Google
This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project
to make the world's books discoverable online.
It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject
to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books
are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.
Marks, notations and other maiginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the
publisher to a library and finally to you.
Usage guidelines
Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing tliis resource, we liave taken steps to
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.
We also ask that you:
+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for
personal, non-commercial purposes.
+ Refrain fivm automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.
+ Maintain attributionTht GoogXt "watermark" you see on each file is essential for in forming people about this project and helping them find
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.
+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liabili^ can be quite severe.
About Google Book Search
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web
at |http: //books .google .com/I
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY
OF
BAY COUNTY, MICHIGAN
REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
EDITED AND COMPILED BY
CAPT. AUGUSTUS H. GANSSER
BAY CITY, MICHIGAN
'*Histoi-y is Philosophy Teaching toy Examples"
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
Preface
ilHE aim of the publishers of this volume has been to secure for the historic portion
thereof full and accurate information respecting aU subjects herein treated, and to
present the data thus gathered in a clear and impartial manner. If, as is their hope,
they have succeeded in this endeavor, the credit is mainly due to the diligent and exhaustive re-
search of the editor of the historic statement, Capt. Augustus H. Gansser, of Bay City. In col-
lecting and arranging the material which has entered into this history, it has been his aim
to secure facts and to present them in an interesting form. His patient and conscientious
labor in the compilation and presentation of the data is shown in the historical portion of
this volume. The record gives an interesting and elaborate description of the aboriginal
inhabitants, the natural features and the early society of this section, the story of its settle-
ment and a comprehensive account of the organization of Bay County and the Bay Cities,
giving the leading events in the stages of their development and the growth of their indus-
tries to the present time, as set forth in the table of contents. All topics and occurrences are
included which are essential to the usefulness of the history. Although the original purpose
of the author was to limit the narrative to the close of 1904, he has deemed it proper to touch
on many matters relating to the current year, especially such as refer to the union of the Bay
Cities.
The reviews of resolute and strenuous lives, w'hich make up the biographical depart-
ment of the volume, and whose authorship for the most part is entirely independent of that
of the history, are admirably adapted to foster local ties, to inculcate patriotism and to empha-
size the rewards of industry, dominated by intelligent purpose. They constitute a most ap-
propriate medium of perpetuating personal annals and will be of incalculable value to the
descendants of those commemorated. They bring into bold relief careers of enterprise and
thrift and make manifest valid claims to honorable distinction. If "Biography is the only
true History," it is obviously the duty of men of the present time to preserve in this enduring
form the story of their lives in order that their posterity may dwell on the successful strug-
Hosted by
Google
gles thus recorded, and profit by their example. These sldetclies, replete with stirring ind-
dents and intense experiences, will naturally prove to most of the readers of this book its
most attractive feature.
In the aggregate of personal memoirs thus collated will be found a vivid epitome of the
growth of Bay County, which will fitly supplement the historic statement: for the develop-
ment of the county is identified with that of the men and women to whom it is attributable.
The publishers have endeavored in the preparation of the work to pass over no feature of it
slightingly, but lo give heed to the minutest details, and thus to invest it with a substantial
accuracy which no other treatment would afiford. The result has amply justified the care
thus exercised, for in our belief no more reliable production, under the circumstances, could
he laid before its readers.
We have given special prominence to the portraits of representative citizens, which
appear throughout this volume, and l>elieve they will prove a most interesting feature of
the work. We have sought to illustrate the different spheres of industrial and professional
achievement as conspicuously as possible. To those who have kindly interested themselves in
the successful prejiaration of this work, and who have voluntarily contributed most useful
information and data, we herewith tender our grateful acknowledgment.
CHiCAGO, III., May, 1905. THE PUBLISHERS.
Hosted by
Google
— NOTE.—
All the biographical sketches published in this volume were submitted
to their respective subjects or to the suljscribers, from whom the facts
were primarily obtained, for their approval or correction before going to
press; and a reasonable time was allowed in each case for the return of
the typewritten copies. Most of them were returned to us within the time
allotted, or before the work was printed, after being corrected or revised;
and these may therefore be regarded as reasonably accurate.
A few, however, were not returned to us; and, as we have no means
of knowing whether they contain errors or not, we can not vouch for
their accuracy. In justice to our readers, and to render this work more
valuable for reference purposes, we have indicated these uncorrected
sketches by a small asterisk {*), placed immediately after the name of the
subject. They wili all be found on the last pages of the book.
RICHMOND & AFiNOLD.
Hosted by
Google
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
A Brief Sketch of Early Michigan 17
CHAPTER II.
The Aboriginal Period 27
Virgin Forests, Trackless Swamps and Lake-Bound Prairies — "0-Sauk-E-Non,'' the "Land of the Sauk»" —
Indian Tribes and Chieftains — Manners, Customs and Modes of Life of the Aborigines — The Overthrow of the
Sauks by the Confederated Tribes — The Indians as Found by the Pioneers — The Indians of To-day.
CHAPTER ill.
The Colonial Period 48
The Onward March of Civilisation— The Pale Faces Westward Bound — Years of Exploration, and Trading
with the Indians— Trappers, Hunters and Adventurers— The Saginaw Valley for Years the Northern most
Outpost of Civilization in the Northwest Territory — Indian Title to Land Extinguished— The Earliest White
Settlers.
CHAPTER IV.
Early Settlements and Settlees 60
The Indians and Trappers Give Way to the Settlers— Planting of Settlements— Memoirs and Remin
of Prominent Pioneers— The Period of Reckless Land Speculation and "Wild-Cat" Banks— Indian Mounds and
Legends— The Mound Builders— 0-ge-ma-ke-ga-to and Other Indian Chiefs— Incidents of Pioneer Life on the
Saginaw River and lis Tributaries — Character Sketches and Anecdotes.
CHAPTER V.
Organization and Growth of Bay County 99
Early Land Transactions and Settlements— Hampton Township Erected— Early Elections— The Strenuous
Fight for Separation from Saginaw County— Era of Prosperity— Early Official Transactions— Arenac County
Erected— Census Figures and Some Vital Statistics— Synopsis of Election Returns— Some of Those Who Have
Served in Official Positions- Roster of County Officials.
Hosted by
Google
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
Creation and Growth of the Cities, Townships and Villages of the County 122
Incorporation and Growth of the Village of Bay City, the Successor of Lower Saginaw and Portsmouth Village —
Chartered as a City— Roster of City Officials — History of the Villages of Banks, Salzburg and Wenona and of
Their Successor, West Bay City— Roster of Village and City Officials— The Townships of the County with
Historical, Geographical and Census Data— The Villages o£ Essexville, Kawkawlio, Pinconning, Auburn
and " Iccburg, U. S. A."
CHAPTER VII.
Natural Resources and Advantages of Bay County 162
Climate — Easy Water Communication Provided by the Rivers and Saginaw Bay — A Paradise of Fish and
Game — Rich Mineral and Agricultural Resources— Pine and Hardwood Timber — Extensive Underlying
Deposits of Salt and Coal — Rich Soil and Fruitful Farms—" Garden Spot of Michigan."
CHAPTER Vin.
Greater Bay City.— 1885-1905 166
Remarkable Evolution of the Bay Cities from Booming Frontier Lumber Communities to Hives of Varied Indus-
tries—The Rise and Decline of the Lumber and Salt Industries— Municipal Improvements— Public Buildings
and Business Blocks— The Revival of the Lumber Industry— The Center of America's Beel Sugar Industry-
Chemical Factories, Chicory Mills and Varied Industries— Discovery of Coal— Iron and Steel Industries— Mam-
moth Ship-Building Plants and Dry Docks— Fish and Game— The Fight for Consolidation— The First Oflicers
of Greater Bay City— The Charier.
CHAPTER IX.
Bay County's Lumber, Salt and Coal Industries and Transportation Facilities..
CHAPTER X.
Sugar Beets, Agricultural Products, Fish and Varied Industries..
CHAPTER XI.
The Bench and Bar and the Medical Profession
Hosted by
Google
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER Xll.
Churches, Religious Societies, Hospitals and Charities..
CHAPTER Xiir.
Public Schools, Libraries and the Press
CHAPTER XIV.
Fraternal, Benevolent and Labor Organizations 326
CHAPTER XV.
Bay County's Military Record 342
CHAPTER XVL
Minor Mention — Odds and Ends 359
Biographical 867
Hosted by
Google
INDEX
Biodrapbical
Allen, George A ?24
Ambrose, Josiah Little, M. D... 483
Ames, George W 6?i
Andrews, Martin M 376
ApDold, Cliristiaii 614
Appold, Mary Barbary, Miss... 589
Arnold. John C 655
Arnold, John G 404
Arnold. John M 680
Arnold, j\tichael J 5g8
Atwill, Thomas 426
Avercll, Charles M., Capt 427
Balicoek, Edward C 684
Bailey, Arthur D 464
Baker, Oscar W 485
Barclay, Jonathan Smith, Hon.. 588
Becker, Hiram B,, Capt 64.1
Beecknian, Peter 545
Bentlej, Oscar F 466
Bcrger, John 536
Beyer, Frederick 605
Bigelow, Charles A 457
Birncy. James Gillespie, Hon. ... 413
Birney, James, Hon 408
Blodgett. Horace D 4.16
Koehringer Brothers 386
Boes, Jacoh F. 682
Borton. Bcthnel 546
Boutel, Benjamin, Capt 461
Bradley, Nathan B., Hon 371
Brockway, James E 443
Brown, Russell Warner, M. D. . 624
Bublitz, Augnst 476
Buck. Homer E 708
Callender, William Elisha Crosby 472
Campbell, Sydney S,, Hon 531
Chatfield, Clarence B 666
Chnrchill, Worthy Lovell, Hon.. 578
Clark, Dillon Prosser 584
Clark, Henry 475
Clements, Henry 648
Clifft, William Orrin 425
Carroll, John 393
Cobb, George P., Hon 391
Cole, George S 395
Collins. Chester L., Hon 421
Collins, W. A 407
Conian, Lucien S 596
Conover, Richard Field 397
Corliss, E. E 398
Cressey, E. Wilson 558
Cnthbert, Charles C, Serg.-Maj. 645
Cnthbert, William 568
Davies, Meiirig Lloyd 701
Dnnlar, Erastus Lord 465
Dnnham, Frederick William . , . 5,12
Eades. Herbert Alfred, M. D. .. 533
Egbert. John W 662
Eickemejer. Edward A 431
Emery, John H 656
Endliiie, John 715
linglehardt, Charles F 525
Erwin, Robert W., B. S., M. D.. 401
Evans, Edward E 685
Feinauer, John Andrew 620
Fifleld, Engcne 627
Fisher. Spencer 0., Hon 573
Fitzhngh, William D 373
Foss. Edgar B 698
Fowler, John 524
Fox. George R 424
Fox, Willis D 629
Francis, Griffith H., Hon 403
Francis, Adolph 647
Frank, Ernst 382
Eraser, James 369
Friday, William H 4:2
Gail, Cyrus A 383
Gallagher, Morton, M. D 600
Oansser, Aiigu.st H., Capt 690
Garland, Michael 565
Gates, Otto B-, Dr 640
Gif(>ert, Harvey, M. D 713
Gillespie, Richard 680
Gillette, Hezekiah M 417
Gres. Francis, Rev 418
GrenI, Paulns 710
Griswold, Harry 521
Haffey, Joseph P 544
Hauxhnrst, John Walker, M- D.. 668
Hearit, John 712
Heinzmann, Christopher 467
Herbolshimer, George A. 634
?tewitt, John C 505
Hill, Isaac H 603
Miller. Cyrus 447
Hinmau, William L 436
Hitchcock. Charles W 432
HoiTman, Frank H 542
Hofmann, Andrew F 646
Hosted by
Google
Horn, Charles
Horton, Heman . , , .
Howell, Chatford A.
Hnbbell, George B, .
Ittnt
John P.
Johnson, Elof L
Johnson, Jonas
Johnston, J. Madison
Joslyn, Lee E
Kaiser, Julius
Keating, Patrick, Sr
Kelley, William M
Kelley, William George, M. D. . .
Kelton, John M
Kern, Chester A
Kern, John Chatfield
King, .Robert L
Kohn, Joseph E
Knodle, Valentine
Knaggs. J. W ,
Knecht, Louis
Knight. Birdseye, Hon
Krabbe, Carl
Kraner, August
Kraner, Henry ,
Kuhlow, Charles F (
Laing, John B ;
Landon. Henry B- A. M., M. D. .
Lane, Robert R (
Langlois, Eutrope, Rev ,
Larouche, Peter i
Lefebvre, Edward Augustin,Rev, i
Lemieux, Honore ;
Letourneau, Nelson (
Lewis. Adna G ;
Lewis, L. R., M. D ;
Lijewski. Joseph =
Lind, Peter, Hon =
Linderman, Elizabeth, Mrs (
Link, John A ;
Magilt, William E., M. D =
Marston, Isaac, Hon
Marston, Thomas Frank
Martens, Phillip
Masson, Eustache, Jr.
Maxwell, Andrew Crosby, Hon.
McClatchey, Albert
1 McDonald, Charles P 723
S McEwan, William 388
) McGuinnes, John 720
J McGuire, Margaret L., Miss ... 411
McKinney, John Y., Capt 608
* Meiselbach, Oscar F 508
Merrill, Frank C 491
i Merritt. Walter 402
7 Miller, Frank A 452
J Mohr, Frank H 545
1 Molyneaux, Thomas
1 Monroe, Robert
Moritz, John B 635
[ Mosher, George Learned
I Munger, Averton Edmund 526
! Nabert, Bruno C ; 541
j Nelle^, Nehon 623
] Nerreler, Charles 609
' Newkirk, Charles F., M.A.. M.D. 675
; Nitschka, William
; Niven, Robert 673
i Nuffer, George A
; Nuffer. John M
: Orr, Brakie J
Padley, Richard
Paige, Frederick D
Peoples, William 558
Phelps, Perry 496
Poquette, Joseph 505
Porler, Edward W 543
Potter, James H 613
Powell, Salina, Mrs 564
Raby. Cyrelle 699
Radzinski. Alfred J., M. D 454
Rafter. Thomas, Rev 471
Randall, Floyd Hamilton, B. S..
M. D 503
Reid, William 617
Reilley, Edgar J 585
Richards. Paul ^4
Rivard, Frank 538
Rivkin, Hyman 610
Roecker, William G 511
657 Rosebush, Louis 725
6S4 Ross. William M 476
Rowden, John C 604
Rueger, George, Sr 713
Ruhstofer, Lawrence 456
Ruterbush, Herman 693
Schultz, Julius 406
Schutjes, H. J. H„ Rev 411
Second National Bank, The Old 372
Sermeyer, Frank 678
Sharpe, John H 615
Shearer, Fred E 630
Shepard, Theodore F., Hon 502
Sigelko, Joachim 676
Simpkins, Abram 639
Simpson. William W 711
Sims, Walter, Elder 636
Slociim, Clarence H 453
Smith, Peter C, Capt. . . .' 527
Snyder, John P., M, D 507
Stewart, Allen L 394
Stewart, John A 438
Stevens, Jerome B 536
Stone, David F.,' M. D 443
Taylor, Robbins B 397
Thomas, Henry H 702
Thompson, Dell H 656
Thompson, Henry C 677
Timm, Fred 488
Tobias, Lucious W 653
Tough, George C 704
Tupper, Horace, M. D 367
Tupper, Virgil L., A. M., M. D. 497
Tiirmell, Octave 660
Turner, George, Capt 707
Turner, Henry 636
Tyler, Columbus V-, Hon., M. D. 663
Tyler, Frank Elliott 679
Underwood, Charles C 595
Van Poppelen, Henry 668
Van Rooy, R, G., Rev 577
Tuyl, Fred C 717
Vanbuskirk, Yetta, Mrs 568
Vanderbilt, Louis 405
Vankleeck, James, Hon 696
Vennix, Gerardus 441
Vogtmann, John A 722
Wagner, Philip F 719
Wagner, William 626
, Samuel F. 618
Walker, Clarence E 453
Walsh, John 498
Walsh, William C 719
Walton, Frank Griswold 518
Ward, William J 482
Hosted by
Google
PAGE
Weber, John L 700
Wedlhoff, George E 607
Weiss, Andrew 492
Wentworth, Justin SS4
Wheeler, Chesley 616
Wheeler, Frank Willis, Hon. ... 617
Wilcox, David 495
Willcox, L. G., Major 379
Williams, Mary, A. W,. M, D. . . 445
Williams, Walter W., M. D. .... 445
Wilson, Fitzland L 649
Wilson, John, Jr 508
Wissmueller, Lorenz A., Rev.... 537
Wittwer, Ernst A 386
Woodworth, Frank T. 481
Woolson, John O., Capt 501
World's Star Knitting Company 694
Wratten, Edward M 683
Wright, Hamilton Mercer, Hon.,
B, A., M. A„ LL. B 533
Wyss, John G., Rev 553
Young, David H 689
Young, Frank P 661
Young, Sylvester C 423
Zagelmeyer, Alexan4er, Hon. . . . 477
Zube, Albert 474
Hosted by
Google
Illustrations
Arbeiter Hall and Hose House
No. 6 no
Ames, George W 670
Baptist Church, First zpO
Bay City Fire Dept.— East Side
Headquarters 152
Bay City Fire Dept.— West Side
Headquarters no
Bay City Water Works,— West
Side no
Bay County Court House 92
Bay County Poor Farm 93
Beet Sugar Factory, Views in a 24S
Becker, Capt. Hiram B
Becker, Mrs. Lucy E
Boutell, Capf, Benjamin
Campbell, Hon. Sydney S
Catholic Churches—
St. Boniface
Si. James'
St. Stanislaus'
Center Avenue, Looking East . . .
Children's Home
City Hall and Public Library...
Coal Mines—
Wenona
Wolverine, No. 3
Cobb, Hon. George P
Collins, Hon. Chester L
Cornfield in Bangor Township, A
Crapo Block
Dry Docks —
Capt, James Davidson's
Eickemeyer, Edward A
Erwin, Robert W.. B. S., M. D.
Federal Building
First Building Erected in Bay
City
Fisher, Hon, Spencer O
Gansser, Capt. A. H
Globe Hotel, Old
. Griswold, Harry
Hanson-Ward Veneer Co., Plant
of 178
High Schools-
Bay Qiy, East Side 44
Bay City, West Side ' 320
Hill, Isaac H 602
Holy Rosary Academy 550
Industrial Works and Railroad
Johnston, J. Madison 592
Keating, Patrick, Sr 562
Kraner, Mr. and Mrs, Henry and
Family 582
Landoii, Henry B., A, M„ M, D, 450
Launch at the West Bay City
Ship Building Co,'s Shipyard 134
Lighthouse, New, — Entrance to
Harbor 152
Lower Saginaw in 1837 26
Lower Saginaw in 1854 47
Lumber- Yard of E. B. Foss &
Co 178
Ulasonic Temple 204
Mercy Hospital 290
Merrill, Frank C 490
Methodist Episcopal Churches —
First 36
Madison Avenue 36
Michigan Central Railroad Depot 22
Michigan Chemical Co., Plant of 76
Midland Street, Looking West . . 66
Nabert, Bruno C 540
National Chickory Co,, East Side
Mill and Yard of 76
National Cycle Mfg. Co., Factory
of Ti,
Nelles, Nelson 622
New Republic House 204
Orr, Brakie J 632
Phienix Block 66
Potter, James H 612
Presbyterian Churches-
First 290
Westminster 36
Church,
Trinity 36
Public Schools —
Fremont 44
Kolb ; 330
Park 320
Washington 44
Rafter, Rev. Thomas 470
Range Light, — Entrance to Har-
bor 152
Roeckcr, William G 510
Sage Library 320
Salt Block of Kern Mfg. Co., A 178
Sawmill of Kern Mfg. Co 178
Schutjes, Rev. H. J. H 410
Shipyard of the West Bay City
Ship Building Co 134
Soldiers' Rest Monument 22
Sugar Beets, a Field of 248
Sugar Beets, Polish Women
Weeding 248
Sugar Factory, German-Ameri-
can 248
Sugar Factory, West Bay City., 248
Third Street Bridge 22
Tobias, Lucious W 652
"Tom Dowling," Raft - Towing
Tug 134
Train of Logs 178
Tupper, Horace, M. D 366
Turner, Capt. George 706
Vemiix, Mr. and Mrs. Gerardus 440
Washington Theater Building,., 204
Wenona Beach 152
Willcox. Maj. L- G 378
Woodworth, Frank T 480
VVoolson. Capt, John 500
Wyss, Rev. John G 5Si
Young Chemical Co., W. D.,
Plant of 76
Young, David H 688
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
Bistory of Bay County
CHAPTER I.
A BRIEF SKETCH OF EAULY MICHIGAN
Downward tlirough ilie evening twilight,
In the day? thai are forgotten,
III the unrcniembi:re<] ages.
—Th^ Soitg of Hia~,vaiha.
Just one luiiidred years ago. on January
II, 1805, Congress passed the bill for the or-
ganization of Michigan Territory. Thus was
created, from the then scarcely known and
seemingly boiuulless Northwest Territory, a
distinct commnnity, which in the century to
come was destined to develop an<l prosper, as
one of the brightest stars in the constellation
of our sisterhood of States.
To understand the liistory of Michigan,
one must go beyond the territorial period and
take a fleeting glance into the hazy mists of
past and unknown ages. This period is entirely
witliin the realm of scientific research. Pre-
historic upheavals, the glacial period and the
great floods, have given Michigan her present
geological formation. Iso!ate<l rocks and the
rich alluvian deposits on our soil indicate the
action of floating ice and great floods. The
Great Lakes, which hound Michigan on almost
all sides and give to lier unsurpassed transpor-
tation facilities, are the deep pools which lay
too low to be drained by the great upheavals
which laid bare the land. Thus do the scien-
tists account for the wealth of our mineral
resources, the boundless fertility of plain and
prairie, and the towering forests. Truly Mich-
igan has been blessed with the richest gifts of
Nature.
Prehistoric relics found all over the State
show plainly that these blessings were appre-
ciated and enjoyed by the aboriginal people
who inhabited the Western Hemisphere. In
scattered moim<ls an<! nooks and ca\'es we find
a nmltitude of signs, of crude utensils and fos-
sils, that speak to us in a voiceless language
of a past out of which no other tidings will
ever come.
Ages have passed since then and a new era
has dawned. — the alrariginal period. Dense
virgin forests, trackless swamps, and lake-
bound prairies form the background, and the
only living beings are the savage retl men and
the wild beasts of the jungle. The great
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY 01" BAV COL'XTY
waters are unruffled save by tlie Indians' bark
canoes and the slonns of heaven.
So pass other untold ages. But in tlie
East "the morning' light is breaking, the dark-
ness disappears," and the rays of advancing
civilization penetrate the gloom. Savage
wanderer and prowling beast hear the footstep
of the pioneer, and the known history of this
great New World hegins. The rude civiliza-
tion of the copper-colored children of the for-
est, extending undisputed from ocean to ocean,
is gradually but surely receding Westward be-
fore the oUler civilization of the pale faces.
The hatchet, how and arrow gi\'e way before
the nuisket and flintlock. The wandering
tribes are displaced by the founders of homes,
the builders of cities and States.
From this point the history of Michigan is
identical with that of all the American Colo-
nies. Advancing civilization devoted itself to
certain things, and when the desired results
were accomplished, the genius of the age
changetl and historical facts assumed a <liffer-
ent character. These tides in the affairs of
nations are our historical periods, and in the
course of e^'ents we now find Michigan in the
period of voyage and discovery, — 1634 to
1760, Explorers and adventurers went every-
A\here but settled nowhere. To make new dis-
coveries was the uni^'crsal passion, but only a
few colonies were planted.
The first white man known to have visited
the territoiy now embraced in the State of Mich-
igan was Jean Nicollet, who was in the serv-
ice of Go\-ernor Champlain, of Canada, then
under French control. He skirted the western
coasf of Lake Huron and explored most of the
large rivers entering there, including, without
a doubt, an excursion up the greatest of them
all, the Saginaw River. His first prolonged
stop occurretl at the present site of Sault Ste.
Marie, in the summer of 1634, where he raised
ihe standard of France, and had some friendly
interviews with the Indians, many thousands
of whom made the shores of Lake Huron their
bunting grounds. He \-i5ited Mackinaw, and
retraced his steps to report the results of his
explorations.
