Daniel & Jane McMartin |
Asylum Lake History Kalamazoo County, MI |
The 1873 County Atlas lists Asylum Lake as "McMartin Lake" presumably after the owner of 101 acres to the west and north. Daniel and Jane McMartin first paid taxes on the land in 1866, their family listed in the 1870 census as consisting of two daughters, Margaret (23) and Flora (17) and a son, Arthur (21). A possible son named Daniel McMartin was killed in the Civil War in September 1862. McMartin cultivated 80 acres valued at $6,800, growing 100 bushels of wheat, 300 bushels of corn, and 200 bushels of oats. He kept about half a dozen dairy cows and a small orchard. Neither the 1861 map nor the 1869 county atlas show this particular lake, indicating that it's highly likely that McMartin impounded the water in the early 1870's. The 1887-88 Trustees Report of the Michigan Asylum for the Insane indicates that the Kalamazoo State Hospital purchased the land in the fall of 1887 as part of a "colony" farm and recreation equipment. |
