EARLY SETTLERS. The year 1831 brought many new settlers to this township. In June of this year came Roswell Ransom and Cyrus Lovell from Townhsend, Windham Co., Vt., although Mr. Lovell had come to Ann Arbor from Vermont some year or two before. They bought Isaac Toland's prairie lands and betterments. They then returned, Mr. Lovell to Ann Arbor and Mr. Ransom to Vermont. Late in the fall of 1831 they, with their young wives, came back to take possession of their new homes. Mr. Lovell was the first lawyer in this township and in Kalamazoo. After residing here and at Kalamazoo a few years he removed to Ionia, where he now lives. Roswell Ransom was the third son of Maj. Ezekiel Ransom, and brother of Epaphroditus Ransom, the eighth State Governor of Michigan. He married Miss W. L. Shafter, of Vermont, sister of Justice H. M. Shafter, of Galesburg. Roswell Ransom was one of the earliest and most active pioneers in this county. From the time of his arrival to his death, in 1877, he identified himself with the interests of his township. He was appointed justice of the peace by Stevens T. Mason, Governor of the then Territory of Michigan, making him the first justice in this township, while his jurisdiction extended over all Arcadia, then including the north part of the county. He was a man of large views, earnest purpose, and varied abilities. In politics he began life in the school of Democracy, and yet, paradox as it may seem, he was always an antislavery man. When the Republican party was organized he joined it, and was ever one of its most zealous supporters. On matters of general home interests he was a ready and effective public speaker, and his influence was ever exerted in forming correct public opinion on temperance, education, and other reforms of the day. He was a steadfast, reliable friend, and his natural courtesy and suave manners were in marked contrast to the cold indifference of the business life of these times, or the roughness that passes so current among people who would be offended if they were called impolite. Mr. Ransom's conversation was instructive, and to those interested in the pioneer life of this region he was an unfailing source of historic information. He was unquestionably the fullest and most reliable authority on the history of Kalamazoo County that we had in this locality. He died in the full faith of the Christian religion,-a member of the Congregational Church of Galesburg. He left a wife and seven children. The daughters are Mrs. J. J. Sutton, of California; Mrs. E. T. Mills, of Kalamazoo; Mrs. A. J. Burdick, of Galesburg; Mrs. John S. Van Doren, of California. The sons are James N., of Texas, and Albert E., of Kansas. p.356
History of Kalamazoo County, Michigan. Samuel W. Durant, Philadelphia: Everts & Abbott, 1880.