Norton Pomeroy and Jane Chipman

Kalamazoo County Pioneers

Favorable reports about the climate and resources in Michigan, along with low prices for cash payments, enticed many eastern families to buy land in Kalamazoo County. Two families that saw this as the way to a better life were Jabez Pomeroy of Lockport, New York and Hiram Boardman Chipman of Sunderland, Vermont. While Pomeroy used land purchases for speculation and profit, it was his son, Norton, who saw it as the beginning for his adult life. Chipman also saw value in the move to improve his family’s prospects, and his daughter Jane found that in her marriage to Norton Pomeroy.  

Norton Pomeroy

Norton Pomeroy was born in 1823 in Lockport, New York. He grew up with his seven siblings working on the family farm and attending school. Pomeroy’s parents valued education. They saw that each of their children received an education beyond the schoolhouse by afterwards attending a teacher training college. Pomeroy taught, worked on the family farm, and enjoyed playing the fiddle at social gatherings. In 1845, after years of work to pay his way to Michigan, the 22-year-old Pomeroy prepared to move. His father, Jabez, had bought land in Kalamazoo’s Pavilion Township at a government sale in 1836 which he gave to his son. Pomeroy built a small house, started to clear the land, and began to farm in Sections 20 and 21. Described as an amiable person, Pomeroy established friendly relations with his neighbors. For a few years, Pomeroy returned to Lockport each fall to help his family with the harvest. The most common route taken to Michigan from Lockport was to take the Erie Canal to Buffalo, from there a steam to Detroit, then a carriage along what is today I-94. The trip, one way, averaged no more than seven days and cost about three dollars. When Pomeroy went back east, a neighbor, Italy Foster, was hired to harvest Pomeroy’s fall wheat and sell it at the mill. Pomeroy and Foster often helped each other with financial loans.

Between 1849-1853, Pomeroy sought to purchase more land. He added an adjoining 80 acres in Section 21 and bought an 80-acre tract of land in Section 22. During the time when he was buying land, Pomeroy did some teaching. Two letters asked him about teaching: his sister Sarah asks, in 1850, if he had “any scholars in grammar” and, regarding discipline, if he ever had to apply “Mr. Beech or Oak”; his cousin Cynthia asked in a letter from c. 1852, about his scholars and if he had closed his school. Money was needed to purchase land, and in the spring of 1851, help him prepare for married life with Jane Chipman. By 1853, this included the building of a new house and the couple’s first of eight children.

In 1866, Pomeroy retired and bought land closer to town in Sections 26, 27, and 35 of Kalamazoo Township. His original Pavilion farm was given to his second son Wardell who lived and worked the farm until around 1909. It was during the time between 1853 into 1865 that Norton performed many civic duties: township clerk 1853-1855, 1857-1862; assessor 1850; school inspector 1865; constable 1863, 1864. Living closer to town, Pomeroy began an association with the First Presbyterian Church. He was well known and respected in the community. A notice in an unnamed school publication, written in 1858, told of his generosity to a school, to which he gave some much needed materials.

Sadly, in 1870, his wife Jane died and was the first of the Pomeroys to be buried in Mountain Home Cemetery. With young children to raise, Pomeroy did remarry. In 1872, he returned to Lockport to marry Mary E. (Byrne) Pomeroy, the widow of his brother Lewis Sherrill. Along with the two sons Mary already had, the couple added three more children of their own to the family. Family and church were how Pomeroy occupied his final years. For a long time, he had suffered from asthma, but in 1892 an attack of the “grip” weakened him. From the latter illness his strength steadily declined. He died on 20 July 1893. The farm was held by his wife, but worked by her sons; first Harry, then after his death, by Llewellyn, and finally by Arthur. Mary Pomeroy continued to live at the family home on Portage Rd. with her children until her death in 1925.

Norton Pomeroy’s Pavilion farm was sold in pieces after Wardell retired from farming sometime after 1909. As for the family’s second home, Norton stipulated in his will that upon the death of his wife, all his natural children and grandchildren were to receive a 1/10th share of land and $500. Not one of the children or grandchildren kept their land. Some was sold to individuals, but the greatest share was sold to the city. In 1928 the city platted two new suburban housing developments from that land; Pomeroy Park and Homecrest. The city also named one of the streets off Lovers Lane, just past the junction with Portage Road, Pomeroy Street.