He was followed by the Jesuit missiona-
ries, RaymljauU and Jogues, who visited the
Indians at Sault Ste, Marie in 1641, performed
suitable religious ceremonies, and returned to
their Eastern missions. In 1660, Pere Rene
Menard resolved to start a mission in that
neighborhood. He spent the winter with In-
dians near Keweenaw Bay, Accompanied by
a single Indian guide, he slarted for what is
now Portiige Lake Ship Canal, and H-as ne\-er
more heard of. In 1665, Pere Claude Ai-
loiiez started the first mission west of Lake
Huron at La Pointe.
In the 20 years that followed, the Jesuits
continued their explorations with prodigious
acti\'ity. Foremosl among them was Pei'e
Marquette, who thoroughly explored tiie west-
ern shore of Lake Huron, traversing the Sagi-
naw River, thence going north, and in 1668
he established the second mission at Sault Ste.
Marie, which has ever since been inhabited by
iVmericans and Europeans, and is the oldest
permanent settlement in Michigan. The mis-
sion was a square fort of cedar pickets enclos-
ing a chapel and house of logs, with a clearing,
bearing crops of wheat, maize, peas, etc. In
1671, Father Marquette with a band of Huron
Indians founded the mission of St. Ignatius,
now St, Ignace. His grave is situated near
the mission which he founded more than two
centuries ago.
In order to gain a better foothold on the
Great Lakes, and to foster and perpetuate the
spirit of friendship in which the Ottawas and
Hurons received the early explorers and mis-
sionaries, M, Talon, Intendant of New France.
Hosted by
Google
AXD I^KPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
sent messengers to call a great council of the
Indians at the Sault in the spring of 1671.
Fourteen tribes of the Northwest sent repre-
sentatives to meet the French officers, who
fonnally took possession of the country.
Father Allouez was the interpreler, and after
raising the cross an<l the lilies of France, he
pronounced a glowing panegyric on his king,
Louis XIV, pronounced the "chief of chiefs."
Thrice was the chapel at the Sault burned to
the ground in the next nine years, and thrice
did Father Druilletes raise it from its ashes
with indomitable energy.
The missionary was followed by the fur
trader and trapper. In bis frai! birch canoe
he skirted the shores of lake and river, pene-
trating the most secluded spots of the wilder-
ness, satisfying his keen relish for adventure
and carrying on a brisk trade.
On August 7, 1679, LaSalle, the great ex-
plorer and missionary, sailed the "Griffin,"
the first schooner to traverse the Great Lakes,
through the St. Clair River into Lake Huron.
A se\'ere storm carried him into what is now
Saginaw Bay. and thus early were fhe fine
harbor facilities of the Saginaw Rtver discov-
ered and appreciated. The "Griffin" reached
St. Ignace later that season and sailed up Lake
Michigan to Green Bay, where the ship was
lost in a storm.
On July 24, 1701, Antoine de la Motte
Cadillac founded the first European setdement
at Detroit with 50 soldiers and 50 artisans.
The stockade fort was named Fort Pontcbar-
train, and log houses thatched with grass fur-
nished ample protection to the settlers. Ca-
dillac was recalled in 1710, and the colony
grew but slowly in the next 50 years.
As a result of the disastrous French and
Indian War, the district now embraced in
Michigan was abandoned to the English, and
in October, 1760, Maj. Robert Rogers took
possession of Detroit with a military force of
200 provincial rangers. With the raising of
the English flag over this the mf>st inijKirtant
post in the Xortluvest, the colonial period be-
gins for Michigan. Mackinaw, Sault Ste,
Marie and St. Joseph, the only other French
posts in this territory, were occupied hy the
English ill the fall of 1761. These places were
the meagre results of a hundred years of
French colonization.
The English were hardly in complete pos-
session of this new country before their neglect
and ill-treatment aroused the dormant passions
of the Indians. The French missionaries had
a strong hold on the red men, and in the war
just ended they had fought the English with
all the ferocity of their savage natures. In
1761 the Senecas and Wyandots conspired to
surprise and massacre the garrison of Delroit,
with its 2,500 inhabitants. The plot was
barely thwarted by Captain Campbell, the com-
mandant.
Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas. occu|)ying
that part of Michigan lying between Lake St.
Clair and Lake Michigan, a Iwrn leader, effect-
ive in speech, crafty and daring in war, a
thoughtful and far-seeing general, probably
the greatest man his race has ever produced,
conceived the idea of uniting all the Indian
triljes between the Alleghanies and the Missis-
sippi in an overwhelming and simultaneous
attack against all the English frontier settle-
ments, ant! most of the triljes in that \-ast coun-
try agreed to the massacre.
On April 27, 1763, the Indians held a great
council of war on the Ecorces River near De-
troit, where arrangements were made for at-
tacking the posts early in May. On May 7th,
Pontiac, accompanied by 60 apparently un-
armed warriors, entered the fort at Detroit for
a powwow with Major Glathvyn. This was
at once one of the most dramatic and romantic
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
incidents in the early history of Michigan. The
love of an Ojibwa Indian maiden for a pale
face soldier foiled Pontiac's plot, and stopped
a massacre, which if consummated would have
retarded for years the advance of civilization.
The Indian maiden warned Major Gladwyn of
impending danger. Pontiac found the soldiers
all under arms and ready for action wdieii he
entered, and the prearranged signal for the
beginning of the slaughter was never given.
On May 9th the savages proceeded to besiege
the fort, and several white settlers outside of
the stockade were ruthlessly murdered. On
May 30th the Indians waylaid 23 batteaux,
laden with stores and ammunition for the gar-
rison, at Point Pelee. At daybreak the crewH
were massacred ; one officer and 30 men es-
caped in a boat to Sandusky. In July, Captain
Dalzell succeeded in bringing needed supplies
to the besieged fort. On July 31st, Captain
Dalzell tried a foolhardy sortie; Pontiac am-
bushed the party of 250 on Parent's Creek,
now known as Bloody Run, killing the leader
and 70 Englishmen and wounding 40 before
they could regain the stockade. Famine com-
pelled the Indians to go hunting in October,
and during their absence the stores in the fort
were renewed. General Bradstreet relieved the
fort the following spring. Fort St. Joseph was
captured by Pottawatomies May 25, 1763 ;
Ensign Schlosser and three men alone escaped
the massacre. On June 2, 1763, some Indians
were playing ball near the gates of Fort Mack-
inaw, and the officers and soldiers, unsuspic-
ious of danger, were looking on. The ball was
thrown into the fort and the dusky warriors
rushed after it through the gates; squaws
handed to the warriors tomahawks they Iiad
concealed under their blankets, and another
bloody massacre was enacted. Lieutenant
Jamet and 69 men were killed and 27 were
taken prisoners, to be tortured, but Pontiac
eventually secured tlieir release.
Pontiac captured eight out of 12 posts lie
attacked, hundreds of pale faces were killed,
but his endeavor to drive the English from the
interior of the continent failed. In August,
1764, Pontiac ga\-e up the struggle. The war-
whoops ceased to terrorize the valleys of iVIich-
igan, the outposts of civilization were rebuilt
and the pioneers again look their axes and
plows into the wilderness to create new habi-
tations.
The War of the Revohition caused but lit-
tle stir in this maze of wood and swamp, far
removed from the scene of actual conflict, and
by the Treaty of Paris, in 1783, England sur-
rendered all this vast territory to the United
States, who took possession in July, 1796,
which marks the beginning of our territorial
period.
The charter of this great new Northwest
Territory was passed by Congress in 1787, and
was framed with nuich wisdom, being the
model of all future territorial governments
in America. It pro\'ided for freedom of wor-
ship, a bill of rights, inviolability of contracts,
encouraged schools and general education,
proclaimed all waters free to commerce, and
the sixth and last article declared that neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude should ever
be allowed in the new Territory. Thus at the
very dawn of our political existence this vast
region was pledged to education, freedom and
equal rights for all. Gen. Arthur St. Clair, far-
famed as an Indian fighter, was the first terri-
lorial Governor.
In 180a the Lower Peninsula became part
of the Territory of Indiana. In 1804. Con-
gress passed an act providing for the disposal
of public lands within the Territory, to which
the Indian title had been extinguished, for the
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
SOLDIERS' REST MONUMENT, PINE RIDGE CEMETEKV
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS,
use of public schools. By this act was laid the
germ for the University Fuml of Michigan
and of the Primary Scliool Fund.
On January ii, 1805, Congress passed the
act creating the Territory of Michignn. "It
was to comprise all that portion of In<liana
Territory lying north of a line drawn east
from the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan,
until it intersected I^ke Erie, and lying east of
a line <lrawn from the same southern extreme
of L;ike Michigan to its northern extremity,
and thence due north to the northern boundary
of the United States."
In June, 1805, Detroit was destroye{l by
fire, and when General Hull, the first territorial
Governor, arrived, he found the people camped
in the open fiekis with scanty food and cloth-
ing. L'ndaiinted by misfortune, these pioneers
erected a new city on the old site, and Detroit
became the territorial capital. Instigated by
Tecunisch, another noted Indian chief, the red-
skins again took ihe war-path in 181 1. but the
l)att1e of Tippecanoe on November 7th of that
year f|uietcd this region.
Then came the second war with England.
On July 17. 1812, the English captured Fort
Mackinac, garrisoned by only 67 men. On
August 16, 1812, General Hull surrendered
Detroit to the English without a fight, and only
his good record in the Revolutionary War
saved him from being shot for cowardice and
criminal neglect of duty. General Winchester,
advancing to the recapture of Detroit, was sur-
prised by the English and Indians under Gen-
eral Proctor at River Raisin. January 22, 1813,
and comjielled to surrender. The following
night ihe Indians butchered all the wounded
Americans and the helpless inhabitaiUs of
Frenchtown. Commodore Perry's victory
over the English fieet at Put-in-Bay, Septem-
ber ID. 1813, opened the way for the recapture
of Michigan. General Harrison's campaign
in Canada caused Proctor to leave Detroit, to
fight the disastrous battle of the Thames.
\\'here Tecumseh was killed, and for the last
time a foreign foe was dri\'eii from the terri-
tory. On September 29, 1813. Col. Lewis
Cass took possession of Detroit, and on Octo-
ber 9tli of that year he was made Go\-ernor of
Michigan Territory.
The population of Michigan was small, less
than 7,000, and confined to a few settlements
on the eastern border. The great interior was
an unknown wildei'ness, inhabited only by
wandering Indians. The first steamlx>at on
the Great Lakes, the "Walk-in-the-Water,"
reached Detroit in the summer of 1818, and
afler that Westward-bound pioneers came to
Michigan in large numbers, (lovernor Cass
made treaties with the Indians, secured the
cession of their lands and proved to the outside
world that the interior was something better
than an unhealthy, impenetrable swamp, as it
had previously been regarded. The lands were
surveyed and oi>ened to settlers. The building
of public roads, and the opening of the Erie
Canal in 1825, stimulated trade and commerce
in the Territory, and by 1835 Michigan bad
more than 60.000 population, and clamored to
be admitted into the Union as a State. A boun-
dary dispute with Ohio, involving land on
which the city of Toledo is situated, delayed
the admission to statehood, and caused the ex-
citing but bloodless "Toledo War," Governor
Mason called out the Michigan militia and
marched to Toledo, determined to pre\'ent
Ohio frotn organising Lucas County. Con-
gress hastened to pacify both parties, by giving
Michigan the extensive territory comprising
the Upper Peninsula while Ohio retained the
disputed strip. Time has revealed the rich min-
eral contents of that Upper Peninsula and
Michigan has never regretted the settlement.
The first State convention was held in Dc-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
troit during May, 1835, and in October, Ste-
vens T. Mason was elected Governor, Edward
Mundy, Lieutenant-Governor, and Isaac E.
Crary, first Representative to Congress. T!ie
Legislature in November, 1835, elected John
Norvell and Lucius Lyon, United States Sena-
tors from Michigan. Finally, by act approved
January 26, 1837, Michigan was admitted as
the 26th State of the Union.
Internal improvements were the crying
needs of the hour, and one of the first acts of
the Stale Legislature provided for a loan of
$5,000,000 to construct and operate the Mich-
igan Central and Southern railways. This
work was begun in 1835, but by 1846 the State
authorities were ready to dispose of the rail-
roads to private corporations and the two par-
tially completed roads were sold for $2,500,-
ctoo, which was much less than the State had
expended.
Equally unsatisfactory was Michigan's ex-
perience with "wild-cat" banking. Fifteen
banks were doing business in Michigan, when
admitted to statehood. Among the theories
of the times was the notion that banking, like
farming or storekeeping, should be free to all.
In 1837 a law was passed allowing any 10 free-
holders to organize a bank with capital not
less than $50,000 nor more than $300,000. The
provisions for the security of the public were
loosely framed and utterly worthless. Banks
were started by mere adventurers. When the
bank commissioners were making their rounds
of inspection, the 30 per cent, of specie de-
manded by the law was carried from bank to
bank during the night, so Ihat on each day the
commissioners counted the same coin, but for
different people. Banks were located any-
where and ei-erywhere. One was located in
an old sawmill, and it was humorously asserted
that a "hollow stump" to serve as a "vault"
was all that was needed to start a bank. By
1839 most of the "wild-cat" banks were put
out of business, but more than a million dol-
lars worth of worthless bills had been put in
circulation. In 1844 the general banking law
was revised, and the State's finances placed on
a safer basis.
In 1837, Governor Mason appointed Rev.
John D. Pierce, a Congregational clergyman,
engaged in missionary work among the pio-
neers of Central Michigan, as the first Super-
intendent of Public Instruction, not only of
this State, but of the entire country. "Father"
Pierce, as he was affectionately called, was the
founder of the Michigan school system, and
his plan, passed by act of the Legislature in
1837, contained most of the essential features
of our present school system, a living monu-
ment to the wisdom and foresight of the foun-
der of the Michigan schools. He placed tlie
primary school money within the re^ch of
every child in the State, and pro\-ided for the
establishment of a State University, for the
higher culture of advanced students.
In 1847 a colony of Mormons, led by
James J, Strang, located on Beaver Island.
Hy \igorous proselyting the colony of five
families was increased to 2,000 persons by
1856. In that year internal dissensions arose,
and Strang was assassinated. Soon after, the
colony was dispersed by an armed bnnd of
fishermen from neighboring shores, and the
IVIormons were given only 24 hours to leave
the State.
From 1 701 the capital of the Territory
and later of the State had been at Detroit. In
1847 the capitalsite was selected by the Legis-
lature at Lansing, then covered by a dense for-
est, and 40 miles from any railroad. The selec-
tion was generally condemned and ridiculed
at the time, but experience has proven the selec-
tion a happy one from every standpoint. A
constitutional convention at Lansing in 1850
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
<!rew lip a new constitution, providing for the
election of all heads of departments direct by
the people, and this was ratified l)y the voters.
Wlien Michigan was admitted to the Un-
ion, the Democratic party was in power, and
the Governor was a member of that party.
Dissatisfaction with the existing financial mis-
management brought the Whigs into power
tinder Governor William Woodbridge, 1839-
1840. From 1S4I to 1S54, the Democrats
were again in power. In 1854 the Republican
party, on the anti-slavery issue, was organised
"under the oaks" at Jackson, and elected its
candidates, and with the exception of two
terms — 1883-85 and 1891-93 — when the Dem-
ocrafs prevailed on free trade issues, the Re-
publican party has continued in control of the
political destinies of the State. Roosevelt cnr-
ried the State by over 250,000 plurality in
1904. carrying every Republican with him.
Michigan, under War Governor Austin
Blair, during the four years of the Civil War.
furnished 93.700 men, of whom 14.855 died
in the service of the nation. Few States were
more prompt in furnishing financial and moral
support to the United States government in
its hour of direst need. When the lale la-
mented President McKinley issued his call for
125,000 volunteers to serve in the war with
Spain in 1898, Michigan furnished five regi-
ments of infantry, the 31st, 32nd. 33rd, 34th
^"•^l 35t'i> consisting of 5.376 enlisted men,
and 235 officers. The 33rd and 34th regi-
ments, Michigan Volunteer Infantry, served
with General Shafler's army before Santiago,
and the Michigan Naval Reserves, detailed
on the auxiliary cruiser "Yosemite," saw serv-
ice at Guantanamo and San Juan ile Puerto
Rico.
However, Michigan's greatest renown is in
the arts and pursuits of peace. In 1837 the
interior was sparsely settled, and the forests
and prairies showed few signs of human in-
dustry. Wagon roads were scarce and [xior
corduroy, and there was no completed rail-
road. Postal arrangements were inconvenient,
and correspondence was an expensive luxury.
Cities there was none. Schools, churches and
newspapers were few in number and crudely
equipped. The privations of pioneer life were
many and severe. The passing years have
changed the wilderness into more than a hun-
dred thousand farms, in a high state of culti-
vation. Eight thousand miles of g^od rail-
roads afford good market and traveling facili-
ties. The Federal census of 1900 and Stale
census of 1904 show a population of nearly
2,500,000 people, having 12,000 schools,
10,000 churches, hundreds of modem news-
papers, city and rural telephone and mail lines,
and miles of new electric transit lines. Hun-
dreds of fast and commodious passeiigcr and
freight boats ply the Great Lakes and tlie
rivers of Michigan.
Well-kept highways and an excellent coun-
ty and State drain system have helped lo de-
velop and enrich the agricultural possibilities
of the "Peninsular" State.
Lying in the very heart of thi^ grc;U State,
the annals of Bay County are inseparaltly
linked with the forlunes of Michigan. To
understand the recital of local events, one must
know and comprehend the varying historical
periods of the State at large. Certain it is,
that even as the vast country comprised within
the confines of Michigan has provided many
interesting and instructive records for the pages
of our national history, and just as the achieve-
ments of Michigan's favorite sons have quick-
ened our national life, and by deeds of valor
and self-sacrifice, by industry, enterprise and
culture, left their imprint on the "sands of
time," even so has Bay County contributed its
uiight to the greatness and prosperity of our
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
beloved commonwealth. Hence it is fitting
and right that a review of the main events in
the creation and government of the great
"Peninsular"' State, should precede the more
detailed sketch of the "Garden Spot of Michi-
gan," — Bay County,
A song to tlice, fair State of mine,
Micliigan, my WichiBaii.
But greater song than tlnis is ihinc,
Hichigan, my ificliigan.
The thunder of the inland sea,
The whisper of the towering tree
Unite in one grand symphony —
Michigan, my Michigan.
I sing a State of all the hest—
Michigan, my Michigan.
1 sing a State with riches blest —
Michigaii, my Michigan.
tl y b 1(1 bore —
M 1 g
f tl y I 1
M 1 g
n k
M 1 g
r I III tl n k St
M U M 1 8
G t tl tl g tl k great,
M 1 ffi > M 1 g
Eager the loice that sounds thy claim
Upon the golden roll of Fame;
Willing tliL Innd that writes the name—
Michigan, niv Micliigan.
LOWER SAGINAW {ni
Hosted by
Google
CHAPTER II.
THE ABORIGINAL PER.IOD
^'IKG1N Forests, Trackless Swamps and Lake-Bouxb Prairies — "0-Sauk-e-xox,"
THE "Land of the Sauks"— Indian Tribes and CiiieI'Tains — Manners, Cus-
toms AND Modes of Life of the Aborigines — The Overthrow of the Sal-ks iiy
THE Confederated Tribes — The Indians as Found by the Pioneers — The In-
dian i Tj D ^
LI
I I
1
1
f tl
d bl
ft d
I t G b I
II f 1 I
g f I d h d f bl
II d t t d tl M I gi f n
1 Ig 1} tl I k f tl S g K
g 8 d tl t gl t II I k £ tl H
f HE g 1 t f m th O k M
y bj 1 g 1 p 1 I
I t 1 gl 11 111 f 1 -\1 I 1, f t
I
~\1 [
f
f II
Shade of Evangeline! A spot far-famed,
ulience comes mysterious legends of the red
children of the forest! Scenes of which ihc
IKiets have sung and the artists reveled! His-
toric shores of lake and ri\'er, where emanate
romantic traditions and soid-stirring reminis-
cences! But yesterday the veiled wilderness,
beckoning to the explorer! To-day an equally
attractive field for Ihe scientist and the statis-
tician ! Woode{l shores, ribboned by placid
streams that bring melodious greetings from
distant inland vales, stand guard over Lake
Huron's most favored harbor! With the vis-
ion of a seer, the poet portrays the scene, and
bemoans the tragedies of ages agone:
> green.
This is the forest prime
and the bciii locks,
Bearded witli moi!S, and in
ill the twdigbt,
Stand like Druids of eld, willi voices sad and prophetic.
Stand like harpers lioar, with beards that rest on their
bosoms.
Loud from its misiy caverns, the deep-voiced neighlior-
lake
isping
This is the forest primeval; but where .ire the
hearts that beneath it
Leaped like the roe. when he hears in the woodland the
voice of the hnntsman?
Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
Darkened by shadows o£ earth, but reflecting an image
of heaven ?
—Adapted from Longfellow's E-'iiitgctiiii:
Truly this great country of ours has few
locahties more blessed by Nature, and few in-
deed can offer as much in folk-lore and tradi-
tion, than the far-famed valley of the Sagi-
naw. Its very name is pregnant with historic
lore of an heroic people. The primitive In-
dians called it "O-Sauk-e-non," meaning the
"Land of the Sauks." Centuries ago. their
exact number none can tell with precision, the
Sauks, a warlike and powerful tribe of In-
dians, held undisputed sway over all the vast
and varied region comprised in what is now
Eastern Michigan.
If we are to accept the scientist's theory
of the prehistoric glacial and rainy periods,
and the subsequent upheavals, that gave to our
globe its present formation, we may readily
believe that one of the very last spots in this
vast region to rise above the level of the all-
pervading waters was this same valley of the
Sauks or Saginaw.
The earliest explorers still found much of
the valley a seemingly endless swamp, a tangle
of primitive forest on its margin, alive with
wild beasts of forest and prairie, with gamy
myriads of the deep, and the winged hosts of
this vast lake region. It must ha\-e been infi-
nitely more impenetrable at the time the Sauk
nation made this valley their favorite hunting
ground, and seat of their great tribe councils.
This valley is to-day a paradise of fish and
game, and it wil! require no great stretch of
imagination to picture to oneself the idea! liv-
ing conditions presented here to the simple-
hearted children of the wilderness. Wood for
the camp-fire, water clear as crystal for the
family cooking in their primitive earthern and
stone vessels, fish and game for the mere sport
of the hunter, and, last but not least, a safe re-
treat in times of trouble and defeat. For who
hut the native child of these vast forests would
be able to thread its trackless wastes and
treacherous river boltoms with safety and with
dispatch? ,\.nd the warlike Sauks no doubt
knew the defensive value of river fords and
sand ridge, of wood and plain. The Romans
of the Old World sallied forth from their
strong city to conquer the world, confident of
a safe retreat in times of disaster and tempo-
rary defeat, and of quite a similar character
are the annals of these earliest known inhabi-
tants of this gem of the Great Lakes. Certain
it is that the Sauks hekl a foremost place
among the Indians of their day. Indian tra-
ditions are replele with the recital of tlieir war-
like deeds, even centuries after the tribe was
wiped from the face of the earth by a combi-
nation of weaker tribes inhabiting other i)or-
tions of the lake regions, who disliked the
domination of the Sauks, and probably cov-
eted their rich hunting grounds. Hardly half
a century has passed, since this beautiful val-
ley was indeed a happy liunting groun<]. Buf-
falo, elk, moose and (ieer roamed at will
through the prairie-bound forests. Black and
brown bears, wolves, panthers, wild cats and
other wild beasts infested the wilderne,-s. fero-
cious foes of almost equally ferocious aborig-
ines. Even to this day most of these animals
are to be found in the thinly settled portions
of this section of Michigan. What wonder
then, that the Sauks waxed strong, and that
with all llie fiery instincts of their savage souls
they enjoyed a fight, and spoiled for hist of
blood and conquest !
The earliest annals of Bay County tell of
the Indian traditions of the Sauks, as they
were handed <Iown from generation to genera-
tion, an inspiration for young warriors, and a
song of victory for the sages of the tribes, who
on the very site of Greater Bay City extermi-
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
nated, in a desperate two-days battle, the last
reninanls of tlie once poiverful tribe of Sauks.
Jean Nicollet, believed to be the first white
man to bave visited the harbor of what is now
Bay City, in his explorations of the western
and northern shores of Lake Huron in 1634
speaks of the land of the Sauks in his official
rqxirt to Governor Cbaniplaiii of New France.
