John Lepper I, son of Jacob and Catherine Lepper, was born in New York on
June 4, 1797. He married Ann Crawford, daughter of Scottish born Jon
Crawford and mother, Felodelphia, born in Vermont and who was said to be an
Indian according to family tradition.
John I, a millright by trade, operated a drydock and barge service on the
Erie Canal, hauling coal, timber and wheat. He also ran a sawmill and general
store. According to his daybook of 1835-1874, now in the possession of his
great, great, great grandson, Roy Kent, of Hickory Corners, he had a 10 man
crew working for the Canal Company, paying them 44 cents a day and charging
the Canal Company 88 cents per day.
John sold his holdings in Lockville, Wayne County, NY in 1842-43 and came west
to Barry Township, Sections 33 and 34, 130 acres, and 65 acres in Section 3,
Ross Township, Kalamazoo County, May 27, 1844, owning both sides of the
baseline. The Augusta Creek flowed through the center.
Although John owned property in both, Barry and Kalamazoo Counties, he
settled in Barry County on the present day Roy Kent place at Hickory Corners. He
brought to Michigan 40 covered wagons of supplies, 3 brothers and their
families, Jacob, who settled in Lenawee County, Moses in Ionia County and
unnamed brother in or near Detroit. Also making the trip were 5 or 6 black
families who worked for him in New York. These black families bore the
surnames of Mahoney, Cisco and Peake.
In Barry/Kalamazoo County, Michigan, John set up 2 sawmills, 2 grist mills, a
stage coach stop, a general store, a blacksmith shop and several houses. The
area was called "Lepperville". One sawmill was in Barry County and the other
was in Kalamazoo County, a quarter mile apart on the creek. These mills were
whipsaw, or upright mills, a large crosscut saw moving up and down as this
was before circular saws were invented.
The land was cleared of large Elm, Walnut, Maple and Whitewood. It is said
that some walnut trees measured five feet at the stump and fifty feet to the
first limbs. These trees, being too large for the sawmills, were cut into
short lengths, pulled into windrows by oxen and burned for charcoal.
John Lepper was into "One Stop Shopping" long before our time. At his general
store you could buy or trade for most supplies, lumber, nails, tables,
chairs, guns, cattle, hogs, cloth, flour, salted meat, grain cradles, tea,
coffee, iron stoves, chains, and while you were there you could get the oxen
or horses shod as well as make grist.
In the spring of 1880 "Lepperville" burned down and ceased to exist.
John Lepper, I