Jane Chipman and Her Family

Jane Chipman was born in 1827 in Arlington, Vermont. While a young child, her father struggled to farm in soil weakened from excessive use. The family eventually moved from Arlington to Sunderland, Vermont to what they hoped would be better land and be closer to family. While still quite young, Jane went to live with an aunt and uncle in nearby Pownal where she worked in their seasonal hotel and store. The poor soil and soaring prices caused by the economic collapse of the 1830s encouraged her father, Hiram Boardman Chipman, to purchase land in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. The Chipmans arrived in Kalamazoo probably late in March 1837. A letter the family received from a relative in mid-June told them of getting their letter sent on the 5th of April. To travel so quickly and early in the year, they must have used the Erie Canal and the steamer from Buffalo to Detroit. The whole journey could not have taken more than four weeks. The visit of a relative, who visited the family in 1841, wrote a letter that described the journey in reverse, telling the number of days and cost.

Based on a letter received in December 1838, the location of their farm was “Section 36 range 10 west and 3 south.” Beaver Creek flowed through the southern part of their land and a mill was built alongside the river. It was the mill that nearly crippled the family’s livelihood. Two letters told of a fever, common in Michigan, that made the family ill during the fall and winter of 1837. A nephew wrote in January 1838 that the illness was probably caused by the mill dam flooding the wooded area nearby and said the trees needed to be cleared. While other family members recovered, Hiram Chipman did not and died in September 1838.

Hiram’s wife Sally was left with five children, the last born shortly before Hiram’s death. She contacted family members back east for advice. Her husband’s brother, Azel, told her to keep the farm and keep the family together. A sister and brother-in-law, who owned the business where Jane had worked, wanted Jane to come and live with them. Sally did keep the farm and while the younger daughter, Adaline, wanted to go back east, Jane did not. Instead, she stayed in Pavilion and finished school and eventually, became a teacher. Her first teaching position was in the summer of 1841. Schools were not organized and there were few at that time, so it is possible through teaching that Jane met her future husband, Norton Pomeroy.  

With the help of Sally’s brother, James Doyle, the Chipman family held on to their land. Over the years, Sally made a close friend of Richard Lawrence who lived in Climax Township. They married in 1847. Two years later, Sally, 45-46 years old, gave birth to a son. Lawrence had died sometime before the birth, and the child was named Hiram D. Chipman. Within a year, Sally died, and Jane became the head of the family. With help from their uncle, James Doyle, Jane ran the household and her oldest brother, Azel, took over the farm. After Jane married Pomeroy, in 1851, Adaline and Hiram D. came to live with them while the younger siblings went to live with other brothers. Burial for many of the family was in the cemeteries in Pavilion Township. Hiram Boardman and Sally were buried in McKain Cemetery and Azel in Boughton Cemetery.

Jane Chipman’s family’s land was sold in 1909. An advertisement was placed in the Kalamazoo Gazette for the sale of the “A. N. Chipman Farm.” Jane’s son, Wardell, was the executor of his uncle Azel’s estate and finalized the sale of the farm. There is a piece of land in Kalamazoo County that has kept the Chipman name. Milon Chipman, another of Jane’s brothers, had a great-grandson, John E. Chipman, who purchased 228 acres of land in Comstock Township, which was named the Chipman Preserve. Today it still holds that name but is held by the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy.

The Pomeroy Children, born to Jane: 

Clara Theresa: b. 11 May 1853, d. 17 November 1889; married 1) Charles Oscar Cobb, 18 October 1877 (b. 1855, d. 9 December 1881).  Children: Sharley, b. 1 April 1882, d. 24 March 1951; married 2) Hiram L. Lewis, 13 February 1884 (b. 1856, d. ?).  Children: Norton Pomeroy, b. 13 April 1885, d. 27 February 1962  

Willis Norton:  b. 14 December 1855, died 4 February 1937;  married Alice S. Woodard, 26 October 1881 (b. 12 November 1857, d. 30 November 1933); 1883 salesman for Smith and Woodard Windmill Co.; 1889 became Smith and Pomeroy Windmill Co. Children: Harold Woodard, b. 15 April 1892, d. 21 January 1952  

Wardell Jay: b. 27 June 1857, d. 15 June 1924; married Eudora R. Sipley, 28 November 1883 (b. 1863, d. December 1937); farmed his father’s original land into 1909; retired and moved into a house in town; 1912 lived at 408 Vine St.; salesman for the Kent Morris Co.  Children: Percy Wardell, b. 19 April 1886, d. 7 July 1940 

Sarah Ada:  b. 20 March 1859, d. 6 February 1953; never married; 1900-1910: lived and worked in Chicago, Illinois, church work; 1912: secretary for the Kalamazoo Anti-Tuberculosis Society; 1920-1953: lived in Pasadena, California

Jennie Belle:  b. 10 January 1861, d. 15 March 1965; married Fred Harold Milham, 28 October 1885 (b. 8 September 1858, d. 21 October 1942); 1901: Fred became a clerk at Bryant Paper Co.; 1921: moved into town, 408 W. Vine St. Children: Elbert Gray, b. 28 August 1893, d. 29 November 1950;  Donald Pomeroy, b. 13 December 1894, d. 11 August 1918; Philip Carol, b. 22 June 1896, d. 7 August 1985; Gertrude Ethel, b. 29 June 1897, d. 12 March  1995 