He was hospitably received by the Indians,
after interpreters he had with him had over-
come their fears, for he was the first white
man most of them had seen. The next au-
thentic report of the land of the Sauks is found
in the annals of Pere Marquetie and Fere
Dablon, who about 1668 were exploring the
western shore of Lake Huron, and the latter
tells of a council with the natives on a great
river, undoubtedly the Saginaw, which for a
time was thought to be connected with the
Mississippi River. This river flowed through
the center of the land of the Sauks, which is
described as exteiicUiig from the western shore
of Lake Huron to the eastern shore of Lake
Michigan, and from Mackinaw in the north
to the land of Ihe Shiawassees in the south.
The Indians then inhabiting this vast region
were easily won over l)y the earnest and de-
voted missionaries.
Tlicn the r,l;ick-Rol>f chief, tlie Propliel,
Ti'ld his iiii:-;s:isc to llie people,
Tokl (lie pmiiort of liis mission.
T/ic Song of Hkni-aihti.
One must ha\e read that immortal c])ic
poem of Longfeilow, to appreciate the beauti-
ful story of the earliest meetings of the pale
faces and red men on the shores of the Great
Lakes, to picture in one's mind the weird scene
of an Indian camp-fire in the wilderness, the
wigwams of the chiefs, the shore lined with
birch canoes, so necessary for the inhabitants
of these regions, tlie solemn warriors smoking-
tlie pipe of peace wiih the strangers they called
"brothers,"' the eloquent address of Father
Marquette, with a world-redeeming message,
alas, so little understood by these chiklren of
the forest, whose one all-absorbing command-
ment for ages had been the old Hebraic dic-
tum: "An eve for an eye; and a tooth
FOR A TOOTH." What a pity that the spirit
of Pere Marquette did not always pervade ihe
intercourse of the two nices in tlicse fair re-
gions !
As no permanent mission was established
south of Mackinaw, we can know but httle
that h authenlic of these first meetings liere,
of Indians and explorers or missionaries. Un-
doubtedly the cross and lilies of France were
duly raised over this rich valley, as they were
all along the shores of Lake Huron. It was
rare indeed in the rush of events of the clo.'^iiig
years of the rgth century that a tribute was
paid (o the memory of the devoted men who
opened to civilization wide reaches of fertile
but unknown regions. Such a worthy tribute
has been paid to the peer of all these explorers
of the trackless Northwest, in naming one of
the great highways of commerce, that trav-
erse the vast region he was the first to really
explore, the Pere Marquette Railroad, in
honor of Father Marquette.
.VImost two centuries had elapsed since the
discovery of this country ere the first white
explorers penetrated to this secluded spot, and
even then they were satisfied with tracing the
general courses of rivers and the trend of the
coasts of the Great Lakes. This done, there
comes another long period, dui^ing which the
copper-colored children of the woods ruled
supreme over their l>eio\-ed hunting grounds-
Ant! it is the recital of their primitive exist-
ence, their feuds and wars, their hunts and ex-
peditions, their religion and traditions, that
lend to the annals of Bay Connly their ronian-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUX'TY
tic interest. Residents of tliis county and
State annually travel thousands of miles to
visit some romantic spot of the Old World and
an earlier civilization. Few realize the wealth
of legendary and historic narratives, that find
their scenes on ihe shores of Saginaw hay and
river.
This chapter on the Indians who once in-
hahited these hunting groumls would not be
complete without a passing reference to the
race in general. Colnmhus thought he had
discovered the Indies of Asia when he sailed
to the West Indies in 1492, hence the inhahi-
tanls of the New World were called "In-
dians." Diligent research on the history antl
migrations of the primitive races of the work!
has failed to reveal the origin of this copper-
colored race. To the red man of this Western
Continent the chase was everything, and the
illimitable hunting grounds, forest and prai-
rie and stream, were the Indian's earthly par-
adise and the type of his heavenly home here-
after,
T!ie American aborigines belonged to sev-
eral distinct families or nations, and the tribe
of Plurons which inhabited Michigan at the
time of Father Marquette's exploration be-
longed to the Algonquin nation, which at that
time was estimated to numljer 250.000 souls.
They were nomadic in their habits, roaming
from one hunting ground to anottier. accord-
ing to the exigencies of fishing and the chase.
Agriculture was but little esteemed. Tiie Ai-
gonqiiins were divided into many sulxirdinate
tribes, each having its local name, dialect and
traditions.
Of ail the Indian nations, the Algoncjuins
suffered most from contact with the white
men. Wasting diseases destroye<l whole
tribes, and are to-day taking ofif the pitiable
remnants of a once proud and powerful race.
Before the aggressive spirit of the pale faces.
before his fiery rum and bis destructive weap-
ons, the race has withered to a shadow, and
only a few thousand remain to rehearse the
story of their ancestors.
Personal independence, a willfulness of ac-
tion and freedom from all restraint, were their
most striking characteristics, as their local tra-
ditions clearly prove. The authority of the
chief extended no further than to lie foremost
in liattle and most cunning in savage strategy.
Xo man gave him his authority, and no man
took it away. In the solemn debates of the coun-
cil, where the red orators pronounced wild har-
angues to groups of motionless listeners, only
qneslions of expediency were decided. The
painted sachems never thought of imposing
on the unwilling minority the decision which
had been reached in council.
War was the all-absorbing passion of the
red men. Revenge was considered the noblest
of virtues, and hence all their interminable
wars were undertaken to redress some griev-
ance, real or imaginary, and never for con-
quest. The fight in Ihe open, hke the combats
of the legions of the Old World, was un-
known in In<!ian warfare. Their military
strategy consisted of cunning and treachery,
and their fighting was limited to surprise, am-
buscade, and massacre. The vanquished sel-
dom asked for mercy and never received it.
Barbarous captivity, ransom, or burning at the
stake were the lot of prisoners captured in
war, and the diabolical ferocity of the savage
warrior's nature invented ever new tortiu^es.
Confederations formed at times among the
tribes, when some emergencies demanded
them, seldom outlived the great sachems who
bad formed them. In times of peace the red
man was unsocial, solitary, a gloomy spirit
of the woods. The wide forest was to him
better than his wigwam, and his wigwam bet-
ter than the village. The Indian woman was
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESEXTATIVE CITIZEXS.
a degraded creature, a drudge, tlie beast of
burden for tiie lodge, and tlie social principle
was correspondingly low. In matters of re-
ligion, t!ie Indians were a superstitious race,
but seldom idolaters. Tbey believed in a
Great Spirit, everywliere present, ruling the
elements, showing fa\*or to tlie brave and obe-
dient and punishing the sinful. They called
Him the Great MauJtou. They worshiped,
but never built any temples. They also believeii
in many subordinate spirits, some evil and
some good, and their medicine men after fast-
ing and prayer made revelations of this spirit
world. The religious ceremonies of the Hn-
rons were performed with great earnestness
and solemn formaHty, ami one of their favor-
ite meeting grounds for centuries was on the
western bank of the Saginaw River, about
three miles from its mouth.
In the matter of arts the Indians were bar-
barians. Their houses were wigwams or
hovels. Some poles set up in a circle, con-
verging at the top. covered with skins and the
branches of trees, lined and sometimes floored
with mats made by the women, a fire in the
center, a low opening opposite a point from
which the wind blew — such was the aborig-
inal abode of our Indians, even as late as
1S65. when one of the last great tribal coun-
cils was held on the outskirts of what was
then the village of Wenona.
Indian utensils were few, rude and primi-
tive. I'oorfy fashioned earlhern pots, bags
and pouches for carrying provisions, stone
hammers for pounding parched corn, were the
stock 3n<! store. A copper kettle was a price-
less treasure. The warrior's chief implement
was his hatchet of copper or stone, which he al-
ways carried. This hatchet was rarely free
from the stain of blood. His bow and stone-
capped arrow proved ample weapons for of-
fense and defense. Old settlers still relate how
some famous chiefs in this very valley shot an
arrow capped with iron clear through a full
grown deer, at a distance of 200 yards.
The Indian's clothing was a blanket thrown
loosely over bis shoulders, and fastened about
the middle with leather thongs. The material
for his moccasins and leggings was stripped
from the red buck, elk or buffalo. Fangs of
rattlesnakes, claws of hawks, feathers of eagles,
bones of animals., and even the scalps of ene-
mies he killed, were hung about his jwrson. He
painted his face and body, especially when pre-
paring for the war-dance, with all manner of
fantastic and glaring colors.
Indian writing consisted only of quaint
hieroglyphics rudely .scratched on the face of
rocks or cut in the bark of trees. Pontiac, a
great chief of this region, and thought by many
to have been the greatest man his race ever pro-
duced, A\as the only leader who ever had a com-
missary department among the trilies, with a
system of making requisitions, by rudely draw-
ing the article wanted upon a piece of hide, with
his totem, the beaver, affixed. This rajuisi-
tion usually brought the desired article. Cut
the artistic sense of the savage could rise no
higher than a coarse necessity compelled the
flight.
The dialects of the North American races
have a resemblance among themselves, but
have no analogy with the languages of otiier
nations, unless it be with the monosyllables of
the nomadic triljes of Centra! Asia. The In-
dian tongue had but few words, and abstract
ideas rarely found expression. T!ie Hurons of
this vicinity had no word for "hunting," but
one word signified "to-kill-a-deer-with-an-
arrow !" There was no word for brother, but
one word si^gnified "elder brother" or "younger
ijrother."
The Hurons were light and tall in build,
agile, lean and swift of foot. Eye^. jet black
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUXTY
and sviiiken; hair, black and straight; heard,
black and scant; skin of a copper-colored, red-
dish-black or cinnamon hue ; high cheek bones ;
forehead and skull variable In shape and pro-
portions ; hands and feet small ; body lithe but
not strong; expression of the features more
often sinister, ihan dignified or noble. Such
was the Indian as the early settlers found him
in these parts.
The Indian dance was a passion with them,
but it was not the social dance of civilized na-
tions, but rather the dance of ceremony, the
dance of religion and of war. Sometimes the
warriors danced alone, but fre(|uently the
women were accorded their one privilege, when
they loo would join the mystic circle, swinging
round and round, chanting the weird, monoto-
nous songs of their tribe.
The amusements of these children of the
forest consisted of feats of daring, excellence
in feats of strength, such as wrestling, shooting
at a mark, running, jumping, racing in their
swift canoes, playing at ball, and some gam-
bling games with stones resembling dice, on
which tlie passionate warrior would often haz-
ard his entire possessions,
The pipe was the warrior's inseparable com-
panion. The pioneers in these parts often saw
them sitting and smoking for hours, apparently
lost in a dream under the fascinating influence
<if their pipes. No race on earth has ever been
so deljased by strong {Irink.
The fire-water of the pale faces has done
more to exterminate the Indians than all other
agencies! The amount of spirits and liquor
Poor Lo would absorb has only been limited
by the amount he could secure. Such is a
rough sketch of the aboriginal red man, who
WAS rather than is!
That this was once one of the most thickly
populated hunting grounds of the aborigines,
is still attested, not merely by the traditions of
Bay County's pioneers, but also by the settle-
ments of remnants of once powerful trilws at
Indiantown, near Kawkawlin, at Saganing,
near Pinconning, and at Ouanicassee, just
across our county's eastern border. Such is
the logic of events that right or wrong, the
weaker race has withered before the onward
march of the Saxons. By the beloved rivers
and in the solitude of the great forests the rest-
less sons of the West will soon be seen no
more! One by one they bid farewell to the
hunting grounds of their ancestors. Let our
people do what in their power Hes to brighten
the days still remaining of earth to the survi-
vors of the primitive race that once called this
vast continent their very own. To-day little
more than their names remain on lake and hill
and stream, and even these in the rush of events
we pass unnoticed by I
And yet what a wealtii of anectlote and ro-
mance gather about the earliest iniiabitants of
this valley. A few of these personal reminis-
cences will be better undei'stood and appreci-
ated, since we have reviewed Indian character,
life and habits.
What is known to-day of the great tribe
of the Sauks, who have given the title to Sagi-
naw bay, river and valley, is derived entirely
from the traditions handed down among the
Indians of this part of the State from genera-
tion to generation. About 1835 there lived in
an Indian shack on the bay shore, on the site
of what is now Tobico, an old Chippewa chief,
named Put-ta-gua-sa-mine, over whose battle-
scarred head had passed more than 100 years —
a wrinkled but active human oak in the prime-
val wilderness. He was as active as the aver-
age man is at 50, and bis faculties were un-
dimmed. Since early youth he bad been the
historian of his tribe. Some 80 years before,
bis grandfather had told him the traditional
story of his tribe, and the extermination of
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
(heir bitterest foes, the Sauks, formed the most
stirring chapter of his nation's legends. He had
repeated it a thousand times around their camp-
fires, tepees and coimcils, lest the braves of the
nation should forget the glorious deeds of their
ancestors, an{l their traditions and history be
lost forever. He had appointed Nau-qua-chic-
a-ine as his successor, and verified his historic
tales by the other old Indians of his tribe living
in that vicinity. The late Judge Albert Miller,
William R. McConnJck, James Fraser, John
Riley, Joseph Trombley, his brother Medor
Trombley, two imcles of theirs, — Cassette
Trombley and Leon Tronibley.-— James M.
McCormick, Benjamin Cushway, and others of
the early pioneers, often heard the Indian's re-
cital, and no record of this vicinity woidd be
complete without this, the most ghastly inci-
dent of the aborigines' traditions. The ohl
warrior could repeat the tale a hundred times
and not vary a hairbreadth in his recital.
The Sauks' main village lay on the ridge
eNtemiing along the west bank of the river for
about five miles from the bay. While the In-
dians roamed at will over all the Southern Pen-
insula of Michigan, still their favorite hunting
ground was in this valley. Here it was they
assemliled for their trilje councils, their sun-
dances, their feasts and their games. Tliis vil-
lage was never quite deserted. The ')!d and in-
firm, the sick and wounded invariably came
and lived here, for it offered every facility for
their simple lives. Sometimes defeated in bat-
tle against distant tribes, the Sauks invariably
rallied to the defense of this valley, and no foe
ever passed its outer defenses and lived. From
this stronghold they sallied forth to fight their
Chippewa neighlKirs on the north, the Potta-
watomies of Southern Michigan, and they even
carried war against the Ottawas in Canada,
until those troubled tribes could ]iear their ag-
gressions no longer.
Some three centuries ago these three tribes
called in the Menominees and Dakotahs of the
West,and parts of the Six Nations of New York
somewhere near where Port Huron is now lo-
cated, and it was decided to destroy the Sauks
and make their lands a general hunting ground
for all these tribes.
Early the following spring the warriors of
these several tribes assembled at Mackinaw,
while another force was gathered on the east-
ern shore of Lake St. Clair. When all was in
readiness, the Mackinaw confederates started
down Lake Huron in bark canoes, the most im-
posing flotilla undoubtedly that sailed these
lakes until Commodore Perry met and van-
quished the English fleet at Put-in-Bay nearly
three centuries later^ for it was rare indeeil
that these feudal tribes e\-er acted together.
Apparently the Sauks knew nothing of the
conspiracy, and with the breaking of a hanl
winter they had scattered to their several
haunts, the largest number apparently remain-
ing in this valley. Their enemies, true to their
savage natures, planned to surprise this village.
The Heet of canoes loaded with the dusky war-
riors stole along the west shore of Saginaw
Bay, lay concealed in the wilderness near To-
bico during the day and the next night divided
to attack both sides of the Saginaw River at
daybreak.
The Sauks slept in fancied security, little
dreaming what a horrible death awaited them.
With the first streak of gray across the dense
forest, the savage hor<Ie broke from the woods
near where the lower wards of the West Side
are iww located, and began a ruthless massacre.
The Sauks living further up stream, hearing
the whoops of the enemy, tried vainly to stop
the latter's victorious rush. Finding them-
selves outnumbered, they slowly retreated,
fighting every foot of the way, and finally
sought refuge on the East Side, where the
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
tipper wards of Bay City now stretch along llie
river.
This was just what their wily enemies had
foreseen, for now the second force of confeder-
ates came rushing out of the forest that
stretched from the bay for miles and miles to
the south. On the ridge south of Lafayette
avenue, the Sanks made a desperate stand, and
a number of mounds have been uncovered
where skulls and skeletons, thrown indiscrimi-
nately together, attest that hundreds fought
and died here, and were buried in common
graves.
Those that survived this slaughter retreated
to the little island south of Stone Island, which
they quickly fortified. The attacking force had
left their canoes on the bay shore. Ixit even the
elements conspired against the doomed tribe of
Sanks. A coUl wave^ so peculiar to this !akc
region, swept down from the north that night,
covering the narrow arm of the river with ice,
over which at the break of another day the mer-
ciless enemy charged, and completed the mas-
sacre. For ages after, numlierless skulls lay
scattered and buried on this fateful spot, which
has ever since been called Skull Island, The
tradition of Ihe Chippewas recounts that 12 of
the bravest Sanks, with their families, were
saved from this final slaughter, as trophies of
the great victory.
The force on the St. Clair now advanced up
the Shiawassee and Flint rivers, where they
joined forces with the victorious warriors from
the Saginaw valley, and the other tribes of the
Sauk nation were hunted to their death. On
the Cass, Tittabawassee, Shiawassee and Flint
rivers, the same bloody drama was renewed.
Great battles were fought near, the sites of the
present cities of Flint and Fhishing, where to
this day mass graves of warriors are unearthed.
The crushed skulls, the mark of the deadly tom-
ahawk, arrow and battle-axe, show plainly that
the liloody traditions of these Indians are but
too well founded.
A few escaped the massacre on the Sagi-
naw, and ihe scattered tribes were undoubtedly
warned on their more southern hunting
grounds. But the confederates were all about
them, and escape was impossible. Realizing
that death was ine\-itable, the Sanks showed
that at least they coul<! die bravely, and some of
the weird war-chants of ihe Indians of the lake
region still recite the heroic deeds of the
doonie{l race. Warriors, women and even chil-
<lr£n joined in the fight, and while their race
was practically exterminated in the course of
several weeks of fighting, the fugitives being
hunted down like wild beasts by their infuri-
ated enemies, sliU the victory was dearly
bought.
When the man hunt through Lower Michi-
gan had been completed and tlie confederates
had assembled in council on the very site of
Bay City, they had wearied of the slaughter,
and the captives, kept for torture more teiri-
ble than any death in battle, were spared, and
by mutual agreement sent west of the Alissis-
sippi, where the Sioux tribes took them under
their protection in recogiu'tion of their heroic
light in the face of overwhelming odds. The
rich hunting and fishing grounds, the main
cause of the massacre, were thrown open fiiir
the common use of the tribes that had taken
part in the expedition.
So passed the Sauks from the valley and
the territory they loved so well.
In 1823, Major Long, of the United States
Army, found the survivors of the Sanks on the
St. Peters River, evidently descendants of the
12 families that were banished to the far West.
In his official report, regarding their original
haunts, he says, that these Sauks had a tradi-
tion that they did not always live in those parts,
but that their ancestors lived on Saginaw Bay
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
TRINITY PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
Baj- Cily, E. S,
WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH,
Bay City. W. S,
MADISON AVENUE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH and PARSONAGE,
Bay Cily, E. S.
S. JAMES' CATHOLIC CHURCH and PAROCHIAL RESIDENCE,
Bay City. E. S.
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
and Lake Huron, where the Great Spirit had
created them, and given them won<!erfiil hunt-
ing grounds until their tribe sinned against
Manitou the Great, and were by the evil spirits
driven from their happy hunting grounds.
In their far Western reservation, the In-
dian tribe which gave its name to the great
Ixiy. river and valley, in the very heart of Mich-
igan, has dwindte<! to a mere shadow, and, ac-
cording to the last report of the Indian com-
missioner, will soon be totally extinct.
Their conquerors have fared but little bet-
ter, and their dearly Imight victory was almost
barren of results. For hardly had the allied
Indian tribes decided to keep the conquered ter-
ritory along the Vliores of the Saginaw as a
common hunting ground, before the sujiersti-
tioiis Indian found that the spirits of the
slaughtered Sauks haunted the valley, for
many Indians who came to hunt and fish m
these parts were never more heard of. Quite
likely a few Sanks escaped the massacre, too
few for open war, and that they took bloody
revenge on all tlieir enemies wdio came to the
shores of Saginaw Bay. The neighlioring
creeks, the trackless forest and the wide reaches
of the bay offered a safe shelter to the fugitives
and, knowing the country better than the wan-
dering hunters, the skulking Sauks had the ad-
vantage over much superior numbers in that
kind of savage warfare.
As late as 1840. a Chippewa chief named
Ton-dog-a-ne told William R. McCormick and
other visiting traders, that he bad himself killed
a Sauk in an acidental meeling of hunting par-
ties, while he was still quite young. Fifty years
ago the Indians frequently ceased hunting, he-
cause they had seen a place in the woods where
the spirit of a Sauk had built his camp-fire and
slept. The early settler.s laughed at the In-
dians' superstititious fears, but nothing could
in<hice them to enter the woods at such a time.
Another Indian tradition handed down by
the Chippewa chief, Wa-sha-be-non, who lived
to be nearly 100 years old, and' who had heard
it from his grandfather, told how this haunted
hunting ground had been made a sort of penal
colony to which every Indian who com-
mitted a crime under the Indian's crmle
code of laws was lanished or to which
he fled, rather than face the tortures
and punishment inflicted by his tribe. To
the average Indian this was the worst ])unisli-
ment Ihat could be inflicted, but the criminal
colony undoubtedly soon found that it was not
at all a bad place to camp, to hunt and to fish,
for the colony increased and thrived despite
the avenging spirits said to be hovering over
"0-Sauk-e-non." the doomed "Land of the
Sauks." The mixing of warriors from many
tribes brought with it in time a mixed Inrlian
dialect, in which the language of the Chiiipe-
was. as the most numerous, predominated.
The picturesque and romantic interest in
this valley center about tliese red children of
the forest, and their contact wilh the eadiest
white trappers, traders and settlers, and immm-
erable stories are told by these pioneers, a few
of which will round out this chapter on the
aborigines, who once owned and lorded it over
this valley.
The Ilurons, to which race all of the tribes
living about the Great Lakes belonged, were
not very highly esteemed 'by the Indians of the
East, the Six Nations. The French traveler and
explorer, De Tocqueville, about the year 1830,
started for the Wild West of those early days,
the heart of Michigan, and sought the services
of an Indian guide at Buffalo. An old Mohawk
warrior cautioned him to beware of the native
Indians of Michigan, and particularly in the
haunted regions of "O-Sauk-e-non."' The
proud Mohawk called them a thievish race,
vagalwnds and skulkers, whom none could
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
trust, and the members of the party were so
impressed with his recital of tiicir Ireacheroiis
deeds in the War of the Revohition and War
of 1812, that an Ottawa warrior from Canada
guided the party to the banks of Saginaw Bay,
from wliere the sa\'ant made his scientific and
geograpliical observations. He did not find
the Indians of this region as bad as pictured.
He gave them credit for many virtnes which
the pale faces would do w'ell to imitate, among
them being strict honesty. He fonnd this vir-
tue among all the tribes of the West, where
they were not corrupted by intercourse with
the pale faces. He found no bolts or bars in
their habitations, and cites many instances of
their integrity. An Indian was given a hand-
ful of tobacco, and in his tepee found a quarter
of a dollar among the leaves. Early next
morning he hurried to the donor and handed
back the money. Being told that inasmuch as
it had been given to him, he might as well have
kept it, the Indian pointed to his breast and
said : "I got a good man and a bad man here ;
the good man say it is not mine, and I must re-
turn it; the bad man say, he gave it to you and
it is j'oiir own now ; the good man say, that
is not right, the tobacco is yours, but not the
money; the bad man say, never mind, you got
the money, go buy some drink ; the good man
say, you must not do so, and I don't know uhat
to do, and think to sleep over it, hut the good
man and the bad man talk all night and trouble
me much; so now I bring the money hack, and
feel very, very good again." Of the Chip-
pewa chief, Put-ta-gua-sa-mine, he wrote the
following : "At a visit to his shack on the
great bay of Saginaw, wdiile the pipe of peace
was going the roiuids, I told him that I was
pleased he did not drink the firewater of the
white men, but that it grieved me to find his
people drank so much of it. The Indian sage
replied promptly; 'Ah, Uh,' with a suggestive
gesture, 'we Indians use a great deal of whis-
key, but WE do not make it.' " This was a
very pert Indian version of the scriptiire c|uo-
tation: "He that delivereth it unto thee hath
the greater sin."
The home relations of the red men have
ever been the subject of interesting study, and
the savants who early visited these parts gave
vastly different views of the life of the aborig-
ines during the first 30 years of the igth cen-
tury. Polygamy Avas not uncommon among
the Hurons, the more influential chiefs usually
having se\'eral wives. A missionary named
Catlin made a study of the Indian tribes of
Michigan, and he found that, like the tribes of
tha East, the drudgery of the family devolved
entirely on the women. The women carried
the baggage on the march, and erected the tepee
when a camping ground was reached. The
women gathered the fuel, started the camp-fire,
cooked the simple meal and patiently served
the lord of the household, who disdained all
work, as fit only for pale faces and women.
