Horace H. Comstock was the founder of Comstock. The township and village were named after him. He moved to Comstock in 1831. But he learned he had a tough life ahead of him.
Originally, the northern half of Kalamazoo County had been called Arcadia. It was to be divided into townships later.
In 1831, Horace bought a large amount of land near a mill on the Comstock River. Next season, he bought a large supply of goods and started a general store.After that, he built a schoolhouse with his own money, asking that they would call the village and township Comstock. He constructed a house and named it Brookside. The house is still standing on the corner of Brookview and East Michigan Ave.
His town was coming along very nicely, and he hoped his town would become the county seat, but it didn't.
In 1835, he was elected the first senator of Kalamazoo County. Later he was elected to the State Legislative Council when Cooper Township was organized.
Horace Comstock was the husband of James Fenimore Cooper's niece . He moved to Kalamazoo where his first wife died on Feb. 15, 1846. He had four children, three girls and a boy. The girls lived into adulthood. The boy, William Averill, was killed by Indians in Kansas.
Mr. Comstock moved to Otsego where he remarried. This wife lived only one year. He moved back to Cooperstown where he married a third time. This wife died during her visit to Ossing, New York. Comstock moved again to Ossing, and began teaching there.
Mr. Comstock died on March 15, 1861, at age 54. He left an estate of only $1000. Before he died, he married a fourth and final time.
Read an e-mail from a distant relative of Horace Comstock
For more information on Horace Comstock's son, visit http://members.iquest.net/~alsal/ace.html
Sources
Social Studies Local History Unit by Alice Wever
Comstock Bicentennial
By Andy