Cora Clemana:   b. 15 October 1862, d. 9 May 1927; married Robert Eli Milham, 4 October 1888 (b. 1854, d. 21 February 1931); 1919 moved closer to town, 917 Egleston Ave. Children: Robert Lester, b. 3 May 1891, d. 25 February 1971; Clinton Pomeroy, b. 20 January 1893, d. 1961 

Orphia Louise:  b. 14 October 1864, d. 16 July 1960; married Samuel Scott Buckley, 2 November 1893 (b. 9 April 1869, d. 21 August 1953); briefly lived in Kalamazoo, then moved to Syracuse, New York. Children: Orphia Louise, b. 13 February 1895, d. 5 November 1983; Kenneth Pomeroy, b. 28 August 1896, d. 27 September 1987 

Ossian Wilbur:  b. 6 December 1866, d. 23 September 1867

Pomeroy Children born to Mary: Sons of Lewis Sherrill  

Harry Kirkland:  b. 30 April 1865, d. 27 January 1915; farmed Norton’s estate after his death; remains were shipped to Lockport for burial near his father 

Llewellyn Sherrill: b. 9 July 1867, d. 3 September 1931; attended University of Michigan, earned a degree in engineering 

Children of Norton and Mary: 

Mary Gilbert:  b. 12 December 1872, d. 6 August 1873

Arthur Byrne:  b. 24 February 1874, d. 17 April 1961; married 1) Mary E. Thackery, 29 October 1909 (b. 29 June 1842, d. 9 February 1925); lived in Cooper Twp.  Children: Mary Thackery, b. 9 September 1912, d. 30 April 1974. Married 2) Letitia M. Steelman, 4 October 1928 (b. 25 October 1881, d. 30 June 1956) 

Beatrice:  b. 10 November 1876, d. 13 December 1968; attended University of Michigan, earned her teaching credentials; 1902-1910 taught in the Kalamazoo area; 1911 assistant librarian at Western State Normal School; married Stephen Prentis Cobb, 17 October 1911 (b. 7 July 1878, d. 14 October 1960); Children: Stephen Prentis Cobb, Jr., b. 29 December 1918, d. 18 December 2015

Alice Gertrude:  b. 30 November 1880, d. September 1927; never married; 1898 graduated from Kalamazoo High School; attended Kalamazoo College for teaching credentials; 1906-1927 taught at Kalamazoo High School

The Children of Hiram Boardman and Sally Doyle Chipman 

Jane:  b. 14 October 1827, d. 11 February 1870; married Norton Pomeroy in the spring of 1851; Children: see Norton Pomeroy above 

Adaline E.:  b. 3 December 1830, d. 27 April 1903; 1840-1847 left Kalamazoo to live back east; married Winfield S. Sutherland, 17 April  1860 (b. 28 April 1815, d. 14 September 1886); lived in Kalamazoo until 1864, then moved to Iowa and later to South Dakota. Children: Wells Smith Sutherland, b. 29 April 1861, d. 2 June 1928; Fred D. Sutherland, b. 4 July 1864, d. 1942 

Azel N.:  b. 21 November 1831, d. 29 September 1908; married Asenath Isaacs, 31 March 1860 (b. 11 February 1834, d. 6 August 1918); lived on the family farm until his death. Children: none 

Amos James: b. 25 October 1833, d. 3 January 1915; 1860 working in Kansas as a clerk for National Geological Survey; married Emma Halstead Andruss, 1877 (b. March 1835, d. 19 April 1901) 

Milon M.:  b. 20 July 1836, d. 30 June 1914; married Ervilla Hallock, 18 June 1859 (b. 27 May 1836, d. 14 January 1920); moved to Calhoun County, horse breeder. Children: Deo Clifton, b. 20 March 1860, d. 11 April 1929   

Andrew W.: b. 4 January 1838, d. 17 April 1891; married Bell Mina Yates, c. 1863 (b. 24 January 1834, d. 7 January 1908); moved to Tekonsha, Calhoun County, Michigan to farm. Children: Deforest E., b. 19 September 1864, d. ? ; Harry D., b. 29 April 1866, d. 2 February  1936; Clarence W., b. 18 August 1867, d. 28 April 1931; Ray A., b. 27 November 1868, d. 1932; Jennie E., b. 1872, d. 16 December 1959

Child of Sally and Richard Lawrence: 

Hiram D.:  b. 6 December 1849, d. 22 January 1890; married Agnes Graham 10 April 1879 (b. 1 October 1848, d. 19 February 1933); farmed land in Climax Twp. Children: George A., b. 29 January 1880, d. 8 March 1948

Written by Brent Coates, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, January 2023