Even the little patch of corn w-as cultivated by
the women. The warrior.s followed the chase
or the war-path, leaving all domestic ami agri-
cultural cares to the women. For untold ages
this had been the life of the red men, and when
the white men invaded their hunting groun<ls,
and compelled the Indian to till the ground,
when he ceased to be a hunter and 1>ecame a
farmer, his whole existence was changed, and
many people attribute the gradual extinction of
the Indians to a pining away of the race for the
wild and unfettered hunter's life of their an-
cestors.
While the Indian women were shown but
litlle tenderness by the stoical warriors, and
their miserable and degraded life was one in-
cessant round of labor and care, there were
many instances of touching devotion among the
Hurons. A story is told of a dying Indian
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
39
woman, wiio expressed a great desire for a
mess of corn. A famine in these parts made
the gratification of her wish seemingly impossi-
iile, but her devoted hnsband lost no time.
Throngh the almost untrodden wilderness he
hurried to the settlement at Detroit, more
than TOO miles away, told his troubles to
a German pioneer, secured enough com to fill
his blanket, and immediately started back home
wiih his ioad. The last few days of earth
for his stricken squaw were eheeretl by
tlie food secured under such trying circum-
stances.
U'liile the pioneers found much that was
laudable, and still more that was ridiculous and
condemnable in the daily life of the red men,
the children of the forest also found nnich sub-
ject for hilarity on the other side. In a coun-
cil of the early pioneers, government agents,
surveyors and trappers, with the Chiijpewas on
the shore of Saginaw Bay, an aged chief re-
minded the white men that the Indians had
not only a surer way of getting a wife than the
pale faces, but that an Indian was also more
certain of getting one eventually to his liking.
Through a French interpreter his argument
was given something hke this: "White man
court an{l court, maybe one whole year, maybe
two year, before he marry. Well, mayl^e he
get good wife, maybe no! Maybe her very
cross, .scold so scon as he wake in the morn-
ing, scold all day, scold all night ! All the same
he must keep her! White man's law say he
must keep her! Well^ how do Indians do? In-
dian sees good, industrious scjtiaw, he goes to
her, places two forefingers close beside each
other, make two look Hke one, look squaw
straight in face, see her smile, and take her
home ! No danger her be cross, no. no ! Squaw
knows he throw her away if she be cross, and
take another! Squaw love to eat meat. No hus-
band, no meat ! Squaw do everything to please
husband, big chief brings plenty of meat, and
we l>e happy always !"
The Indians never chastised their children,
thinking that it would damp their spirits, check
Ihcir love of independence, and cool their mar-
tial ardor, ah of which the parents wished to
encourage. Reason will guide our children,
when they come to the use of it, argued the wise
men of the tribe, and liefore that their faults
cannot he very great. Bo}-s were given uncon-
trolled freedom. Respect for their father and
old age were alone inculcated into their young
hearts. Among their own it was a great crime
to steal or tell a lie, but to an enemy, and every
pale face was long treated as a hereditary en-
emy, it was right to do so, for they must be
injured wherever possible. The warriors en-
deavored by example to train the youth to dili-
gence in hunting and fishing, and to animate
them with patience, courage and fortitude in
war, as well as to inspire them with contempt
of danger and pain and to court death, which
among the Hurons were qualities alone worth
possessing. \A'hen a famous chief liecame too
old to indulge in the chase, or to go on the
war-path, he devoted his time to exhorting the
youths of his tribe. In glowing ])hr:ises he
would recount the great deeds of their tril)e.
Daily the children gathered al>out these aged
chiefs among the tepees on the Saginaw, and
DeTocqueville recites how they urged the
young men to be bra\-e and cunning in war, and
to defend their bunting grounds against all en-
croachments. "Never suffer your squaws or
little ones to want, and at all times protect them
from insult and from danger. Respect the
aged. Never betray a friend. Be revenged
on your enemies. Drink not the poisonous
strong water of the pale faces, for it is sent by
the bad spirit to destroy our race." Alas ! Too
few heeded this last appeal, and pathetically it
is written :
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
For plagues do spread, and funeral fires
None can the wrath of ihe Manitou the Great appease
Since to the poisoned waters of the paleface, all are
The sage cliief coiinseied llieni to fear not
death, for none but cowards really die. "The
brave warrior goes to the happy hunting-
grounds, the co^vard becomes a tortured spirit
before Manitou the Great. Love and adore
the Good Spirit, who made us all, who supplies
our hunting grounds, and keeps all alive." Then
with hands and eyes uplifted toward heaven,
he would recount his deeds in war am! peace,
and thank the Great Spirit for keeping him so
long in health and strength, "Yet like a de-
cayed prairie tree do I now stand alone among
you. The friends of my youth, the compan-
ions of my sports, my toils and my dangers,
rest their heads on the lx»som of our mother
earth. My sun is fast setting behind the West-
ern hills, and I feel it will soon be night with
me. But you will soon he men, then must ymi
prove worthy of your forefathers!"
While the Ottawas and other tribes wor-
shipped the sun, the Hurons were content to
erect at odd intervals in their midst some hid-
eous idol, which they adored as their talisman,
until some defeat in war, a famine or other
mishap to the tribe, appeared to indicate that
the potency of their little Manitou was no
longer a saving grace. About 1S40 some mis-
sionaries held a church service on the west
shore of the Saginaw River, two miles fn^m
its mouth. Trappers, hunters, fishermen and
traders came together for miles around to hear
once again a service so rare in the wilderness.
A few Huron Indians stood outside of the cir-
cle of worshipers, speculating on the trend of
the strange festival (before them. They pre-
sumed the white men were asking for some-
thing, and the guileless children of the forest
wondered if they were getting their loudly ex-
pressed wishes fulfilled by their Manitou. As
the missionaries exhorted for an hour, and
more, the Hurons conchided they were not get-
ting much encouragement from on high. They
marveled at the perseverance and eloriuence
with which this appeal to Manitou was pressed.
When the pale faces joined in singing a plain-
tive hymn, one savage was heard remarking
to the other: "Hear them now in despair, cry-
ing with all their might!"
A good story is told of the first territorial
Go\-ernor — Ste\-ens T. Mason. A number of
workingmen were erecting a warehouse for the
Governor on a cold fall <lay, and among the
idlers looking on was a Huron warrior, in the
scanty attire of his trilje. "Hark ye, friend,"
said the Governor to the brave, "why don't you
work like these men, and get decent clothes to
cover you?"' "Why you no work. Governor?"
replied the Huron, "I work with my head,"
said the Governor, "and therefore need not
work with my hantls. You go kill a deer for
me, and I will give you a shilling." The Indian
ere long brought the carcass of a good-sized
buck. The Governor asked him why he dl<l
not skin it ? "Deer am dead, give me my shill-
ing, Governor. Give me another shilling and
I will skin it for you," which was done, but the
Governor plotted to get even. Some time after,
the Governor wanted a message taken to the
Governor at Toledo, and he hired the same
Indian to deliver it. but as the Indian demanded
an exhorhitant messenger fee, Mason a'^ked
the brother official to chastise the red rascal.
On the way this Indian met one of Governor
Mason's regular employees, and by claiming
that the Go\(rnor told him to give the letter
to the Governor's old trusty, the latter was in-
duced to deliver the letter to the Toledo dis-
ciplinarian, and got soundly thrashed for his
pains. Governor Mason was very wrathy
when he heard his trusty's report, hut the sav-
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
ao-e liad vanished into the interior. At a coun-
cil liekl in 1836, preparatory to the ceding of
40.000 acres of the Chippewas' reserve to the
United States, Governor Mason found Chief
Ma-slia-way occupying a prominent place
among his nation. When asked why he had
pla\-ed such tricks on the Governor, he merely
pointed to his forehead, saying: "Headwork,
Governor, hearhvork!" The pioneers enjoyed
many a laugh over the recital of the Gov-
ernor's discomfiture.
DeTocqueville found that the majority of
the tepees or ^vig\vams along the Saginaw
shore consisted of a few poles driven into the
ground wilh a few mats thrown over them.
In this far Northern latitude a good camp-fire
was their substitute for warm bed clothes. In
the dead of winter they often encoimtered fam-
ines, when a handful of meal and a bit of water
was their only food for days at a time. Eqnall}'
starding is his recital of the practices of their
medicine men. A cave in the side of a sandhill
was given a white heat, when those sufferintj
from rheumatism and similar diseases entered
the hot bath, and amid the steam and smoke
looked like fiends infernal. After many in-
cantations, the medicine men and the sick rush
out of the inferno, slraight into the ice-col<!
river. This must have been on the principle
of "kill or cure." although numerous cures
were actually effected by this drastic treatment.
The Indians of the valley enjoyed hunt-
ing, an<i did not follow their game merely for
the sake of Ihe venison. Tlie Hurons loved
the adventure and excitement of the chase and
for their great tribal hunts they prepared by
fasting, dreaming and other superstitious ob-
servances. A certain district which was to be
hunted over was encircled, an<i the game driven
to a common center, where it was killed in the
primitive manner of the aborigines, for few
firearms had found their way into this secluded
nook of the Northwest. In the early fall or
early spring the Indians sometimes chased the
game out on thin ice, when it was easily se-
cured. Deer were much sought after for their
hides and venison, but the trappers early taught
the Indians of this vicinity the value of the
beaver skins, and the Chippewas and kindred
tribes of JIuron extraction were far-famed
hunters and trappers. They secured the beav-
ers by placing themselves on the cut dike, which
enclosed the busy beaver village, and when the
beavers ran out to see why tlieir water was
running out, they were easily captured. In
winter a hole was made in the ice, to which the
beavers would come to breathe, only to be
snatched by Ihe remorseless hunters. A bear
was never attacked by the In{iians single-
handed, if they could avoid a fight. Their tom-
ahawks and slone or flint battle-axes made lit-
tle impression on a fighting bear, and the war-
riors respected his prowess, and sang of it, as
they did of the industry and intelligence of the
heavers. Dogs were the only domestic animals
found among the Huruns, and they were not
well treated, being left to find their own fond,
and proving a nui.sance to missionaries and
travelers, but they were in\-aluahle to the red
man in the chase.
The Chippewas never ale their victuals raw,
but rather overlx^iled them, and for a long time
they had no use for salt, pepper or other condi-
ment. An Indian chief, being invited by some
trappers to a feast in the wilderness, saw them
use some mustard, and out of curiosity put a
spoonful into his mouth. The result can be
imagined. Wishing to escape ridicule, he
made desperate efforts to conceal his torture,
but violent sneezing and tears streaming from
his eyes told their own story. His hosts ex-
plained how mustard should be used, but the
brave never after touched the "boiling yellow,"
as he called it. The Chippewas apparently had
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
cast-iron constitutions and capacious stomachs.
Tliey were known to live without food for
many days, and seemingly did not suffer for
it. On the other hand they would sit down to
a feast, and prove regular gluttons, it being
a rule with them to never leave anything on
the table. All must be eaten, and the rule never
troubled them much.
The remnant of Sauks in the Far West ap-
pear to have been more civilized than the Chip-
pewas of Michigan, who drove them from this
valley. Dr. Carver, for instance, found the
Sauks' houses built of well-cut and well-fitted
planks, with cozy rooms, while their conquer-
ors in "O-Sauk-e-non" stiH lived in shabby
shacks or shabbier tepees.
The war and ceremonial dances of the In-
dians living within the confines of what is now
Bay County varied little from those of all other
Western tribes. Usually some 40 or 50 warriors,
and at times as many more squaws, would exe-
cute one of their fantastic dances about a huge
fire. With their monotonous chant, a violent
stamping of the feet, and peculiar contortions
of the body and arms, they kept time with the
chant, broken now and then by ear-piercing
shrieks, and demoniac howls. The war-dance
and the medicine-dance were pantomimes, and
more elaborate than the other Indian dances.
De Tocqueville rather liked the calumet, or pipe
of peace dance, and also the marriage dance,
given when some chief of note took unto him-
self a wife. In the Chippewa medicine-dance,
their medicine men used animals' heads and all
other imaginable toggery to complete their gro-
tesque and startling make-ups. These Indian
dances were an event along the valley up to 40
years ago, and whenever a dance was planned
all the early settlers made an effort to be pres-
ent. It broke the monotony of hard work and
isolation for them, and while the Indian cere-
monies were often shockingly suggestive, and in
the later years made even more diabolical by
the Indians taking strong liquors to stir up
their passions, before and during the dances,
still it -was in the nature of a weird show, and
gave the scattered settlers an opportunity to
meet and greet one another. The early Ger-
man settlers from Franken, in Bavaria, who
created the township of Frankenlust out of
the wilderness, and whose sons and daughters
are to-day scattered all over the county, thriv-
ing farmers and business men and women, be-
ing very devout, looked on these Indian dances
with horror. To them the dances were savage
idolatry, and for years they esteemed it a griev-
ous sin to even look at the medicine-dance t
Many of the other pioneers to the valley came
to trade with the Indians, and some of the more
adventurous even dres.sed as the aborigines did,
and took part in the dances. Well might a
Longfellow sing:
Should you ask where Nawadalia
Found tliest dances wild and -wayward,
Foinid tliese kyeiids and traditions,
I slnoidd answer, I should tel! you,
"In the bird^' nests of ihe forest.
In tile lodges of the beaver,
III the boof-prints of the bison.
In the eyry of the cae'e!
"All the wild-fowl sang them to him.
In the niorelauds and the fen-lands,
111 the melancholy marshes!"
— Adapted from The Song of !!ia:.\i/h;i.
Tiie Hurons were far-famed as orators, and
the early settlers often listened for hours to
Chief 0-ge-ma-ke-ga-to and other great men of
the tribes wandering alxxit these parts recite the
great deeds of their great warriors. They would
tell of hunting with Tecumseh, and the ok! men
of the tribe would grow eloquent in speaking
of Pontiac, whom they had seen in all his
splendor as a leader and orator. Their tradi-
tions tell us of his visit to the wigwams on the
Saginaw, where he met in council the chiefs
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
^^3H
Wl'r-:.
^1
'■^-m
ii' . ' -■
^^ib&f
^IPI.3. .'
^
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
of the Chippewas, Dakotalis and Objibwas, on
his mission of arousing all these scattered
tribes for one concerted effort against the pale
faces, who were slowly bnt surely dispossessing
his race of their favorite hunting grounds.
He could not stop the onward march of civil-
ization, great as was his native genius and abil-
ity, but he did stir the hearts of the red men. as
they had never been stirred before or since.
His race has no written records, and the recital
of his daring, eloquence and generalship is now
but a tradition among the old men of the tribes
he led. His deeds have l)een but charily com-
memorated by the historians of an inimical but
stronger race. Of Pontiac the old chiefs were
wont to tell, how he told the emiss:iries of
the King of England, that he would call him
"uncle" but never "king." Pontiac. too, re-
alized the advantages of this distant valley and,
if we are to believe the traditions of his de-
scendants, he frequently hunted in these paris.
Certain it is, that the valley was a favorite
camping ground of the Indians. Along the
shores of the Kawkawlin and the other tribu-
taries of bay and river, from the time of the first
pale face explorer to the present day. are found
the mounds where sleep all that was mortal of
these children of the forest and prairie. In
some of them are found to this day the weap-
ons, wampum and other trinkets, that were
placed with the {lead for use on their journey
to another and a happier hunting ground. The
Indian collection of the Pioneer Society in the
Capitol at Lansing owes some of its finest spec-
imens to this valley. The mass graves found
by the early settlers spoke of death in battle
and death in pestilence, for smallpox and the
plague often brought whole tribes to the \'erge
of extinction. So great were the attr.ictions
and advantages of this valley to the red men,
that for centuries it was considered the most
thickly populated by the red men of Michigan.
Not even the superstitions about evil spirits
dwelling in the dismal forest on the shores of
Saginaw Bay could keep the natives away from
a spot so blessed with all that went to make it
an ideal place for human habitations, whether
those habitations be the w^igwams of untutored
savages, or (he palatial summer homes of 20th
century captains of industry.
When, in 1849, Longfellow entertained at
his home in Boston the famous Ojibwa chief,
Kah-ge-ga-lx>wh, he heard much of this won-
derful valley, and much of the traditions and
legends so beautifully blended together in his
immortal poems, "Evangeline"' and "The Song
of Hiawatha," centered alrout these beloved
hunting grounds of the race his genius immor-
talized. The Acadians driven from their
homes find protection, f(x>d ami profitable em-
]>li)yment amid the hunting lodges of the Sag-
inaw, althongh they are wanderers still and
Evangeline seeks her Gabriel in vain on the
banks of the Saginaw. He, too. is restless,
seeking, hoping for that loving heart, that alas,
was not to find him in this worki, until his
weary spirit was ready to soar to the spirit re-
gion, whence none return. And the pale faces
who came in the middle of the 19th century,
they, too. had heard this poet of the red men,
am! the enterprising colony on the west shore
of the Saginaw River, which this very year
will become the West Side of Greater Bay City,
was named "Wcnonah" after the mother of Hi-
awatha, who gave her beautiful young life that
Hiawatha might live.
Anil the We St- Wind came at evening,
Walking liylitly o'er llie prairie,
Whimpering to the leaves and blossom?,
Bending low the fiowers and grasses.
Found the beautiful Wenonah,
Lying there among the lilies.
Wooed her with his words of sweetness,
Wooed her with hii* soft caresses.
Till she bore a son in sorrow.
Hosted by
Google
46
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
the
Bore a son of love and sorrow.
Thus was born my Hiawatha,
Thus was born the child of wonder;
But the daughter of Nokomis,
Hiawatha's gentle mother,
In her anguish died deserted
By the West-Wind, false and faithless,
liy the heartless Mudjekeewis.
—The Sang of Hiaivatha.
Can there be any donbt what regioi. ..._
poet had in mind, what scenes he pictured « hen
he wrote:
Now, o'er all the dreary Northland,
Mighty Peboan, the Winter,
Breathing on the lakes and rivers.
Into stone had changed their waters.
From his hair he shook the siiowflakes,
Till the plains were strewn with whitcnes'-.
One uninterrupted level.
As if, stooping, the Creator
With his hand had smoothed them over.
Through the forest, wild and wailing,
Roamed the hunter on his s'now-shoes;
In the village worked the women,
Pounded maize, or dressed the deer-skin;
And the young men played together
On the ice the noisy ball-play.
—The Soug of Hiazvatlm.
Passing from the enchanted reahn of the
poet and seer to the ever present, g-rim reality,
we find that the Inchans were very num-
erous here when the first permanent set-
tlers arrived, being variously estimated at
from 2.500 to 5 ,000. As late as 1 865
they numbered about 2,c)00, but after
the tribe ceded its last reservation of
40,000 acres to the government, many of the
Indian families removed to t!ie agency at Isa-
bella, and the Indian settlements at Saganing,
Indiantown, and Qtianicassee. Very reluct-
antly they gave up the arms of the huntsman,
and took up the plow and the harrow. While
some are very industrious and even successful
as up-to-date agriculturisls, the majority eke
out a miserable existence in shacks but little bet-
ter than their ancestors used centuries ago. In-
tercourse with the white race, their changed
lives, occupation and surroundings have robbed
them of that robust physique and fiery spirit,
which in past generations inade a smoke-filled
wigwam a palace for the hardy aborigine, and
at all times preferable to the confinement of a
white man's stone mansion. Broken in health,
they are also broken in spirit. Little of ro-
mance clusters about the poorly clad, frail sur-
vivors of a once powerful race, who still live
within this county. There is little alxiut their
poverty-stricken shacks that would induce one
to call them, as of old, the noble red men !
Time, exposure, and contamination with all
that is most degrading and injurious in our
own boasted civilization, are slowly but surely
wiping out the last remnants of the nation of
Hnr.ons and the tribe of Cbippewas.
But lately, the community was shocked at
the recital of a local Indian on a rampage.
Filled with liquor, he terrorized a West Side
resort with a vicious looking knife. A burly
guardian of the peace stepped in, and the drink-
crazed brave was easily landed in limbo, where
next morning he begged meekly enough to be
allowed to go to his shack on the Kawkawlin,
where e\'ery cent he so recklessly squandered
woidd have meant so very, \-ery much to his
helpless family. A week later we read, with
pitying interest, of the pangs of hunger, of cold
and privation in another such shack, where a
poor Indian woman lies in the last throes of
consumption, getting only such care and nour-
ishment as the poor authorities of Bangor
township can provide. Alas! How the once
mighty race has fallen! But let us draw a veil
over the grim scene! Let us as a strong and
prosperous people, however, never forget that
after all they were the original owners of all
this vast territory, and that they received little
enough, when they were dispossessed. Let us
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
accord tlieni in their declining days something;
better tliaii the crumbs that fall from our mu-
nicipal table in alms and chanties. They, too,
are a twig from Adam's tree : they, too, have
souls. And they, perhaps more than all other
living i>ersons within the confines of prosperous
Bay County, should merit our sympathy, our
encouragement, and substantial remembrance.
Thousands of doUars are anmially sent
from this part of Michigan to the yellow races
in Asia., and the black races of Africa, for mis-
sionary effort, while a <lying race of red men,
at our \ery dooi's, to whom we really owe
something, appear to be entirely forgotten.
They have a smacking of our civilization, it
is true, and most of them profess the God of
our falhei's. Let us then treat tliem as broth-
ers, aye, as brothers in need, and accord them
every encouragement in our power. Then when
the sun shall have set on the last of the Hurons,
we may have no vain regrets. For the blood
and the bitterness of the past, where the rival
races met, we of to-day are not accountable!
But we are responsible for these chiklren of this
Western Hemisphere, in this, onr day and
generation. Charity begins at home, and what
heart-beat of our people is there to-day, that
does not go out in sympath}' and kindness to
the poor, suffering and dying remnants of the
American Indians at our very doors! Let jus-
tice be mingled with mercy and love, that the
dying race may know and feel, that the paie
faces are not forgetful even of the least of
Adam's twdgs within their l)orders! Let us
make their last days on earth more cheerful,
less painful, by the collective assistance and
good cheer of our indnstrious. progressive,
prosperous and Christian conmiunity, built
upon the shores that not so very long ago were
the undisturbed hunting grounds of Poor Lo!
Indulge, my native land; indulge tlit tear
That steals impassioned o'er n race's doom !
To us, each twig from Adam's stock is near,
And sorrows fall upon the Indiau's tombl
LOWER SAGINAW i
Hosted by
Google
CHAPTER III.
THE COLONIAL PERIOD.
The Onward March of Civilization — The Pale Faces Westward Bound — Years of
Exploration, and Trading with the Indians — Trappers, Hunters and Adven-
turers — The Saginaw Valley for Years the Northernmost Outpost of Civili-
zation IN the Northwest Territory — Indian Title to Land Extixguisiied — The
Earliest White Settlers.
1 lome of my heart, I sing of thee,
Jlicliigaii, my Micliigao.
Thy lake-hound shores I long to see,
Michigan, my Michigan.
I''rom Saginaw's tall and whispering pines
'l"o Lake Superior's farthest iriines,
Fair in the light of memory shines
Michigan, my Michigan.
So often liave we lieanl the stirring lines
dedicated to our native State, tliat to the
younger generation our commonwealth seems
venerable, and ripe with the passing of count-
less ages. Yet history records hut a single
century, since from the almost unknown
and seemingly unlimited Northwest Territory
Michigan was carved and set up as a separate
Territory in 1804. In the "Pioneer Room"
of our Capitol at Lansing, there hangs a large
colored map, once the property of a Bay County
pioneer, — Capt. Joseph F. Marsac. It conveys
more eloquently than words could describe the
crude ideas regarding our geographical situa-
tion, and the wide reaches of territory com-
prised at that late day within the boundaries
of a single township. In the same room hangs
an oil painting, entitled "Detroit in 1820." It
shows a few scattered residences along the
river front, dense woods in the background,
and strange sailing craft upon the waters. At
the time Michigan was created into a separate
Territory, the interior was practically une.x-
plored. A few scattered settlements, together
with Detroit, comprised all that waii tangible
100 years ago in that future garden spot of
the universe.— Michigan, my Michigan!
With the Louisiana Purchase, the tide of
immigration was drawn due Westward. Etid-
Icss caravans crossed Kentucky, Southern
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, in the restless hunt
of hardy pioneers for the E! Dorado of the
Middle West,
Adventurers, explorers, hunters and trap-
pers alone turned aside to face the icy blasts
of winter, and the fiery heat of summer, in the
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
49
wikls of the lake region of Michigan, Then,
as now, much of that influx came across tlie
Canadian border. The stories of Michigan's
rigorous climate had no terrors for a race that
faced and Hved through the winters of Canada.
