First Settlers Born in the Township

Mary and Roderick

1834 was the year that saw the first two children of non-Native American ancestry born in the Kalamazoo Township. The first was Mary Belinda Heydenburk, born on July 7th. Ten days later, Cyren Burdick’s wife Mary Ann gave birth to a boy named Roderick (Richard) Carlisle.

Cyren Burdick was brothers with Ira and Justus. The three of them had come from Vermont to pursue commercial interests in the brand new Village of Bronson, one of which included the establishment of the Kalamazoo House. Cyren also donated the parcel of land to Arcadia Township that would become the first burial ground for many early pioneers, and where Cyren would come to rest. He allegedly died of a burst blood vessel while attempting to transport men off of his beached boat near Otsego.

Roderick left the Kalamazoo area around 1850, later marrying Catherine Becker in 1857. It would appear that he prospered while living in Minnesota. He was employed for five years at the Hudson Bay Company, worked “in the construction department of the Canadian Pacific Railroad” and also managed a grain elevator business located in Duluth, Minnesota. He learned French and several Native American languages. Roderick returned to Kalamazoo on two occasions, first in 1884, and then in 1887 with his wife and daughter.

Burdick V. City of Kalamazoo

Roderick was involved in litigation against the City of Kalamazoo after observing that the land his father and mother had deeded for the purpose of a burial ground, was being used as a park. For more information regarding Roderick’s lawsuit, his argument against the city and the court’s decision in favor of the defendant, see Western Michigan University professor Dr. Evan Kutzler’s website on the history of Kalamazoo’s first burial ground.

Burdick died in 1902 while residing in Meeker County, Minnesota. He is buried in the Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis.

In an article published in the Kalamazoo Gazette on 22 June 1929, the author claimed that Mary Belinda Heydenburk was born in a house near where the First Presbyterian Church of Kalamazoo now sits along W. South Street. Her father Martin came to the village of Bronson in the winter of 1833. He was a missionary and a carpenter. Around 1840, the family moved into a large farmhouse that sat atop the area just north of Crane Park. Over time, the home became one of the oldest surviving houses in the city prior to being demolished sometime in the late 1990s. Mary was a graduate of the Michigan State Normal School in Ypsilanti, Michigan, which had opened its doors in 1853. She married Henry Marhoff in 1860 and moved to Galesburg, Michigan, where she was living at the time of her death in 1903.

Article written by Ryan Gage, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, August 2025