long-demolished, storefronts invite me in. I wave to workers unloading sugar beets from a truck. Just beyond, a steam engine passes behind the interurban station where passengers board a car bound for Toledo. Farmers repair clay tiles