The stories told by rambling Indians of the par-
adise of fish and game within this mysterious
lake-bound region drew on these adventurers
like a magnet. Neither hardship nor danger
could stop their advance. Trackless prairies,
dense virgin forests, and impenetrable swamps
merely roused their curiosity and spurred them
on to delve deeper into the mysteries hid<len be-
hind the thin curtain of civilization on the east-
ern borders of the Territory. The first adven-
turers found such a rich reward in Ijeaver skins
and similar ti'opbies of the chase and the In-
dian trade, that others quickly followed, with
varying success. Since for ages the Indians
had lauded Ihe Saginaw Valley as their richest
hunting ground, it was but natural that these
adventurers, hunters and trappers should push
straight through to this E! Dorado of the abor-
igines. Many a white man's hunting lodge was
erected on the shores of Saginaw Bay and its
tributary rivers, long before any written rec-
ords preserved their deeds of daring in this
wild land, among wild animals and ahnost
ef|ua]ly ferocious aborigine.s. Gabriel the Aca-
dian, the long-sought hero of folklore, builds
his huntiuiJ- lodge on the banks of the Saginaw,
and for many moons enjoys the sport of kings
among the denizens of forest and river. This
Avas at a time when the Indians believed this
"Land of the Sauks" was haimted by the evil
spirits of that ancient race which they had al-
most exterminated on this very sjKit, and these
superstitious children of the forest appear not
to have interfered much with these daring
huntsmen and fishermen. Their quarrel ap-
peared to be in times of peace with the advanc-
ing mass of pale faces. Where settlanents
were planted and t!\e plow and harrow brought
.harvests from the virgin soil, there was no
longer room for the wild game of forest and
prairie, and hence the Indian huntsman must
take his tepee and move Westward, away from
the advancing tide of an older and better, but
by him a detested, civilization.
Of the great Huron, Pontiac. it is written,
that he stopped the expedition of Alajor Rog-
ers, who was sent into this country al>out 1760
to drive out the French. "Why come you into
our hunting grounds? My white brother has
bouses an<l lands and beasts, why should he
take the red man's?" And when Major Rog-
ers tried to convince the great chief that he
came against the French and not against the
natives, Ponliac shook his grave head and re-
plied: "My white brother has the talking
hand. We cannot compete with his slyness.
Yet has he taken our lands, and stolen our
strength ! I appeal to any whhe man to say,
if he ever entered my wigwam hungry, au'l I
gave him not meat. If he ever came cold an<i
weary, an<[ I pro\-ided not good cheer. But
then he came alone and as a friend! To-day
you come as conquerors! My people have lost
much. My people have suffered much. I will
see. I accept your belts of wampum, but I stand
in your path until to-morrow!" Major Rogers
respected the suggestion to wait, anil by sun-
down of the following day Pontiac had coun-
seled with his chieftains and decided that peace
was preferable to a war which could accomplish
nothing for his race. He scut word to all the
tribes of the lake region to permit the expedi-
tion to pa.ss. and himself accompanied Rogers*
column into Detroit. But his ad<lress fur-
nished an insight into the natives' treatment of
the first pale faces who entered their hunting
grounds. The Indians felt instinctively that
the daring pale faces who left civilization and
their kinib-ed far behind them, who dauntle>s!y
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
entered the primeval forest, and lived even as
they lived, came not as enemies, but as friends.
So only can we explain how these first
missionaries, these first hunters and trappers,
came into the wilderness among this wild and
untamed people, and lived to tell their many
harrowing experiences. The daring adventur-
ers felt safe because of their very weak-
ness. The Indians felt assured, that
those brave enough to be fearless must
be friends. The Hurons treated the mass
of pale faces as enemies, but almost
invariably befriended the isolated adventurer.
Many of these wandering pale faces returned
this frendship in kind, marrying Indian girls
and becoming so attached to the roving life
and the crude hospitality of tbe Hurons, that
they became adopted members of the tribe, and
in that favored position did much to soften the
natural animosity of the two races.
The earliest explorers of the Saginaw Val-
ley in\-ariably canie singly and in pairs. For
half a century these daring recluses came and
went through the iand of the Hurons. without
attempting any permanent settlement or bring-
ing their families witli them. Detroit was
their home. There tliey placed their wives,
children and other relatives for safekeeping,
for while no open act of hostility distufljed tho
region for years at a time, yet these hardy pio-
neers never knew when the sporadic toleration
of the Indian would turn to malignant hate,
and open friendship to treacherous ma,ssacre
and bloodshed.
Instances were not uncommon, where these
adventurers maintained two separate family es-
tablishments,— their original family behind the
stockades at Detroit, and an Indian squaw and
her children far in the interior. This dual life
was prompted more by the instinct of self-
preservation, than by a desire of these simple-
henrted woodsmen to have a harem. Most of
the hunters and trappers who first visited and
lived in these parts, before the opening of the
last century, were devout Christians. Each
had his patron saint, and few forgot to worship
in the way of their fathers, although hundreds
of miles separated them from their house of
^vorship and its devoted shepherd. Such were
the men who first penetrated the dense virgin
forests, the trackless prairies and the for many
years impenetrable swamps, which reached
northward and westward from Detroit, and
bordered the great bay and river in "0-Sank-
e-non !" For the hardships they endured, and
the risks they ran, they reaped but a poor re-
ward. Few saved anything for the future,
and fewer still attained old age. They were
driven onward by the spirit of the age! A
story was often told around the camp-fires of
early pioneers here, how in a pretty settlement
of Ontario a sturdy farmer yearned to go into
the unknown wilderness of Michigan. His
family would go with him, yet they disliked
leaving so much comfort and happiness behind.
As a last recourse, the priest called on the rest-
less parishioner and tried to dissuade him.
"You v\'ant to go away from all your friends,
to the bloodthirsty savages. From your lands,
your cattle, your home, to wJi<l and dangerous
lands you cannot know. For your cow and her
rich milk, you will exchange the wild and
worthless buffalo. And how will your poor
wife and babies live? Nay, Peter, yovi cannot,
you must not go." But Peter was determined
to go. "This country is getting crowded, it
is too small, too narrow for me," he would re-
ply, "There is free land and lots of it to the
\Vestward, where my children shall Ijecome
large landowners, and where I shall be better
able to provide for my family. Here we are
but poor farmers, and I am restless. Yonder
is the profusion of the Lord spread out for us,
but for the asking, I am going West," and
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
West he went. He tarried only long enough
in Detroit to see his little family under the pro-
tecting wing of an old countryman of his, and
then he plunged into the wilderness. For years
he was one of the most sucessful traders among
the Indians. Then came the great war, and one
of the first to fall at the River Raisin massacre
was the scout, Peter Moultainc. He was well
known among the older Indians in these parts,
who often spoke of his prowess and his knowl-
edge of woodcraft. Perhaps he did not real-
ize al! his fond dreams of great wealth. Per-
haps his family did not reap that greater inde-
pendence which he pictured so glowingly ere
leaving the comnnmity in Ontario they called
their home. Restless he was to his dying day.
but he was also iindoulitedly happy in the free
and adventurous life he had chosen for himself.
Ambitious he must have been, and if all men
were content, what would this world be? How
long would the rich and beautiful plains of
Michigan, how long this valley, have been left
in outer darkness and oblivion, but for the
spirit of exploration and adventure which ani-
mated Peter Moultaine and his compatriots?
Such was the career of most of the earliest
white men to traverse the wilds of Michigan,
and from their hunting lodges see the glories
of creation on the wood-bound shores of Sag-
inaw Bay. They came and went through the
vast wilderness like phantoms of the night.
Seldom {lid they tarry any length of time in
any one place. Evangeline learned that to her
sorrow, for ere she reached the banks of the
Saginaw, after long and wearisome marches,
the hunter's lodge was fallen in ruins and de-
serted! They sought the home of the beaver,,
the run of the finny tribes of river and 1)ay,
the trail of the bison herd, the antelope and the-
deer. \Vhere game abounded, and the Avan- '
dering red men .had their tepees, there too
camped the border hero of our own State and
county.
Years passed, eventful in romance and ad-
venture, replete with war and war's alarms.
The tide of pale faces Westward bound does
not move steadily onward. Each new disturb-
ance on the ixirders stops the onA\-ard march
of civilisation for a time. The forces of the
savage aborigines and ambitious settlers drench
ihe tlividing line with the blood of the inno-
cents, until lx)th sides grow weary with the
slaughter.
Then comes an interval of peace and cjuiet,
and this is soon followed by another deter-
mined push forward and Westward by the
hardy pioneers, reinforced by thousands of im-
migrants, who have crossed the Atlantic to
escape the "Reign of Terror" in France, the
blood-drenched plains of Europe during the
Napoleonic wars, and the poverty and distress
following in their wake. This wave of immi-
gration has for years stopped on the outskirts
of Detroit and in neighboring sections of Mich-
igan. More than a century has passed since
Father ilarcpiette passed up the Detroit River
and over the vast waters of Lake Huron and
its tributary rivers. A few ofticial exploring
parties have since tried to trace the outline of
lake and bay and ri\er, and hundreds of daring
adventurers have crossed the Lower Peninsula
of Michigan in every direciion, but none have
come to make settlements, none have come to
stajf.
During al! tliese years of exploration and
trading with the Indians, the mouth of the Sag-
inaw River has been a rendezvous for the two
races in Michigan. The many rivers centering
here, the wide reaches of the bay and lake,
made it easy for the Indians to reach it in their
hark canoes. Even the aborigines appreciated
ready water transiK>rtation ! Hence this valley
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
^vas for years the Northernmost outpost of
civilization in the Northwest Territory. The
Indian cou!d carry heavy loads of hides and
carcasses for long distances and in a short
space of time, but he preferred to load them
into his canoe and drift rapidly to the rendez-
■\-ous where the white trader exchanged warm
blankets, fiery rum, cheap trinkets, old-fash-
ioned firearms, and similar stock in trade, for
the Indian's trophies of the chase. At frequent
intervals during the spring, summer and fall,
these trading bees were held here, while during
the long and bitterly cold winters the white
traders rusticated in their protected shacks
vvi'.hin the stockades at Detroit.
It is a matter of history, that Michigan was
one of the last of the central tier of States to
have its interior opened for settlement, but to
the gJory of this State be it written that this
settlement cost less in blood and in treasure
than did the settlement of any of our sister
States. Undoubtedly the spirit of Father Mar-
quette and the early missionaries exerted a
powerful and a peaceful influence over the ab-
origines of this region. Equally certain is it,
that the long years of intercourse with the
rough but honest traders and trappers paved
the way for that peaceful settlement. Occa-
sionally the Indians of these parts clashed hard
with the pale faces, and true to their savage
nature the red men committed some beastly
crimes, even in this valley. During the several
wars between the French and English, and
later between the English and the Americans,
the warlike tribes along Lake Huron became
easily involved, and brought on some bloody
battles and sanguinary massacres. The inter-
course of the pioneers was ne\-er free from
danger. But on the whole, the settlement of
Michigan was tranquil, compared to the rec-
ords of the "bloody ground" in Kentucky, the
years of bitter strife between the races in the
valleys of the Ohio, the Mississippi and the
Missouri, and on the great Western plains.
In this very valley, and likely upon the
very spot where the West Side of Greater Bay
City is now situated, the great empire- builder
of our commonwealth,— Lewis Cass, — held
one of his numerous councils with the Indian
triljes of this vicinity, and began the prelimina-
ries for tlie treaties by which the Indians ceded
peacefully, by extinguishment of the Indian
title, more than one-half of Michigan, and
large portions of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and
Wisconsin.
As we ponder over those masterful treaties
with the crafty chieftains, we wonder if our
great State has ever done full justice to Lewis
Cass, our commonwealth-builder, the Secretary
of War under Andrew Jackson, then Minister
to France, the sturdy son of Michigan, who
for 12 years stood with Webster and Clay in
defense of the constitution, who was once the
candidate of his party for President, and dur-
ing whose second term in tlie United States
Senate that strong movement began in Michi-
gan against the extension of slavery North and
West. He was a son of Michigan's colonial
period, and typical of that generation of strong
and good men. We owe much of our early
progress to Lewis Cass.
With the close of the War of 1812, and the
winning over of the hostile Indians, the roving
adventurers went farther north, while in the -
south they were followed by pioneers looking
for places to settle. The Indians gradually
withdrew to the agencies and settlements pro-
vided for them by the several treaties.
A new era dawned for Michigan, and the
Saginaw Valley was not long to feel its splen-
did isolation. The rays of advancing civiliza-
tion are sweeping the horizon, and penetrating
the darkest recesses of wood and glen. In the
changeful tide of human affairs, thei"e comes
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
CITY HALL AND PUBLIC LIBRARY, BAY CITY, E. S,
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESEXTATU'E CITIZEN'S.
55
liere the opporhiiiity for tlie founders of homes
ami the builders of cities. Truly was it
written :
Toil swings llie axe and forests bow,
The fields break out in radiant bloom ;
Rich harvests smile behind the plow,
And cities duster round the loom !
Little more than 70 years ago tliis valley
was still but a happy hunting ground. The
sound of the woodsman's axe had never broken
the forest solitude of centuries, ami neither
land nor water hereabouts had ever felt aught
save the rudest, primeval civilization. The
French philosopher and traveler, DeTocque-
ville, from his camp of exploration and scien-
tific research on the banks of Saginaw Bay,
penned for his "Democracy of America" these
prophetic lines: "In a few years these impen-
etrable forests will have fallen; the sons of civ-
ilization will break the silence of the Saginaw!
The banks of the mighty stream will be impris-
oned by quays; its current, which now flows
tranquil and unnoticed through a nameless
ivaste, will be stemmed by the prows of vessels.
We are the last travelers allowed to see the
primitive grandeur of this solitude."
Prophetic words soon to be fulfilled. For
the restless stream of immigrants is sweeping
at last over the narrow limits of Michigan's
earliest colonies and flooding the interior. But
even the imagination of a DeTocqueville could
not have forecast the wonderful transforma-
tion of the last half century. The silence of the
Saginaw has been broken by a chorus of indus-
try that has startled the commercial world.
Out of the wilderness have been hewn thriving
communities, beautiful to behold, and along
the numberless rivulets and streams lliat ribbon
the breast of the valley, there have been created
such rich and bountiful farms as have well
earned for Bay County its favorite title, "the
G.\Rr)EN SPOT OF MICHIGAN."
However, the period of which we write is
still but 1813. Col. Lewis Cass has only just
been made Military Governor of Michigan Ter-
ritory. Commodore Perry's victory has settled
forever the question, whether the English lion
or the American eagle shall hold sway over this
yet unfathomed wealth of agricultural and
mineral resources, within the lake-lxiund shores
of Miciiigan, and General Harrison's splendid
victory at Tippecanoe has broken the power of
Chief Tecuniseh's confederation of Indian
tribes. The master hand of the commoner is
reaching out over the silent forests of Michi-
gan's interior, and the light of government
investigation is sweeping over the shores of
Saginaw river and bay. The surveyor and In-
dian agent are quickly followed by the more
venturesome of border pioneers. Listen and
yon will hear:
The martial trend of pioneers
Of nations yet to he,
The lir!t iow wash of wave, where soon
Shall roll a human sea.
The rudiments of empire here
Arc plaslic yet, and warm;
Tlie chaos of a miglily work!
Is
mndiiig
:> forii
The first steamboat, the "Walk-in-the-
Water," began regular trips between Buffalo
and Detroit in 1818, and the immigrants West-
ward bound, having before them the long and
wearisome trip in the prairie schooner across
the Middle West, paused as they heard of this
new El Dorado of the Xorthwest, now so easily
reached, and thousands who had started for the
Mississippi turned Northward and entered
Michigan.
Governor Cass and Woodbridge, his sec-
retary, were indefatigable in making their
home-building within the State, ]>eaceful, at-
tractive and profitable. Wagon roads were
the first great necessity, and after a good road
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
had been hewn arouiid the shore of Lake Erie
and from Detroit to Chicago, the Governor
turned his attention to the central part of the
State. He recognized the material advantages
of the Saginaw Valley, and was ever lauding
its rich soil, its boundless forests, its navigable
streams, alive with fish, and its commanding
position.
About 1825 the Erie Canal was opened for
trade and this gave a new impetus to the trade
of the Great Lakes, and enhanced the harbor
facilities of Saginaw Bay. Steam and sailing
craft, bound for shore trade and locating trad-
ing centers, sailed up the Saginaw River, and
their stories of its beauty and natural advan-
tages attracted general attention to this valley.
Southeastern Michigan was secured by
treaty from the Indians through Governor
William Hull in 1807. This left the Saginaw
River and its tributaries in undisputeil posses-
sion of the natives until 1819. In that year
Governor Cass again came to the Saginaw Val-
ley, and from September loth to 22nd. con-
ferred with the Indians about the terms of a
new treaty. After weary hours of council and
harangue, the final terms of that famous treaty
were mutually agreed to, granting to the
United States all but 40,000 acres of their ter-
ritory. The reservation they retained was
mostly on the west bank of the river, and
reaching around the wide -westeiii sweep of
Saginaw Bay. proving clearly that this was in-
deed their favorite hunting ground. Two In-
dian traders. Stephen V. R. Riley and Jacob
Smith, who had married Indian squaws, and
who with their children were treated by the
natives as their own kindred, took an active
part in adjusting ihe differences between the
crafty Indians and Michigan's wise com-
moner. In appreciation of their services, they
were allowed e.Ktensive land grants by the na-
tional government, the three sons of Mr. Riley,
— John,- Peter and James,— being each given
640 acres. The tract of the eldest became the
famous Riley Reserve, now entirely wilhin
the confines of Bay City.
In 1835 1^^'^ people of Michigan, claiming
their right under the ordinance of 1787, or-
ganized and put into operation a State govern-
ment, and sent to the L^nited States Senate,
Lucius Lyon and John Norvell. For nearly 14
motilhs these two representatives \\ere kept in
the corridors of the Capitol at Washington,
until the boundary dispute between the young
and ambitious State and the Congress was set-
tled, as such disputes are usually settled, in
favor of the stronger party, — the Congress.
On January 26, 1837, Michigan entered the
Union as the 26th State.
In that memorable year the Indians ceded
their remaining 40,000 acres to the go\ern-
ment, on condition that these lands be surveyed,
and placed on the market at $5 per acre for a
certain period, the unsold portion to go for
$2.50 per acre. The Indians were to receive
the entire proceeds of the sale, less the expenses
of the survey and transfer. The cession was
brought about through a visit to Washington
by the famous Chippewa chiefs, 0-ge-ma-ke-
ga-to, Ton-dog-a-ne. Sha-e-be-uo-se. \\'os-so.
Mose-ga-shink, Ma-sha-way, and Xau-fpia-
chic-a-me. They were accompanied by Charles
Rodd, a half-breed interpreter, and Capt. Jo-
seph F. Marsac. Henry O. O'Connor. Gardner
D. Williams, and Benjamin O. Williams,
prominent pioneers of the Saginaw \'alley,
who had the esteem of the Indians. President
Thomas Jefferson was much impressed with
the martial bearing of the far-famed chieftain.
O-ge-nia-ke-ga-to, and during the visit be pre-
sented the brave with a gaudy colonel's nni-
forni. in which he afterward appeared on all
.state occasions, and in which he was eventually
buried. As a result of this visit to the capita!
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
of the republic, a final council meeting was held
on the Fhnt River, where the documents were
duly signed and sealed, Tliis was a moment-
ous event, both for the Indians and the pio-
neers who had come to these parts. The In-
dians came from all directions, making the oc-
casion one of a g-eneral reunion, and the Fhnt
River witnessed a typical torder scene. The
Indians were in good humor, for their chiefs
tliought they had secured a good bargain. Vis-
its in state were made between the more promi-
nent chiefs and the representatives of the gov-
ernment. Huge council fires were the centers
of different groups, where the silent Indian
chief did the honors to his pale face brotliers:
Frotn the wigwam came file peace pipe
Very okl and sirangely fasliioned ;
Made of red stone was the pipe-head
From the great Red Pipe-stone Quarry
Blessed by Maniton the Mighty;
And the stem a reed with feathers.
Filled this pipe with hark of willow.
Placed a burning coal npon it,
Gave it to his giiest, the s'iraiiger.
— Adapted from The Soiisi of IJiawalhn.
What few white traders and settlers lived
witJiin a radius of 50 miles were there, for
such an event was worth witnessing, and life
in the wilderness offered few enough diver-
sions. Stately Ilurons, adorned in all their
savage pomp, delivered orations that were
deemed masterful by their people, as well as by
the pioneers. The dance of peace was given
three nights in succession, with all the weird
accompaniments the chiefs could muster. A
feast was spread to which all did fidl justice,
and on the following day the assembly dis-
persed. Michigan now held undisputed title
to all of the lands within the borders, at the
very time when statehood was conferred upon
the commonwealth.
With the cession of this last hunting gronn{|
of the Indians, the colonial period draws to a
close. Settlements now became very numer-
ous, and there was the usual rush for lands in
the newly opened reserve. The veteran hunt-
ers, trappers, and Indian traders, who had long
followed tiie Indian trails of the Saginaw Val-
ley, knew where the choicest parcels of land
were located, and these land prizes fell largely
to them.
A few land entries had been made in what
is now Bay County as early as 1831, by Leon
Tronibley. He erected the first permanenl log
luit on the site where stand to-day the substan-
tial business blocks on Water an<l Fourth
streets. The government had tried for years
to instill into the Indians a liking and aptitude
for agriculture, and Leon Trombley was one
of the Indian farmers of this district. He
cleared half an acre of ground from under-
brush, and planted some potatoes. This crop
he left ill charge of an Indian and his stjiiaw,
white he returned to Detroit to bring up his
family. It was early fall when he returned.
The instability of the natives as farmers was
proven by this early experience, for the patch
of potatoes had never felt the scratch of a hoe!
The fertility of the soil, however, saved Trom-
bley a supply of the tubers for the following
hard winter, for to his intense astonishment the
crop had matured without cultivation.
During the spring of 1832, Louis Masho
erected a log cabin on the spot where Bous-
field's mammolli woodenwai-e works are now
located. Cassette Trombley was another In-
dian teacher of farming on the west si<le of the
river, alaout this same tiiue. John B. Trudell,
fisherman and trader, erected a log cabin near
the present site of the Bay City Brewing Com-
pany's plant in 1834. Oddly enough, Tmdeli
was by general repute the first total abstainer
in these parts. In 1834 the government sent
Benjamin Cushway, a blacksmith, to this sec-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
tioii. believing tliat the growing demands of
tlie Indians' farms would require his services.
The Indian, however, preferred his pipe dreams,
liis revels, hunts and sports, and there was ht-
tle for Cushway to do. He erected his black-
smith shop and primitive cabin near the west
approach to the Lafayette avenue bridge, and
for years was a trader among tlie red men.
In 1835, Joseph Trombley left the employ
of the -Vmerican Fur Company, which had a
flourishing agency m the valley, and with his
brotlier, Medor Trombley, prepared to oi>en
a store of their own. The stock was purchased
at Detroit, and shipped here on the schooner
"Savage." The brothers selected a rather open
spot in the wilderness bordering the river, lying
high and dry where Water and 24th streets
intersect. The store was built of pine logs,
flattened on two sides, and was 25 by 30 feet
in size. The brothers opened the first store in
this end of the valley in time for the Indian
payment in the fall of 1835. For many years
they did a thriving business, exclianging their
flour, pork, blankets, and similar useful articles,
for the fur and venison of the Indians. The
stock in trade had to be brought mostly by boat,
as at that time there was only a tnnipike from
Detroit as far as Royal Oak, a distance of 14
miles, and a rough corduroy road as far as
Pontiac. From there radiated many Indian
trails, but these were impassable for men with
heavy packs. The first Trombley land entry
was made through Major Causley, United
States land agent at Detroit.
These first colonists were rugged types of
the hardy frontiersman. Of Joseph Trombley;
it is written that he would start from Detroit
before daybreak over the Indian trails with a
pack on his back and arrive at Flint, 70 miles
away, that same evening! In 1828, guided by
two Chippewa Indians, — Was-a-wa and Bee-
chance, — he sailed in a bark canoe along the
shore of Saginaw Bay to where Sebewaing is
now located. Their sole food was the game
ibey shot. Trombley did not find the water
deep enough to suit him there, hence returned
to Detroit. A log hut built at Carrollton by
his uncle, Cassette Trombley, in i8ig, shel-
tered him on a later trip of exploration in this
vicinity, when he took up the fur trade business
for John Jacob Astor.
