r. Instead of clearing a farm as he intended, Churchill concluded that, as there was likely to be a village in that neighborhood in a little time, he would put up a building which he might use as a tavern or store as circumstances should direct. He bought some land, and on the lot later occupied by W. H. Stone's drug-store put up, with the assistance of Samuel Freeman and another man, a good-sized building.
"Russman & Lehman, Practical Horseshoeing and Repairs" says the sign. Shop on the Looking Glass, foot of Kent St. The blacksmith holds the horse's hoof and helpful friend holds horseshoe.
At this juncture along came David Sturgis, a Canadian, looking for an opening; he at once bought a half-interest with Churchill in the building then going up, the agreement being that when finished they should, as partners, open it as a store. When they had finished it, however, they were besought by Joshua Boyer (a comer to the township in 1835) to rent it to him for a tavern-stand. Agreeing to let him have it, Churchill & Sturgis opened their store near where A. F. Morehouse's office was, and for some time afterwards carried on a flourishing trade. Boyer opened his tavern, and called it the "Mansion House".
Next door to the harness shop was the A. B. Hixon's tin shop.
Mr. Friend at far right, other persons not identified.
Before Boyer's advent as a landlord, however, William Moore, who, with Daniel Moore, came from Lyons about 1837 and settled on what is now known as the Culver place (within the present village limits), kept what was called house of entertainment, although, perhaps, not as emphatically a tavern as was Joshua Boyer's Mansion House.
Frank Friend works at the door of his harness shop
. He sits at his saddler's bench, a foot controlled clamp holding his work in place. Behind him stands a large piece of leather. Hanging on the wall are halters and other pieces of harness. Boys, L to R: Lester or J.B. Roe, Almon Ward, other not known.
Not long after the Newmans set the Looking Glass to the business of turning a mill-wheel for them, one Abram S. Wadsworth appeared upon the scene
and determined to make the waters of the Grand River serve him a similarly useful purpose. He purchased some land on the west side of the stream, threw a dam across it, and began at once to build a saw-mill and grist-mill near where R. B. Smith's grist-mill stood. Although Wadsworth displayed an extraordinary amount of zeal and energy in his undertakings and promised great things, he accomplished little or nothing. His mills were never finished, and his dam was twice carried away by floods. Thereupon, he grew discouraged, sold his mill machinery to the Newmans, and departed for other fields. He continued elsewhere, however, to fail in his enterprises, just as he had failed at Portland. His energy was something remarkable, but his judgment was the rock upon which he invariably went to pieces.
A. F. Morehouse, who located in the vicinity of Portland in 1843, said that at that time the village contained Samuel Northam's tavern and Churchill & Smith's store on the east and the the store of the Nicholson Brothers on the west side of the river, Almeron Newman's carding machine, James Newman's mill, Hiram Harrington, Alfred Olin, and Milton Sawyer's blacksmith shops, Joseph Roe's tailor shop (Mr. Roe located in Ionia in 1837), Wilson & Co.'s pottery, and the shoe shops of William Dinsmore, O.D. Parker, and David Smith. There were also the families of A. S. Wadsworth (the mill builder), Philo Bogue, Joshua Boyer, Moses B. Beers (the village doctor), William H. Arms, A. F. Morehouse, and Christian Klimper (carpenters), and Isaiah Decker, Samuel Sutliff, and Charles W. Ingalls (farmers). The fourth store in the village was built on the corner opposite Hezekiah Smith's, and occupied by Nicholson & Berry. The building is the one later used by F. M. Cutcheon.
As to the other early Portland merchants, there were Charles W. Ingalls, S. J. Fox, Beebe & Griswold, and one or two whose names cannot now be recalled. Beebe & Griswold kept store in the lower portion of the building known until the summer of 1880 as Welch's Hotel, which James Harrington built for a tavern, and of which he was the first landlord. Speaking about taverns, Portland must have done a brisk business in selling ardent spirits during the year of 1845. In that year--so the township records report--tavern licenses were issued to Joshua Boyer, James Harrington, Charles Taylor, and George W. Dickinson, while licenses as retailers of spirits were granted to Hezekiah Smith, William R. Churchill, S. J. Fox, and William Wilkinson.
Divine Hotel