Trombley was raised among the Indians,
and excelled at all their favorite sports. Hav-
ing defeated their most famous young chiefs
in feats of strength and daring, — in shooting,
wrestling, running, jumping, swimming, hunt-
ing or fishing,- — they stood in mortal awe of
his "big medicine," as they termed his rugged
vitality, and for years he was a commanding
figure in their councils. He occupied a fore-
most place in the councils, transferring the last
Indian reservation to the government, anil
contributed as much as any other one man to
the creation of a thriving and peaceful settle-
ment on the site of Greater Bay City. Y'ears
after, it was bis particular enjoyment to race
on foot some friend who was riding a horse
over the Indian trails to Flint and back the
same day, a distance of 90 miles, and Trombley
invariably won.
In 1836, during the height of the land spec-
ulation craze in the Northwest, Dr. Daniel
Hughes Fitzhugh, living between here and
Saginaw, decided to buy a parcel of land which
Joseph Trombley also had in view. The latter
heard that Dr. Fitzhugh had started for Flint
on horseljiack, to close the deal. Trombley
promptly gathered the necessary gold, piled it
in his canoe, which he paddled to the Tittaba-
wassee, and from there he ran practically all
the way to Flint. He had the land entered and
paid for before Dr. Fitzhugh and his horse
arrived. During the early evening, Trombley
returned after his canoe, showing his certifi-
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
cate lo a trader named McDonald at that place.
A[cDoiiald would not believe tliat Tronibley
had been to Flint and back in that short space
of time, but lost his bet of a gallon of wine,
when the mail carrier, who then delivered the
few letters, proceeding (his way on horseback,
came along and acknowledged that Tronibley
Jiad passed him that morning, going inlo Flint
at top speed, an{l a few hours later had again
passed him on his way home.
In 1836, Judge Albert Miller, who was the
first school teacher in the valley, purchased
some land from the Trombleys, and prepared to
have it platted.
The stray colonists and hermit pioneers
were soon to be surrounded by ambitious com-
munities. A new era was dawning for the
rich valley of the ancient Sauks. The rugged
ti-apper and the trader were being followed by
the farmer and the artisan. The sons of New
England were hurrying to the far Northwest,
just being opened. "Saginaw's tall and whis-
pering pines" were becoming the rallying point
of the sons of Maine, Vermont and New
ILtmpshire, to whom the odor of pine was life
itself. The silent scout who opened the way
was disappearing, and ere long the mechanical
industries, the workshop, the loom and the saw-
mill replaced his hunting lodge and trader's
tepee. His doings will be but a legend to the
next generation, and sound like a fable at the
dawn of another century. Yet for nigh unto
two-thirds of the elapsed period since Father
Marquette first explored these regions, this
silent, rugged outpost of civilization alone had
kept watch and ward over this valley, so blessed
by Nature. He has gi\-en way to the axe and
the plow of the colonist, or hied himself farther
North and deeper into his belov'ed solitude.
And now the colonist in turn is swallowed up
by the tide of immigration, and his individuality
and his little clearing alike are lost in the lx>om-
ing frontier communities. Their lives and
deeds are to-day liltle more than a memory.
Yet we know they chose wisely when they
settled in these parts, and they smoothed over
many rough places for the thousands that were
soon to follow their daring lead, Litlle enough
is known of their lives and their deeds, and but
few of their names have survived oblivion in
the passing years. But e^-ery thoughtful resi-
dent of this blessed valley must ever have a
warm spot in his heart for the pioneers and
colonists who dared the rigors and privations
of the wilderness, and created amid untold
dangers and suffering the garden spot on Sagi-
naw Bay we call our home.
Land of the lakes ! With reverence and love we cling
To thee, once rnggetl nurse of savage men !
Land of delight, where milk and honey flow!
Hosted by
Google
CHAPTER IV.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS AND SETTLERS
The Indians and Trappers Give Way to the Settlers — Planting of Settlements
— Memoirs and Reminiscences of Prominent Pioneers — The Period of Reck-
less Land Speculation and "Wild-Cat" Banks — Indian Mounds and Legends
— The Mound Builders — 0-ge-ma-ke-ga-to and Other Indian Chiefs—Incidents
OF Pioneer Life on the Saginaw River and Its Tributaries— Character
Sketches and Anecdotes.
Before these fields were shorn and tilled
Full to the brim our rivers flowed;
The melody of waters filled
The fresh and boundless wood ;
And torrent? dashed and rivulets played,
And bisons rested in the shade.
Indian and pale face trapper alike retreated
before advancing civilization. Like Daniel
Boone, of Kentucky, who in his 92nd year emi-
grated 300 miles west of the Mississippi, be-
cause he found a population of 10 to the square
mile inconveniently close, even so the border
pioneers of Michigan. The buzz of a sawmill
was the death knell for all that these children
of the forest held dear in life, and they retreated
hastily to other forest fastnesses when with
an ominous crash the giants of the forest fell
under the woodman's axe. Hence a complete
change of inhabitants was noted in this valley,
after the Indians left their favorite hunting
grounds and retired to their several reserva-
tions. True, many of the bands came period-
ically to the valley, holding their councils and
weird dances on the spots made sacred to them
by long associations, and by the traditions and
customs of their forefathers. Death had
claimed many of the Indians during that de-
cade. An epidemic of smallpox during the
winter of 1836-37 carried ofiE hundreds in the
valley, and old pioneers used to relate that many
died and were left imburied, the bodies being
eaten by the hogs and wild animals. The pio-
neers did all in their power to help the sick and
starving ladians during that trying ordeal, and
thenceforward there was little friction in this
part of the State between the races. Indeed,
as we review the records of early settlements
in these parts, we are struck by the good-feel-
ing, peace and good-will apparently existing
between the pioneers and the Indians.
From the time that Jean Nicollet, Father
Marquette, and other explorers visited the east-
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
ern sliore of Lake Huron and the Saginaw
basin, there were few years that did not find
nale face trappers, hunters and adventurers
in this valley. Most of these adventurers
started from Detroit, and it often happened,
that when they bade farewell to loved ones in
that stockade, it was also the last time they
were seen alive. They started for the land of
the Sauks, and were never more heard of.
Whether they succnmljed to sickness, or fell a
prey to wild beasts or Indians, none could tell,
hiit fhese losses were invariably charged to
the treacherous red men. The early pioneers
of onr land were almost as superstitions as the
red men. and hence many of the Detroit set-
tlers believed as implicitly, as did the Hurons,
that "0-Sauk-e-non" was haunted. After the
Americans secured jurisdiction over the North-
west, and hunting and warfare gave way to
more peaceful pursuits, this valley became the
goal of many traders. Here the Hurons came
to hunt, to celebrate and to trade. They pre-
ferre<l to deal with die hardy traders who dared
to come to this solitude, instead of carrying
their furs to Detroit, where they often brought
better prices. A number of these traders van-
ished as suddenly and as completely as though
the valley of the Sauks had swallowed them.
Other reckless spirits promptly took their
places, and trade did not languish.
One of the most prosperous of the early
traders was Louis Trombley, grandfather of
Joseph and Medor Trombley, who half a cen-
tury later did so much to develop this district.
Louis Trombley was a goldsmith by trade. He
did a thriving business with the Chippewas,
making silver ornaments and medals for them,
in exchange for their furs and game. He came
to the Saginaw Valley about 1792 in a small
hoaf. Shortly after he had begun building
another small yawl, at the mouth of the river,
trading meanwhile with die wandering bands
of Indians, he had a violent quarrel with an
Indian, who thought he had been cheated in
the trade of a muskrat spear. The Indian
plunged a huge knife into Trombley, who with
blood streaming from his wound leaped into
his Ixiat and started for Detroit. He never got
there, and liis relatives never learned whether
he had been overtaken by the Indian in a canoe,
and murdered, or whether he fell overboard.
His upturned boat drifted ashore near Port
Huron. His half-fin ishet! yawl was burned,
and his stock of goods, left in bis log cabin,
was stolen. Such outrages were rare, liowe\'er,
in times of peace. The Indians admired die
courage of these adventurers and needed their
goods.
The intermarriage of white traders with
Indian squaws did much to bridge over the
chasm separating the two races wherever they
met in the wilderness. Many half-breeds lived
in this territory, and while a shiftless class as
a rule, having apparently inherited all the had
characteristics of both races, still they were not
as vindictive toward the early settlers as some
of the red triliesmen, and usually warned
the traders and trappers when mischief or
war Avas brewing. But now that the Indian
had parted fore\'er with his great hunting
grounds, these roving pale faces made common
cause with the Indians, and retreated with
theni into the wilds lying north of here. Hence
we find but few Indians spoken of in the early
records of this vicinity. These authentic rec-
ords begin, practically, with the last Indian
treaty, completed on the Flint River in Septem-
ber, 1837.
While Michigan was yet a Territory, the
government at \Vasliington had begun the erec-
tion of a military road from Detroit to Sagi-
naw, an undertaking made difficult by the large
and numerous streams that had to be bridged.
When Michigan became a sovereign State, this
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
work was pusliecl even more vigorously, yet
it did not extend much beyond the Flint River
when the first settlers came on from Detroit
for the Saginaw Valley. Consequently a num-
ber of families tarried on Flint River, who had
planned lo g-o farther north.
James McCormick, a sturdy Scotchman,
was among this number. Born at Albany,
New York, May 25, 1787, he incurred the dis-
pleasure of his father, a Presbyterian, by mar-
rying Ellen Garratt, a Universalist, of Gar-
rattsville, in Otsego County, New York, which
place was named after her father. By thrift
and industry he accumulated what in those
pioneer days was a nice competence. In 1830
he went on the bond of some friends for
$16,000, which later he had to pay, leaving him
only $300 with which to support a large family.
He left j\lbany on May i, 1832, for Michigan,
then the Far West. The family went by canal
boat to Bufi^alo, the trip requiring seven days ;
then on the steamer "Superior" to Detroit in
72 hours, a record-breaking trip, made possi-
ble by favorable winds, the steamer also car-
rying spars and sails. Detroit then had aJxiut
3.500 inhabitants. Leaving his family in
rented rooms in a farm house, where the Bid-
die House in Detroit now stands, Mr. McCor-
mick and his two oldest boys, Robert and
James, took a wagon into the interior. Jenkins
Davis was at that very time constructing a
bridge across the Flint River. Hiring a past-
ure for the horse, the boys found employment
on this bridge, while their father purchased,
from a half-breed named Ewiug, 125 acres of
land situated on the north side of the Flint
River, and which 30 years later became the
center of the thriving city of Flint. Here he
planted potatoes brought for that purpose, and
as there were only two log cabins in that vicin-
ity, and both occupied, he built a similar crude
habitation, while his son James went to Detroit
to bring up the family, James was but 1 5 years
old, but he was accompanied by a young school
teacher from Grand Blanc, Albert Miller, who
in after years became one of Michigan's most
prominent citizens, and a leading pioneer of
Bay County, The friendship between these
two young men, begun under such peculiar cir-
cumstances, ripened with the passing years and
proved an influential factor in the development
of this community. The youngsters witnessed
the Fourth of July celebration at the old Capi-
tol in Detroit, erected in 1825 on the site now
occupied by Cadillac Square. John Mosher car-
ried the household goods with his team as far
as Grand Blanc for $25. James, with the one-
horse wagon, carried Mrs. McCormick, his
younger brother William R., and three little
sisters. Often when the corduroy road became
almost impassable, all had to get out and walk.
At Grand Blanc, husband and brother met the
family, and all camped out for the night.
Mosher returned to Detroit, for his team could
go no further, and McCormick and his sons
began at daybreak to cut a way for their one-
horse wagon through the wilderness. After
two days of harrowing work, they reached the
Flint River, the first settlers to get through by
wagon. The family had plenty of potatoes and
venison, but lacked all the other comforts of
home.
On October 31, 1832, Archibald L. McCor-
mick was born in this crude cabin in the wilder-
ness, the first white child born between the
Flint River and Mackinaw. Little did that
sturdy pioneer and his brave wife dream what
a future was in store for the child bom under
such primitive circumstances. When Archibald
L. McCormick reached a man's estate, he
drifted into Illinois, and at the breakiiig out
of the Civil War he enlisted as orderly ser-
geant in Company B, 52nd Reg., Illinois Vol.
Inf. For bravery at the capture of Island No.
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
lo in the Mississippi River, April 7, 1862, he
was promoted to be 2nd lieutenant. At the
Imttle of Stone River, January 2, 1863, he led
his company in capturing a Rebel battery, and
for bravery in action was promoted to be cap-
tain of his company. He was taken prisoner
in one of General Giant's assaults on Vicks-
hnrg, and suffered terribly from sickness and
privation. Being exchanged, he returned to
Illinois to recruit both his health and his com-
pany, both of which objects were accomplished
in time for the campaigns about Chattanooga.
He was with General Sherman on his famous
"March to the Sea." At the laattle of Kenesaw
Mountain, June 27, 1864, Captain McCormick
and his company were selected to storm a bat-
tery sheltered by strong breaslworks. "Re-
member the battery at Stone Ri'ver" were his
commander's parting words, which cheered the
little band on its desperate errand. They silen-
ced the battery, but Captain McCormick fell
on ihe breastworks, pierced by se\'en bullets, a
martyr to his country, and one of the many
native sons given by Michigan, that our nation
might live.
Such was the stock that blazed the wav
through the wilderness, that other and less
hardy generations might enjoy the fruits of
their labor, their hardships and privations, and
prosper amid the many gifts which Nature has
so richly bestowed on this valley. Such were
the heralds of civilization in Michigan, the ad-
vance guard of social refinement and civil hb-
erty. From the moment that these hardy pio-
neers left the older settlements behind them,
and turned their faces resolutely Northwest-
ward, their lives became one unending strug-
gle, each day marked by sacrifice and toil and
danger. They toiled in silence, and even their
names have been lost to posterity. From the
mists of obscurity that cover those years, and
shroud the lives and deeds of the builders of
homes and cities in the heart of Michigan, there
stand out clear and strong, like beacon lights
on the surrounding waters, the lives of a few
of those stahvart sons of the New World, like
James McCormick and his worthy sons. Their
life work is as an index to the lives of their
equally hardy and industrious, but less conspic-
uous neighbors.
The Chippewa chief, Toii-dog-a-ne, was
then at the head of the band that had the Flint
River bottom for its hunting ground, and the
sage Indian took quite a fancy to the McCor-
mick family. He often told the head of the
family about the rich lands and boundless for-
ests at the mouth of the Saginaw River. About
14 miles south of Saginaw there was a clearing
of some 200 acres in extent, on which several
government instructors had for years endeav-
ored to teach the roving Indians the art of rais-
ing crops, among them being the late Capt.
Joseph F, Marsac and Cassette Tromblcy. ik-
Cormick inspected the clearing and liked it so
well, that in 1834 he purchased 640 acres from
Ton-dog-a-ne, for 25 bushels of potatoes and
corn each year for ID years. So great was
the confidence of these Indians in McCormick
that his mere word sufficed to bind the bargain.
The family was moved to the new location
in Indian canoes, and for several nights their
only shelter was iheir blankets. Half a century
afterward these pioneers recalled how cruel it
seemed to them then, to be left alone
and without a roof over them, in the
great, dark forest; especially cruel did
it seem to ihe parents and older chil-
dren who remembered their cozy home on
the distant Hudson. A log house was built
in the course of a few weeks, and in diis the
family lived until they came finally to Lower
Saginaw, as Bay County was then called. The
clearing was fenced in with rails cut from some
walnut trees which grew in that section, — a
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
rather extravagant waste of valuable timber, as
measure<l by 1905 timber values, for now wal-
nut lumber is imported from Cuba and Central
America and resawed at the J. J. Flood mill
on the West Side of Greater Bay City, which
mill is esi)ecially equipped for that work.
In 1835, McCormick sold 1,000 bushels of
corn from this clearing to (he American Fin-
Company, which carried it in boats to the In-
dians of the Lake Superior region, in exchange
for beaver skins. An Indian trail through the
wootls. and even that impassable part of the
year, was the only means they had of comnumi-
cating with the few settlers north of them,
unless they came by boat on the river in sum-
mer, or over the ice in winter.
A grist mill was sorely needed by these pio-
neers, and in 1835 McComiick went to New
York, requiring 11 days to reach Albany,
wdiicli was fast time in the days before the iron
horse conquered space. He brought back with
him a little grist mill, run by hand, with a
handle on each side, wdiich woukl hold a peck
of corn, and would grind a bushel of com in an
hour! Other settlers had come to this end of
Michigan in the meantime, and they would
come many weary miles with their corn to use
this primitive grist mill. That little mill was
worth its weight in gold to the pioneers, and is
worthy of a place in Michigan's pioneer collec-
tion.
This section of Michigan was overrun with
land speculators during 1835 and 1836, and
many of them tarried at the cabin on the Indian
field. A field bed, holding to to 15 persons,
Mas made for their acconmiodation before the
fireplace, and was seldom emptj'. The water
along the valley was much higher in those
years than now, and after every rain the river-
bottom trails would be lost to view. Several of
these land lookers disappeared as mysteriously
as some traders had done before them, and the
valley was still held to be haunted by evil
spirits. Undoubtedly these land lookers fell
victims to the treacherous waters. One party
investigating the country in 1836, which they
knew was soon to be opened for settlement,
v,-as caught in one of these tempestuous rains.
Tor miles along the shore of the Saginaw River
they looked in \-ain for a camping place. When
they finally found a spot that was high and dry,
they crawded ashore utterly exhausted from
houi-s of paddling against the strong current.
Some hours later the waters began to rise, and
shortly after midnight they had to take to their
canoe, for their camping ground was co\'ered
with several feet of water, which was still ris-
ing. All night long they struggled against the
current and the storm in their frail canoe, and
all thanked Providence when morning broke
and the storm abated. Since much drift wood
was carried down stream, their escape from
drowning was really miraculous.
That same winter the McCormicks suffered
with hundreds of other pioneers, from the
bursting of the financial bubble, and the crash
of "wild-cat" Ijanks. James McCormick sold
his surplus corn to Saginaw parties for $1,50
per bushel, and the boys haule<l it down in
large, crude sleds on the ice. The corn was
paid for in hills on the Flint Rapids Bank.
When these bills were taken to Flint, it was
found the "wild-cat" bank had failed the day
before, and the pay for a whole year's labor
had been lost! That same winter the Indians
were dying by hundreds from smallpox, and as
few were well enough to hunt or fish, they were
actually starving. Chief Ton-dog-a-ne, sage
warrior and friend of the pale faces, was among
the first to cross the great river. Despite the
loss of their entire crop of corn through the
failure of the Flint "wild-cat" bank, the Mc-
Cormicks gave liberally of all they had to the
starving red men. Potatoes, corn, beans.
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
pumpkins and squashes were piled up at the far
end of the Iiitlian field, so that the Indians
could get them without endangering tlie health
of the settlers. When spring came and the
epidemic abated, the Indians showed their ap-
preciation of the settler's kindness by giving
him a lease without any remuneration for 99
years on the 640 acres he occupied. Judge
Devenport executed the legal documents.
In September of liiat year the treaty was
made with the Indians for their entire reser-
vation. They refused to sell their lands, unless
"the white man with the big heart" would be
secure on his 640 acres, Avhich they had given
him in recognition for his help in their hour of
dire need. Henry R. Schoolcraft, superintend-
en! of Indian affairs, drew up the treaty, prom-
ising to secure McCormick's rights, but when
the treaty was finally signed, sealed and deHv-
ered. that clause was found missing. In 1840
the go\-ernment sold the tract, and the McCor-
micks were unceremoniously ejected from the
land they had made producti\'e through all
those years of privation, toil and danger.
What was a loss to that pioneer family
proved a blessing to Bay County, for in 1841
the McCormicks removed to their original des-
tination, the banks of the Lower Saginaw.
Undaunted by the vicissitudes of a long series
of unfortunate events; disinherited by his
father because he dared to choose his own help-
meet; defrauded out of the earnings of many
years of hard work by the dishonesty of friends
whom he had trusted; driven into the wilder-
ness with his infant children and frail wife to
l)egin life anew under the most trying circum-
stances; and now, after carving a farm out of
the forest in his old age, driven even from that
forlorn hope by the strong ami of the govern-
ment, for which he had done so nmch as an ad-
vance guard in the wilderness; such was the
fate of this sturdy pioneer! But his spirits
were undaunted and his energies still keen.
Aided by his energetic sons, Mr. McCor-
mick once more packed up his earthly posses-
sions and moved them by ri^'er to Portsmouth,
now the south end of Bay Cit\',
With a keen eye for business, the sturdy
Scotchman looked on the majestic pines tower-
ing all about him, he listened lo the stories of
the unlimited pine supply of Northern Michi-
gan, as told by the Indians and pale face trad-
ers. He conversed with late arrivals from
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York
and the East. He learned that a multitude
were crossing the Atlantic Ocean from Eu-
rope, seeking a New World, where personal
liberty was established, and great opportunities
awaited the industrious immigrants. Cities
were building up, and the wave of immigration
was spreading resistlessly Westward. The polit-
ical unrest in Germany and Central Europe
was sending a most desirable class of people
to America, and most of these were going into
the interior, determined to creite homes for
thejnsclves in the virgin forests and prairies.
Building homes and warehouses retjnired lum-
ber, and here was as fine timber as the sun ever
shone upon. Then here was Ihe great river,
yonder the broad expanse of Saginaw Bay, an
open door to the Great I^kes, opening an easy
channel to the North, East and South, for the
ships of commerce. With the eye of a seer he
recognized the great opporiitnities offered by
the lumber industry to Ihis beautiful valley.
He found an idle sawmill in the little settle-
ment of Portsmouth, erected in 1837 by the
selfsame Albert Miller, who had helped to
bring Mrs. McCormick and the children to her
husband in their first clearing on the Flint
River in 1832. The boys of those years were
men now, in the full vigor of hardy manhood.
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
and brighter days dawned for the long suffer-
ing family. B. K. Hall willingly sold his in-
terest in the idle mill to James McCormick,
for during those years of panic following the
"wild-cat" bank failures and still wilder land
speculation, there was no demand for lumber
in the valley or out of it. The McCormicks
placed the sawmill in running order, arranged
to sell their output to James Busby, brother-in-
law to the late James Phraser, of Detroit, for
$8 per thousand, for clear pine, one-third down,
the balance on long time credits, and started
the machinery. Capt. George Raby, in the
old "Conneaut Packet," carried the first cargo
of lumber out of the Saginaw River, contain-
ing 40,000 feet of pine mt by the McCormicks'
mill. They sold clear lumber at the mill to the
Trombleys and others for $10 in store trade.
At such prices and under such conditions,
these pioneer lumbermen could not amass for-
tunes, as did their successors in that line of
business in the years to follow. These pioneers
merely blazed a way for the generation that
was to follow them. Well has it been said of
them, that they came 20 years too soon to be-
come rich. But in the fullness of time they had
a work to do, for by their perseverance, priva-
tions, hardships and industry, this valley was
opened to the world, and made to blossom as
a rose.
Typical of his age and generation was
James McCormick. Too brave and stout-
hearted to let succeeding disasters daunt his
spirits, the wilderness merely roused his best
efforts. Obstacles were made only to lie over-
come. Life was work and work was life. Even
in his declining years he was blazing the way
for bis children and children's children.
Ere we take up the thread of narrative and
resume the story of the development of this
county, it will be well to note the closing scenes
in the lives of these estimable pathfinders. For
five years James McCormick assisted his sons
in the sawmill, and then death hushed his ster-
ling heart forever. His devotetl wife, who bad
uncomplainingly left ease and comfort behind,
wlio bad carried her children into the wilder-
ness, given life to others in the crude log cabin
in the valley, and raised and educated them al!
to the l)est of her ability, survived him by 16
years. She dispensed her hospitality in the
old homestead in Portsmouth until 1854, when
she ga\-e up the duties of the household and re-
tired for well-merited rest and repose with her
children. She died at the home of her daugh-
ter, Mrs. John Malone, in Taymouth. Saginaw
County. July 22, 1862. Her life was like that
of a bright star, illuminating the wilderness.
Pioneer huslxind and wife sleep side by side in
Pine Ridge Cemetery. Over their sepulchre
kind hands have raised a suitable monument
with the following inscription: "To the Mem-
ory of James and Ellen McCormick, Pio-
neers of the Saginaw Valley. They pitched
their tent in the wilderness in 1S32, and
planted a vineyard; but the Master called them
home ere they gathered tbe fruit!" An honest
man is the noblest zi'orh of Goil !
The venerable couple had nine children who
grew to maturity; Robert is a prosperous f:tr-
mer in Illinois. Joseph went to Kentucky in
1831, and later settled in Kansas, where be
died more than 20 years ago. Sarah, the third
daughter, married Medor Trombley, the Ports-
mouth Indian trader, on August 26, 1847, ^
year after her father's death. The wedding
was a simple affair, in keeping with the sim-
plicity of their lives and the times. They started
housekeeiiing at once in the frame building,
erected by Medor Trombley in 1835. Seven
children came to bless their union, among them
Mrs. L. F. Rose and Mrs. John Greening, of
Bay City. Archibald L., the hero who gave
his life for the Union at Kenesaw Mountain,
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS,
69
was the fiflli son. Elizabeth, the second daugh-
ter, married Orrin Kinney, a prominent fanner
and well-known pioneer of this connty. They
still reside in the family homestead on Cass ave-
mie, snrronnded by their children and children's
children. Ann. the first danghter, married John
Malone, of Taymouth township, Saginaw
County, where they settled on government
lands, entered in 1838. The yonngest son,
Andrew V. McCormick, the first white child
born in Taymouth township (on December 30,
1836), went to Illinois in 1854, served in the
Union Army during lhe Civil War, and later
became a prosperous farmer in Kansas.
James J, McCormick, the third son, shared
in all the hardships and toil of the family's
hninebuilding in the Saginaw Valley. His
rifle supplie{l the venison for the larder in lhe
log caliin. He it was who transported the sup-
plies to and from the homestead in the wilder-
ness. Equally at home on horseback as in
canoe, and knowing every Indian trail for miles
around, he was much sought after as a guide
by the land lookers. Born in Albany. New
York, in January, 1817, he early evinced sound
business judgment, and at tha death of his
father in 1846 he carried on the sawmill busi-
ness in Portsmouth. While visiting his brother
Joseph in Kentuckj', in 1839, he met. wooed
and won Jane Sheldon, who proved a fitting
helpmeet during those pioneer days. She died
in -1854. Two sons and one daughter (after-
ward Mrs. Edioni H. Bassett, her husband
being at the head of the dry goods firm of
Bassett. Seed & Company) survived her. Their
eldest son also enlisted in the Union Army
during the Civil War, where he contracted an
ailment which caused his death in 1867.
The indomitable will and enterprise of
James J. McCormick did much to develop the
lumber industry of the valley. When he and
his father bought the Hall mill in Portsmouth
in 1841, everything was at a standstill. Most
men would have waited for something to turn
up. Not so these McCormicks. They went
to Detroit and sought a market for the pine
they had cut. At home the settlers had neitlier
money nor courage to erect new buildings. The
McCormicks stepped in and put up buildings
on long term contractSj with the lumber they
cut, their early customers including Hon.
James G. Birney, an<l the famous Indian trad-
ers and interpreters, Capt. Joseph F. Marsac,
Medor Trombley and Joseph Trombley. This
pioneer sawmill operator bought Captain Mar-
sac's cottage and a parcel of land, by fiiniishing
the lumber for a more palatial home for the
veteran Indian fighter. The friendship which
sprang up between James J. ^McCormick and
the late Judge Albert Miller on the Indian trail
to Detroit back in 1832, ripened into a business
partnership, when in 1848 they jointly oper-
ated their little sawmill. None but the early
settlers can know the ceaseless roimd of toiJ
those men endured in cutting lumber in that
mill. Both took iheir turns at the saw, and
fixed up their books and other business matters
when their other employees slept.
Then the gold fever swept over tlic land,
and with thousands of others from every com-
munity in the country, and from every walk of
life, James J. McCormick determined to "get
rich quick" in the famous gold El Dorado of
California. Having provided for the care of
his wife and children, and arranged his busi-
ness affairs, he bade them all farewell, and once
more turned his face resolutely Westward.
Having procured a team of oxen and loaded
a wagon with the necessities required for the
trip, he ferried them across the Saginaw River
on a raft of hewn timbers, in March, 1849,
and started solitary and alone across the un-
known continent to the gold fields of Califor-
nia. An old acquaintance, Alfred Cover, of
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
Genessee County, accompanied him part of the
way. Later they met at a spring in California
tt-Iiere they were watering their horses, but
both liad aged so, that they did not recognize
one another until they spoke of tlieir former
residences. They shared each other's fortunes
and misfortunes in the gold district after that,
returning to the Saginaw Valley in 1851,
Their experience had been identical with thous-
ands of other gold seekers. Hardships and
daiigei's were their portion and the reward fell
far below expectations.
'Jlie hardy ad\'entiirer sa\'ed enough of the
gold dust to begin the lumber business on a
more extensive scale on his return, building
a new sawmill near his residence, which he
operated successfully until 1871, when he sold
it to the Webster Company. In 1868 he erected
the McCormick Block on Water street. He
owned considerable real estate. He was a mem-
ber of the first Council of Bay City and was
elected mayor in 1869. He had a wide circle
of devoted personal friends. He was a 33rd
degi'ee Mason.
William R. McCormick, the fourth son,
was born at Albany, New York, August 16,
1822. He was 10 years old when his family
made the perilous trip to the wilds of Michigan.
For many years their only neighbors were In-
dians, and his only playmates were these red
children of the forest. Their nearest neigh-
bors at that time were Charles and Humphrey
McLean, who lived 15 miles away, where Pine
Run is now located. He often accompanied
the Indians on their periodical hunting trips,
and when but 15 years old was employed as in-
terpreter and trader by an independent fur
trading company on the Saginaw River. Dur-
ing the winter of 1837-38 he did chores for
Major Mosley, wlio commanded the old stock-
ade fort on the Saginaw, where he received
such schooling as that yotmg settlement of-
fered. In 1839 he determined to see the world,
so against his father's wish he started on foot
for his brother's home near Vincennes, Indiana.
He took the Indian trail to Detroit, then fol-
lowed the corduroy road as far as LaPorte,
Indiana, and finally reached his destination,
footsore, hungry and penniless. Having satis-
fied his craving for travel and sightseeing, he
returned to the parental roof in 1840. He ac-
companied his father's family to Portsmouth
in 1841, where he assisted in the work in the
sawmill until 1846. He spent a few years in
Albany, New York, where he married Angel-
ica Wa}-ne, and then came back to the valley
he loved to call his home. In i860 a stock com-
pany was formed by Judge Albert Miller, to
bore for salt. William R. McCormick was
chosen secretary and general manager. He
superintended the boring, and at a depth of 600
feet the flow of brine was struck, which has
ever since furnished the raw materia! for one
of the valley's leading industries. This was the
first salt well in Bay County. For many years
he was active in the lumlier and real estate busi-
ness. He shared with Judge Miller for many
years the distinction of being the oldest living
pioneers of Bay County. He lived to see Bay
City grow from a settlement of two log cabins
to a prosperous community of over 20,000 in-
habitants, whose buzzing saws were heard
around the world, wherever the product of
forest and stream entered into the creation of
homes and the construction of ships.
For many years William R. McCormick
collected data and relics pertaining to the early
history of Bay County. We owe much to his
pen. Michigan owes much of its pioneer col-
lection to his foresight and forethought. That
the lives and deeds of his parents and family
are so well-known and so well-preserved, is
entirely due to his memorandum book, which
gives to us the most exact and interesting re-
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
view of pioneer life 70 years ago. His anec-
dotes of the early settlements and the Indians
as lie found them furnish one of ihe brightest
chapters in the annals of Michigan, and give
to men and events in this rich valley their
proper place and proportion. Space forbids
recounting all of his Inimitable stories and rem-
iniscences. A few will bear repeating, as a
fleeting glimpse into an eventful and yet almost
forgotten past.
In 1833 he accompanied Colonel Marshall
on an exploring trip to the mouth of the Sagi-
naw River and along the west shore of Sagi-
naw Bay. Starting from Flint during the hot
summer months, they soon struck a shallow
spot in the river. A young Indian warrior
helped them in getting their canoe around the
low water, and the brave was given a swig of
fire-water, which every pioneer carried in those
days. They paddled 12 miles down the river
and landed to prepare dinner. To their utter
astonishment, ere long they perceived the self-
same young Indian approaching their campfire.
He told them he had come 12 miles to get an-
other drink of the white man's firewater ! Such
was the craving for liquor which consumed
Poor Lo!
Paddling down the river, they passed
through great swarms of wild ducks, the an-
cestors of the flocks, which even now, in ever
diminishing numbers, visit the shores of river
and bay at certain seasons of the year. In the
summer of 1833 the river was fairly black with
them. A Chippewa Indian from the Wenonah
village had 37 ducks, which he said he had
killed with seven shots from a "squaw gun."
If that old blunderbuss did such execution one
can imagine what would have happened had
he used a modern repeating shotgun.
The first habitation fhey saw, after leaving
the fort stockade of Saginaw behind them, was
the log cabin at Zilwaukee, known as the Mosby
House. Paddling swiftly with the current
down stream, they soon passed the log cabin
where the Indian squaw of the Frenchman,
Louis Masho, and his half-breed children were
fishing in the shade of a huge elm tree, where
Bousfield's mammoth \voodenware Morks are
now located. Almost three miles further down
stream they passed the log cabin of Leon Trom-
bley, now the comer of Fourth avenue and
Water street. They did not see another living
soul until they reached the mouth of ihe Kaw-
kawlin River, where an Indian trading shack
was located, which was always a favorite meet-
ing place of the redskins.
Colonel Marshall participated that night in
a big powwow at an Indian village on the Kaw-
kawlin, where the pipe of peace matle the
rounds, wise old Indians "orated" in a lan-
guage iheir guest conkl not understand, and
where considerable fire-water was consumed
and charged against future catches of fish and
game by the reckless sons of the forest. In-
dian games were in order the next morning,
and young McCormick enjoyed the sptirt and
the honors with the l>est of the young bucks.
Among the wise men of the tribe at this
camp-fire was Keh-way-go, of the Tittaba-
wassee band of Hurons. His wigwam was on
the shore of Saginaw Bay, where the beau-
tiful summer resort, Wenona Beach, is now
situated. In his younger years this warrior
had killed a son of Red Bird, a chief of the
I'lint band of Chippewas, who immediately de-
manded his life as a forfeit under the Indians'
crude laws. Neh-way-go presented himself at
the mourner's wigwam, and told the assembled
warriors he had come to pay the penalty of
his rash deed. Baring his bosom, he was thrice
stabbed by the dead man's relatives, bat noTie ■
of the thrusts proved immediately fatal. Cov-
ered with his own blood he hurried back to his
own people, when one of Red Bird's band saw
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
him and gave him another stab in the back.
In spite of his wounds and loss of blood, his
faithfnl young wife managed to bind up
his wounds and nursed him back to .life
and health. Indian usage was satisfied, but
Indian hate never. While still weak from his
terrible wounds, he visited the Indian trading
store of the Williams brothers on the Saginaw
River. An Indian runner brought these tidings
to O-sou-wah-bon's band camped on the Titta-
bawassee, an<i that burly warrior at once
started with concealed knives to finish Neh-
way-go. Bold as ever, the wounded Indian
refused to enter his canoe when ordered to do
so by Ephraim S. Williams. When the aveng-
ing native arrived, the Williams brothers dis-
armed him, pushed Neh-way-go into his canoe
and his wife paddled him home, despite his pro-
tests that he was no coward, and would meet
the avengers. The following year, while hunt-
ing, he met the Indian who had stabbed him in
the back after his summary punishment, and
Neh-way-go promptly killed him. Black
Beaver, a noted chief of the Chippewas, took
him to task at an Indian payment-meeting at
Saginaw some years after, and in the fight that
followed, Black Beaver was killed. Colonel
Stanard, commanding the army post, issued a
■\\-arrant for Xeh-way-go's arrest, but the In-
dian preferred dealh at the hands of his own
people to arrest and imprisonment by the sol-
diers. He told Ephraim S. Williams, the In-
dian agent, that he would present himself for
such punishment as his tribe might inflict, but
he never would submit to be arrested, which
was a punishment fit only for cowards! The
killing of Black Beaver -had spread quickly
through the Indian villages and from them to
the few white settlements. When the day for
the solemn Indian funeral rites had arrived, all
the Indians and white settlers in the valley were
assembled on the ridge west of the river bank.
The Indian's relatives were chanting the
mournful funeral odes of their tribe, their faces
streaked with black and white, symbolic of
death and the life beyond in the happy hunt-
ing grounds. While the several thousand silent
watchers were intent on the mysterious cere-
monies, Neh-way-go came strutting over from
his camp ground. He was attired in all the
splendor of a warrior on the war-path. His
knife and tomahawk were in his belt, and a
flask of whiskey hung from his girdle. He was
prepared for the long journey to the same
happy hunting grounds to which he had sent
Black Beaver. With solemn mien and majes-
tic tread he came into the circle of mourners.
The white settlers had provided a coffin for the
dead. On this he sat, while he filled his calu-
met with kinnikinic, composedly puffing clouds
of blue vapor skyward. Then he passed his
pipe to the chief mourner, who scorned to take
it. Next he passed his whiskey flask with the
same solemn mien. This, too, was scorned.
Then he sat down, opened his hunting shirt
and bared his bosom. After a few moments
of intense silence he addressed the mourners
as follows: "You refuse my pipe of peace.
You refuse to drink with me. Strike not in the
back. Strike not and miss. The man who
strikes and misses dies when next I meet him
on tlie hunting grounds!" But no one stirred.
No one offered to kill him. Then Neh-way-go
arose, replaced knife and tomahawk and whis-
key flask in his girdle, and with the same sol-
emn mien passed straight through his enemies,
pausing only long enough to taunt them for
being cowards ! When young McCormick saw
him near his wigwam on the Kawkawlin, he
was an old and weather-beaten warrior, of
ready wit and convivial spirits. Years after,
he fell a victim to the implacable hate of the
relatives of Black Beaver, being shot while
hunting on the Quanicassee.
Hosted by
Google
AXD REPRESENTATIVE CTITZEXS.
On this same trip, Mr. McCormick saw, for
the first time, the "Lone Tree," which was for
years a landmark for the old settlers, and an
omen for good among the Hurons. It was a
vigorous ash tree, about two feet in diameter,
standing solitary and alone in the prairie, where
McGraw's prairie farm is now located. Canoe-
ists on the river estimated by the tree they were
two miles from Portsmouth and four miles
from Leon Trombley's original log cabin in
Bay City. In summer, \vith its rich foliage,
and in winter amid the great white mantle of
snow, it was alike conspicuous. And be it win-
ter or summer, passing travelers invariably saw
a large white owl perched in the tree-top. To
the Indians this owl was sacred, and a pretty
legend was \vo\'en about the tree. Often did
the pioneers hear the orators of the Hurons re-
peat this legend, the most romantic inheritance
left by them to dieir favorite hunting grounds
of long ago. Ages ago, the exact number none
could teli, a great and wise chief, Ke-wah-ke-
won, ruled over the red people of this valley
with love and kindness. When he felt that he
would soon be treading the happy limiting
grounds of the Great Spirit, he called his people
together to bestow on them his last blessing,
an<l to gi\-e them his parting admonition
and advice. Amid the silent prairie, as yet iin-
trod by the foot of the pale face, the clans were
gathered, mournful witnesses of the last fare-
well of their brave and beloved chieftain. When
he felt his pulse grow weaker, he lifted his
voice calm and clear above the rushing waters
of the stream at his feet: "My children," said
he, "the Great Spirit has called me, and I must
obey the summons. Even now the tomahawk
is raised to sever the last chord that binds me
to my children! The guide stands at the door
to convey me to the hunting grounds of my
father in the Spirit Land. You weep, my chil-
dren, but dry your tears, for though I leave
you now, yet will my spirit bird ever watch
over you. I will whisper to you in the evening
breeze, and when the morning comes you will
know that I lia\'e been with you tlirough the
night. But the Good Spirit beckons me, and I
must hasten. Let my body he laid in a quiet
spot, with my tomahawk and pipe by my side.
You need not fear that the wolf will disturb
my rest, for the Great Spirit, I feel, will place
a watch over me. Meet me in the Spirit Land,
my children — farewell!" They bnried him in a
lonely spot in the prairie, on the opposite side of
the great river, with his face toward the rising
sun. His last resting place was never dis-
turbed by bird or beast. So had the Great
Spirit ordered it.
In the course of time, a tree arose over the
grave, and spread it.s branches over it like a
protecting wing, and in that tree lived a beauti-
ful white owl, which the Great Spirit had sent
to watch over it. So long as this "Lone Tree"
stood, and the owl watched over it, the In-
dians of the valley would thrive and prosper,
but when the sacred owl would depart, their
tribes would become scattered, and their race
pass away. Strangely enough, all this came
to pass. A great flood in 1838 laid bare the
roots of the tree, and covered the prairie for
miles and miles with water, killing all the trees
that had withstood the previous rampages of
the Saginaw. In 1837 the Indians gave up by
treaty their last great hunting groun<ls in Mich-
igan. During that very twelvemonth half
their number were killed by smalliwx, and
their tribes became weak and scattered. The
dead ash tree stood for several years longer,
the white owl still keeping its vigil over the
grave of Ke-wah-ke-won. In 1841, James J.
McCormick came with his father's family to
the wilderness in Portsmouth, as we have nar-
rated. He knew nothing of the legend center-
ing about that "Lone Tree," and the big white
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
owl perched ever in its decaying branches.
While out hunting ducks on the river shore
and marsh, he shot and killed the owl. A few
years after, the tree was prostrated in a storm,
and the last vestige of it soon disappeared.
With it disappeared the Indians. They lin-
gered for a time about their old haunts, where
once they had been nn<lisptited masters. But
the colony of pale faces was growing stronger,
game was becoming more and more scarce,
and Poor Lo must retreat further into the
Northern wilds. Al>out 1840 the Philadelphia
Evening Post published a poem on the "Lone
Tree" and its messenger from Manitou the
Great, watching over the weal and woe of the
Indians of the valley of the Sauks. written by
Miss Mather, daughter of a prominent pioneer
of Flint. Hon. Artemas Thayer, of Flint, was
enjoying with his bride and two friends, in-
cluding Miss Mather, his wedding trip, on the
ice and snow covering Saginaw River, from
Flint to Portsmouth, when they saw the "Lone
Tree" and the far-famed white owl. Shortly
after writing that poem, Miss Mather died
while visiting at the home of Hon. Horace
Greeley, in New York.
William R. McCormick delighted to repeat
these weird Indian legends around his cozy
fireside in after years. He was also indefati-
gable in gathering the relics which were found
in large numbers in the sand bills and mounds
of this part of the State. The oldest frame
house in Bay City was built by the Tronibleys
in 1835, and in 1842 this was purchased by
William R. McCormick's father. It stood then
in 3 broad clearing on the western slope of an
extensive mound, and is to-day the venerable
old Center House on the comer of 24th and
Water streets. In those mounds the McCor-
micks found many skeletons, much broken pot-
tery of strange make, stone knives, stone axes,
stone arrow-heads and stone spears. Most
of the relics found in these and other mounds
of this valley were presented by Mr. McCor-
mick to the State Pioneer Collection, to muse-
ums all over the coimtry, and to the Smithso-
nian Institute at Washington.
In company with kindred spirits, who loved
to search these unexplored river banks for
traces of other races, and for relics of a for-
gotten past, he searched through e\-ery nook
and comer of this county. A review of their
findings cannot fail to interest even the la)-man.
He was a confirmed believer in the theory, that
this valley was at some prehistoric period the
advanced position of the mysterious race of
Mound Builders. He saw these mounds in a
state of nature 70 years ago. He saw them
plowed over, dug up to admit foundations for
large modern buildings, and a few sand riilges
carried away bodily for building purposes.
One of the highest elevations in Bay Coun-
ty is the mound or ridge at the east approach
to the Lafayette avenue bridge. In 1905 we
find on it the massive buildings of the Bay City
Brewing Company, a hotel, livery stable, the
venerable old McCormick homestead, and, on
the northern spur, the palatial home of Ex-
Mayor George D. Jackson. The elevation com-
prises about two acres. When William R. Mc-
mick first saw this conspicuous landmark, just
70 years ago, he found timber all about it, with
the exception of a duck pond in the rear of the
mound, about an acre in extent. In excavating
for the massive brewery, Indian skeletons were
found four to five feet below the surface, while
five feet deeper down were found skeletons of
another and apparently an older race, buried .
with oddly-formed burned pottery and quaint
stone and copper implements. Some of these
implements showed that this strange prehis-
toric people had the art of hardening copper,
and of working in metals. Unfortunately
these skeletons had crumbled away to such an
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
extent, that a touch, or a breath of air even,
left nothing but a dust heap. In grading 22nd
street, through the north end of this mound,
three skeletons of very large stature were
found at a depth of 11 feet, with large earthen
pots placed at the head of each sarcophagus.
A large circuiar mound existed for many
years near the C. J. Smith sawmill in the First
Ward of the West Side, about 100 feet in diam-
eter and from three to six feet above the level
of the surrounding meadows. Old settiers
found many strange stone weapons and other
implements by grubbing around in this mound.
It was leveled down and (he dirt use<l
to fill in a part of the river front, hence every
trace of it is lost.
On the property of Hon. James G. Birney,
at the west approach to the Michigan Central
Railroad bridge, was another similar mound,
but nmcli higher than the Smilli mound. The
skeletons were much better preserved than any
of the others, and the skulls were quite unlike
those found in Indian graves. One well-pre-
served skull, with a circular hole through the
forehead, made by some sharp instrument,
which undoubtedly caused death, was presented
by Mr. McCormick to J. Morgan Jennison, of
Philadelphia, Some boys found an exquisitely
worked canoe, of silver, about five inches long,
with the ends dipped in gold. A kettle made of
copper, wrought into shape by hammering,
having no seams, was also found in this mound,
and placed with Mr, Jennison's collection in
the State Capitol.
Another mound was a half mile south of
this one. and several skeletons were dug from
its side by Charles E. Jennison, one of the few
pioneers of those early days still living in Bay
City. Copper kettles and other implements
were also found in this mound.
A half mile further south we find, even to
this day. one of the mo'^t commanding views of
the river. Early settlers found a spring of
water here, clear as crystal, and jnst shade
enough to make it an ideal camping ground for
the Indians, Here, according to tradition, was
the main portion of the Sauk tribe when they
were wiped out by the confederated tribes.
Here they made their most desperate stand
against overwhelming numbers. And here
their conquerors, the Hurons, would assemble
all their tribes in the State for their perennial
feasts,danccs ami councils. The main elevation
covered three acres, and, like the McCormick
mound almost directly across the river from if,
there was a deep depression southwest of its
abrupt sides. Down in that depression the soil
is a clay loam mixed with black sand. North
of the mound is a ridge of yellow sand, hut
the mound and the slope on its northern face
were of the same soil as the facings of the
mound. Tliis led the explorers to conclude
that the mounds were built artificially ages Ije-
fore the white race came to this country. Rail-
roads dug up this mound for ballasting pur-
poses, and the village authorities of Wenona
cut a street through it, so that litlle remains of
the original mound as the early settlers found
it. During these excavations in this Fitzhugh
mound, many relics were found, showing con-
clusively that it had been built by a strange
people many centuries before. Among numer-
ous skeletons were found quaint ornaments of
silver, broken pottery, some of it with primitive
ornamentation, together with the usual large
number of burned stones and stone weapons.
The forts were very identical, usually from
three to six acres in extent, with walls four to
eight feet high, and 10 to 12 feet across at the
top. The form of the mounds indicates that
they are largely artificial, and with the primi-
tive tools at the disposal of those ancient people
must have required years to complete. The
best proof of their construction by a human
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
race is the depression near each hill or mound,
whose soil corresponds in each instance with
the lop dressing- of these mounds, although the
original surface soil is often of entirely differ-
ent composition. Then their general plan and
character show clearly that there was method
and system in their work. Michael Dailey, the
old Indian trader, Capt. Joseph F. Marsac, the
much-traveled Indian fighter and explorer, and
others, who often visited the Riile and An Sahle
rivers, reported a numher of similar mounds
and fortifications along those streams and their
tributaries.
The IVfound Builders appear to have had
their outpost at the Straits of Mackinac, and to
have been particularly numerous in the Sagi-
naw Valley. Along the Cass ami Flint rivers
a number of mounds have been systematically
explored, and the relics and skeletons added to
the collection of antiquities. These relics are
never found except in these elevations or
mounds. William R. McCormick had his own
theory alx)ut the many bunied and broken stones
invariably found in these mounds. He con-
tended that their pottery would not stand the
action of fire, hence they would heat stones,
and cast them into their pottery to boil their
water. Michael Dailey and others, who were
fishing near Duck Island in Lake Huron, found
kettles, bowls, weapons and implements very
similar to those found in these mounds. Cer-
tain it is, that the oldest remains of civilization
in America are those of the Mound Builders,
Their vast earthworks in the Ohio and Missis-
sippi valleys must have taken many generations
to complete. Yet not even the faintest tradi-
tion remains to tell who built them. That
they were a ^"ery civilized race there
can be no question. They must have
been mentally far siiperior to the savage
races that supplanted them. Their sway ex-
tended at one time or other from Mexico to
Lake Superior. In the copper mines of ovir
Upper Peninsula are found old shafts, with the
wedges and chisels they used at their work,
together with detached masses of copper ore.
All our antiquarians are agreed that their
works in Michigan were mere outposts. The
main works are in the South. There are found
pottery, ornaments of silver, of lx>ne, of mica,
and of sea shells from the Gulf of Mexico.
Lance-heads, axes, adzes, hammers and knives
of stone, exactly like those found in Bay
County, are found in those great earthworks of
the South. Spear-heads, lances and arrow-
heads made of obsidian, a volcanic substance
only found and used in Mexico, prove that they
had some connection with that country. Crude
spinning implements found in all these mounds
prove that they kneu- the art of weaving and
spinning, which was unknown to the Indians.
Some historians contend that these Mound
Builders came originally from Mexico, and
that owing to climatic conditions they were
eventually driven back to their original homes,
and that they are the ancestors of the Toltecs
of Mexican history. ToUecs means architects
or builders, which name would seem to have
been a fitting one for that intlustrious race.
Other historians contend that the entire race
of Mound Builders was destroyed either by a
great flood, an epidemic of disease, or a war
to the death with a more primitive, but more
numerous and more powerful race. But as we
read the conjectures of historians and students
of this ancient race, we cannot help but feel
that even these prehistoric Mound Builders ap-
preciated the splendid location of this valley
for all the needs and comforts of the human
race.
Nowhere in the Northwest are there as
many relics of these prehistoric people to he
found, than in this section of Michigan. Hunt-
ing for these evidences of an earlier civilization
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
fonned, for many of the early pioneers here,
an exhilarating tliversion. They wearied of
the chase and fisliing became nanseatliig at!ter
a few years. Places of recreation there were
none. Communication with the outside world
was irregular, and confined to the receipt of
neivspapers often weeks and months out of date,
and at their best containing but little real news.
The settlements for years were few in number
and widely separated, as if each new arrival
sought solitude above all else. Often for weeks
at a time these rugged settlers did not see a
li\ing person. Hence they devoted much of
their leisure time to exploring the vicinity of
their new homes. Then when they did meet
at one another's firesides, they would exchange
ideas on the many odd and strange things their
investigations of a country that was entirely
new to them had brought forth. E\'en in re-
cent years many quaint relics, mostly of the
Indian period, have been found along the riv-
ers and the bay shore. Justice of the Peace
Frank G. Walton, of the West Side, has a
stone battle-axe that is believed to Ije the largest
ever found in Michigan. It was picked up on
the shore of the Kawkawlin River, which was
always a favorite hunting ground for the abor-
igines. Unfortunately, the residents of Bay
County have never had a permanent pioneer
societ}', and consequently there has Ijeen no
sy.stem in these researches. The demand for
more room to accommodate the increasing
husiness of Bay City has caused so many im-
provements, that most of the old landmarks and
mounds have been obliterated and forgotten.
Little is known by the present generation
of the names and deeds of our pioneers. At
long intervals, outside enterprise gives to us
a record of those earJy days, brought down to
their respective periotls, but that is all. This
is not as it should be. The lives and deeds of
our pathfinders and pioneers should never be
given over to oblivion. Their noble self-sacri-
fice, amid the dangers and hardships of life in
the unknown wilderness, should prove an inspi-
ration to the coming generations. Bay County
should have an active pioneer society to keep
alive the spirit of our forefathers, to treasure
the stirring records of our early history and
to delve deeper into the wealth of research
still possible in this valley, beloved of the an-
cients.
No history of Bay County would be com-
plete without a mention of the greatest of the
Chippewa chiefs of the last century. One of
the numerous bands of that tribe of the race
of Hurons had their wigwams for many years
on the banks of the Tittabawassee, a worthy
branch of the Saginaw. About 1794 there was
born in that band, 0-ge-ma-ke-ga-to, one of
the greatest chieftains of his race. His tril)e
consisted of a flozen bands, each headed by a
hereditary chief, and these chiefs in turn elected
the head chief. In 1819, although but 25
years old, 0-ge-ma-ke-ga-to was chosen head
chief, and was the leader of the Indians in the
councils with General Cass, then Governor of
Michigan Territory. He was then in the full
vigor of young manhood, over six feet in
height and, according to General Cass, at once
a perfect type of the American Indian, an elo-
quent orator, and a Ixirn leader of his race.
The pale face trappers who had married In-
dian squaws, and tlte half-breeds living with
the Chippewas, together with many of the
minor chiefs, were in favor of giving up at
once all their possessions to the government,
in return for a lil^eral money consideration.
0-ge-ma-ke-ga-to alone opposed giving up
their lands. In an address to more than 2,000
of his people, he held them spellbound for two
hours. To General Cass and his staff he said:
"You cannot know our needs. You do not
know our condition. Our people wonder what
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
has brought you so far from your homes. Your
young men have invited us to come and hght
the council fires; we are here to smoke the pipe
of peace, but not to sel! our lands. Our Ameri-
can Father wants tbem. Our English Father
treated us better. He never asked for our
lands. You flock to our shores; our waters
grow warm ; our lands melt like a cake of ice.
Our possessions grow smaller and smaller.
The warm wave of the white man rolls in on us
and melts us away. Our women reproach us,
and our children want homes. Shall we sell
from under them the spot where they spread
their blankets? We have not called you here;
yet do we smoke with you the pipe of peace."
He alone held out for the 40,000 acre reser-
vation in which was included the hunting
ground of his own band and, despite all that;
General Cass and his interpreters could do,
O-ge-ma-ke-ga-to had his way, before the
treaty was finally ratified. He loved this val-
ley, and wanted it kept forever as the hunting
ground of his people. Many stones of his in-
domitable will and bravery were told by the
early pioneers. About 1835 two Indians of
his band proceeded to settle a quarrel with their
ever ready hunting knives, while under the in-
fluence of liquor. 0-ge-ma-ke-ga-to jumped
between them, and with his body stopped a cut
intended by one of the warriors for the other.
A portion of his liver protruded from the terri-
ble cut in his side. While being nursed back to
health, he sliced off the protruding piece of
liver with his knife, threw it on the coals of the
fire in his wigwam, and after roasting it.
calmly ate it. To the warriors about him he
remarked, that if there was a braver man in the
Chippewa nation than he, he would like to see
him. Incredible though this story may ap-
pear at this distance, it was vouched for 70
years ago by Joseph Trombley, Ephraim S.
Williams, and Peter Grewett, Indian traders
of that period, and Mr. McCormick and Judge
Albert Miller never doubted its accuracy. They
knew this warrior, knew of his many other
reckless deeds of daring, and never questioned
the veracity of this incident. Strangely enough
this operation hastened his cure. It also
strengthened the hold he had on his triljesmen,
for the Indian admires reckless daring above
all other virtues.
O-ge-ma-ke-ga-to was one of the seven
chiefs who went to Washington in 1837 to
negotiate the sale of their remaining reserva-
tion. The sage chief recognized that the set-
tlers were coming into that part of Michigan in
such nvimbers, that its usefulness as a hunting
ground would soon be gone forever, and he
made his last stand for such favorable terms of
sale, as he could command. President Thomas
Jefl^erson rather admired the eloquent and im-
posing warrior, and he presented him with a
solid silver medal, of oblong shape, five inches
long, bearing this inscription: "Presented to
O-ge-ma-ke-ga-to by Thomas Jefferson."' On
one side was the heroic figure of an Indian
chief, and on the other a cut of the President.
Red Jacket, the famous chief of the Senecis,
was the only other living Indian who received
this mark of distinction from Thomas Jeffer-
son. After this treaty was ratified at Flint,
where his eloquence again smoothed the way
for a peaceful settlement, he did everything in
his power to see that the Indians observed their
solemn obligation to the white settlers, who
then began to swann over his old hunting
ground. Yet it galled the proud chief to see
his people driven to a mere comer of their for-
mer possessions. To the settlers it seemed
often as if he courted death, and not infre-
quently he resorted to strong fire-water to
quench the anguish of his stout old heart. With
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
lieroic self-sacrifice he worked for his people
when the Grim Reaper swept them away by
scores during the smallpox epidemic.
He did not long survive the misfortunes
of his tribe. While camping with his band
near the Fitzhugh mound on the west side of
the ri\er, he felt his time had come. He called
his people around fiim, and bade them farewell.
His last words were for peace, and good-will
to the settlers, many of whom he had learned
to love and respect. He had loved this valley,
and wished to be buried on the highest point
of this vicinity. During the closing days of
1839 he was buried with great pomp and cere-
mony on the McCormick mound on the east
side of the river.
Ji^seph Trombley. wlio had known and re-
spected the old warrior for many years, fur-
nished the lumber for the coffin. Some years
later when lumber became plentiful and cheap
in the valley, Mr. McCormick erected a little
house over his last resting place, with a flag-
staff over it, that couid be seen for a long dis-
tance. Years rolled by, the little house was
neglected and finally obliterated by people who
built near by. In the course of time the mound
was plowed o\'er and crops grew over his
sepulchre. In August, 1877, the city had
grown to such dimensions, that the mound was
wanted for building purposes. In excavating
for a foundation, portions of a wooden box
were found, in which was a skeleton w^earing
the uniform of a colonel of the Continental
Army. Then it was recalled that 0-ge-ma-ke-
ga-to had been buried there, wearing the uni-
form President Jefferson had gi\'en him during
his visit to Washington in 1837. The uniform
was in a good state of preservation. His copper
keltle was bottomless and badly demoralized
by rust, but his tomahawk, knife and pipes
were still by his side. The medal has never
been found. The man who found the remains
kept them on exhibition until the Indians of the
vicinity protested against this indignity to their
great chief. By their request, Mr. McCormick
buried the remains in his own dooryard, and a
stone furnished by E. B. Denison marks the
last resting place of 0-ge-ma-ke-ga-to, the last
great chief of the Chippewas.
After the death of Ton-dog-a-ne and 0-ge-
ma-ke-ga-to, Nau-qua-chic-a-me became the
head of the Chippewas. He wandered about
with his band, following the run of the fish
and the little game left in these parts, finally
settling with his band at Saganing. where he
died in October, 1874,
Much missionary work was done among
the natives after they retired permanently to
their own settlements and reservations, and
many became devout converts to the Christian
faith. James Cloud was for many years the
missionary among his tribesmen on Ihe Kaw-
kawJin. His work was one of lielpfulness to
his people and of love for his Master. For
his years of labor he received nothing. So even
in matters of religion these poor natives are
left largely to their own resources, which are
pitiable enough in the light of the 20th cen-
tury.
The early settlers saw more of the Indians
than they did of their own race, and conse-
quently were much dependent upon them for
many of the little acts of kindness that make
life worth the living. Judge Albert Miller was
always one of the best friends the Indians of
this vicinity had, and he never wearied of
championing their cause. He always con-
tended that Poor Lo left to himself was not at
all a wicked or mean person. He often related
incidents m his own life to prove that the na-
tives were both honest and hospitable. During
the winter of 1835-36 he sent some horses and
cattle down the Ouanicassee River to feed,
tluring the period of snow and ice, on the
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
rushes along that river. When it was no longer
possible to get suppHes to the men who were
in charge of the animals, the latter were left
to shift for themselves. Mr. Miller was living
at the time near Crow Island. In ApriJ, 1836,
he started with B. F. Trombley across the
flooded prairie to look after his stock. Nearly
a foot of water covered the low lands, but this
did not stop these hardy pioneers. They
crossed Cheboyganing Creek, then a roaring
torrent owing to the floods, on a fallen tree,
and reached the Quanicassee, None of the
horses or cattle had been stolen, although a
few horses had died. It rained all day, and a
cold wave, so peculiar to this region of the
lakes, froze everything that night. Rather than
camp out in their frozen blankets another night,
the two pioneers started for home. On the
prairie the water was steadily rising and freez-
ing, so that every step soon became an agony.
The ice would not hold them up, and this con-
tinual breaking through soon wore out Trom-
bley's moccasins, so he tied his mittens on his
feet and followed closely in Miller's footsteps.
But the cold was benumbing, and to make mat-
ters worse the fallen tree had been washed
away, and there was no way to cross Cheboy-
ganing Creek. As a last resort. Miller gave a
lusty Indian war-whoop and to their great relief
this brought an Indian in his canoe, who took
the bleeding, starved and frozen travelers into
his wigwam for the night. The two pale faces
never forgot the terrors of that night, and next
day when they reached Miller's cabin, two
miles away, each looked as though he had
passed through a serious illness. They were
quite certain that they would have perished in
that blizzard on the prairie, but for Jhe timely
help of that solitary Indian, who happened to
be hunting ducks up-stream, and was returning
to his ione wigwam, pitched in a grove of maple
trees, to gather maple syrup when the weather
should mend.
In 1833, Judge Miller, who had been on a
business errand to Midland, in the month of
December, was thrown into the ice-cold water,
while paddling down the Tittabawassee. and
narrowly escaped drowning. He was 25 miles
from home, and 16 miles from the nearest set-
tler's cabin, so the prospects for drying his wet
clothes seemed slight indeed. A few miles
down sti^eam he saw a lone wigwam on the
ri^'er bank, and a lone Indian woman was pre-
paring a meal. Miller told her his mishap, and
was invited to come ashore and dry himself
as well as dine, which he gladly did. He never
happened near an Indian's camp in all the
years that he traveled among them, that he was
not invited to have the best in the wigwam,
and at night the stranger was always given the
best place in the tepee to sleep. He did not tike
their begging or drinking propensities, which
grew worse with the passing years, yet during
his entire life in the valley, Judge Jliller re-
mained the steadfast friend of the wandering
red men.
The McCormick. Trombley and Williams
families assuredly did much for the Indians of
this valley and the natives showed their appre-
ciation in many ways. The propensity of the
red men for fire-water, and their begging often
became \'ery obnoxious to the early settlers,
and is to this day the cardinal sin of the Indians
of this State.
But to the settlers there were many offsets
for these failings. Tailors and dressmakers
were scarce in the settlements and the pioneers
soon became accustomed to wearing moccasins
and other wearing apparel made by the skillful
hands of the Indian women. The larder of the
pale faces was never empty, if there was any
game for the red men to shoot. The Indians
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
enjoyed the many novelties introduced by the
settlers, and often stood for hours watching
some old pioneer run a spinning wheel, a black-
smith at the forge, a cobbler mending shoes, or
a farmer in his field.
The Indian was full of curiosity, but ap-
parently without any desire to imitate these
arts of peace. The warrior could be amused
by these novel industries, but to him they were
at their best but arts to be practiced by women
and slaves. The race of hunters and rovers
could not adapt themselves to the life of a
farmer or a mechanic. They did not have the
power to adapt themselves to new and novel
conditions, and to assimilate in a single genera-
tion the cardinal principles of another and a
finer civilization, which faculty has made the
Japanese people the marvel of the world in the
opening years of this 20th century. For ages
these aborigines had found in the chase at once
their recreation and their livelihood. Could
the Christians really expect this strange race
to fall at once into their footsteps, and to
change at their bidding their whole mode of
life, of thought and action? Yet many of the
early settlers in Bay County deemed the In-
dians a slothful, shiftless and almost worthless
race. And certainly the Indians proved total
failures here, Iwth as farmers and fishermen.
The pioneers found out at some cost of time
and money, that the red men of the Northwest
would never be to them what the Ethiopian
negro has ever been to the South.
Our liberal but sometimes too philan-
thropic government has tried for years to give
to the young braves a first-class education.
Many Indian youths from the bands of this
vicinity have attended school at the Carlisle
Indian School. During all the years they spent
at school they longed for the freedom ami
care-free life of their primitive shacks on the
Kawkawlin and elsewhere, and in many cases
the young warriors had hardly gradiiated from
these seats of learning, before they drifted back
into the shiftless moods of their ancestors.
Cases are not rare, where these Indian students
turned their learning into evil channels. Not
many moons ago a graduate from one of the
Indian schools in this part of the State was
foimd guilty of forgery. He found that an
easy way to get ready cash. He had been
taught the art of writing, but no pedagogue
couid instill into the red man the habits of in-
dustry and thrift common to the white race.
When one compares the red men of trvilay
with the aborigines as the pioneers of this
county found them, we cannot fail to notice
a slow but steady improvement along these
lines. The Indian women especially have de-
veloped habits of thrift and industry that
promise better things for the remnant of the
race in the years to come. Comparatively few.
however, ha\-e yet proven themseh-es equrd to
the task of getting something better than a
scanty living from the acres they culti\ale or
the occupation they follow. Flerealrauts they
have been most successful in catching the finny
tribes of the bay, probably because this business
is more sportsmanlike after the manner of their
forefathers. But the copper-colored citizen of
to-day is not much different from the primitive
Indian of the pioneer days. No race exhibits
a greater antithesis of character than the na-
tive warrior of America. The pioneers found
him daring, ruthless, self-denying and self-
devoted in war, generous, hospitable, honest,
revengeful, superstitious, commonly chaste,
and slothful in times of peace. Since he was
more numerous in the valley than the early
settlers, he filled a large place in their every-
day life and furnished all that is romantic and
picturesque in the recital of their pioneer ex-
periences.
The early settlers in this valley came mostly
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
from New York and the New England States,
and were, therefore, famihar with the habits
and the failings of their red neighbors. Their
main characteristics were hospitahty and genu-
ine friendship. If one had a barrel of flour, it
was divided with the others, share and share
alike. No one was allowed to want for what
another had. The food of the pioneers, like
their clothing, was plain and subslaiitial. Cheap,
coarse cioth, often home-spun, or the hide and
fur product of the Indians, furnished the wear-
ing appare! of the pioneers, made to order by
the thrifly and industrious housewives or their
equally helpful daughters. Fine dresses of silk
for the women were as rare an extravagance
as broadcloth for the men. Fit or style w^s
secondary to wearing qualities.
Since most of our pioneers came from the
birfhplace of the "town-meeting," they totik
from the first an active interest in the wise and
honest government of their adopted State.
Being prudent, intelligent and public-spirited,
they were good and safe citizens.
They were not lacking in a heailhy sense
of humor. The region was wild and dreary
enough to discourage the most sanguine, but
the early settlers were not afflicted with melan-
choly. They were too busy and too vigorous
to ever allow their life in the solitude to become
monotonous or dreary. The records of those
early days recite many laughable incidents
among the pioneers, who were at all times
anxious to have posterity understand that per-
petrating practical jokes was one of the leading
industries in the colony. Harry Campbell and
Jule Hart divided the honors as the most popu-
lar jesters of the community, and few are the
reminiscences of a humorous vein recited by the
old pioneers that do not include tliese twain.
Harry Campbell was the faithful chorister of
the first church meeting house in the settlement.
One of his idioms consisted in starting the con-
gregation off with one of the popular airs of tlie
day, instead of the announced hymn, keeping
a sober face meanwhile, until tlie leader would
remind him, that he had evidently turned to
I he wrong number. Sober as the deacon him-
self, Campbell would turn calmly to tlie hymn
desired, only to repeat the mistake at the first
op]x>rtunity.
George Lord (the future mayor of Bay
City) and Jule Hart had fisheries on the bay
shore, and shared for years the "fisherman's
luck" which is to this day a proverbial and
changeful quantity on stream and bay. One
day Hart told Lord that his foreman Joe re-
ported that the fish were running "like blazes,"
and he wanted extra men to pack and dress the
fish. Lord hunted up all the idle men he could
find along the river, and was just starling for
the bay, when Hart came running up to an-
nounce that he had just heard from Joe again,
and that the fish had stopped running. Lord
saw he had been sold, and like an Indian bided
I>is time for revenge. Some weeks after Jule
Hart was enjoying a game of penny-ante in
the saloon in the basement of the Wolverton
House, which was the fashionable club room
of those days. Lord saw his chance. An Inv
<!ian had just entered with three nuiskrat skins.
"Ugh!" said Lo, "Jule Hart, you buy um
skins?" "Yes, give you ten cents for them.
Here is your money, throw them in that cor-
ner!" The Indian did as he was told and de-
parted, while Hart hardly looked up from the
game. Lord hooked the skins out of the win-
dow, had a Frenchman stretch them on shin-
gles, and sell them to Hart, who willingly paid
for them. It looked like easy money, buying
skins while the game went on. Meanwhile
Lord and a confederate, who also had "one
coming" for Hart, hustled around to get more
"skinners" for Hart, and every little while
those skins would be hooked out of the win-
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESEN'TATIVE CITIZENS.
<low, and brought back in all manner of dis-
guises. When the game came to an end, Hart
rose from the table, remarking that he had lost
at the game, but he Iiad been buying a thunder-
ing iot of skins just the same. Imagine his sur-
prise when he found but three skins in that
corner. Just then Lord appeared at the win-
dow. "Say, Jule, it has been just as good a
day for skins, as that day last fall was for fish !"
Lord was made disbursing officer by the little
settlement for the proceeds of the three nmskrat
skins, which were appropriated for the genera!
good, in the manner common in those days.
At another time Hart notice{l a well-dressed
stranger alx)ut town, and soon was busy telling
of the wonders of the valley and the hospitality
of its settlers. A herd of ponies was grazing
along the river bank^ and Hart assured the
stranger that anybody could have one of the
ponies who could catch one. The stranger soon
found several boys to help him catch a steed,
and the fun was uproarious until the Indians
owning the herd arrived. The stranger escaped
with his scalp.
In the early pioneer days, hotels were few
and far between, and traxelers camped out
wherever a roof could be found for shelter.
A lawyer in Lai>eer had a barn which was often
use<l by travelers without so much as asking
for the privilege. One day a new arrival drove
his cow into the barn, put some hay in the loft
and made himself at home. The lawyer soon
after left for Bay City, so he told Rev. Mr.
Smith, the Congregational minister of the lit-
tle flock at Lapeer, that he had a good milch
cow at his barn which he did not want to take
with him, but that the cow had a peculiar habit
of giving down no milk, unless she was milked
before 5 A. M. The preacher allowed he was
an early riser, and he was soon enjoying a
bountiful supply of milk. One fine morning he
was shocked by hearing a vulgar voice calling
him thief, robber and similar pet names. "I've
caught you at last, you hypocritical, thieving
parson, preaching honesty to the people, and
robbing your neighbors of their milk. I'll break
your head!" When the irate farmer got out
of breath, the parson managed to say, that it
was his cow, that the lawyer had given the
animal to him, with the hay in the loft, the
night before he left. Explanations and a good
iaugh followed the exposure of the lawyer's
plot.
This lawyer had a penchant for donating
other people's property to the churches and
preachers of Bay City as well. He had a pile
of hardw^ood in a field then outside of the city,
bnt now one of the fine residence sections of
Greater Bay City. A well-to-do fanner had a
■ large pile of wood in an adjoining field. When
a church deacon asked for a little help, the law-
yer in a burst of generosity told the deacon that
if he would haid it all off both fields at once,
he might have it all. Needless to say that wood
was promptly hauled to the minister's yard.
After much excited inquiry, the farmer learned
how his wood had lieen donated to the church,
and it was surely burned beyond recall.
At another time he was asked to contribute
something towards the erection of a new
church in the settlement. The law^yer knew of
a pile of lumber some Eastern parties had piled
up on the river bank, and this lumber he
promptly donated to the cause, insisting only
that it be secured right away. By the time the
owners came to look for it, the lumber had been
both dedicated and appropriated, and the law-
yer was lauded throughout the city as a big
philanthropist.
When Albe Lull came to Portsmoudi, be
was told that the loons caught in the ri\'er were
a delicacy fit for an epicure. Before long he
caught a loon, and invited his neighbor in to
share the delicacy. This neighlwr was too busy
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
to participate, but the new arrival had ihe loon
put on to boil at lo A. M. At 12 Mrs. Lull
reported that the loon was nowhere near ten-
der, so they kept a roaring fire going, but by
3 P. M. the loon was still like adamant. The
Lulls had all the persistence of the genuine pio-
neer, so that loon was kept boiling well into the
next day, by which time the entire settlement
began to take an interest in the Lull's culinary
department, and eventually it dawned on the
Lulls that they had tried to do the impossible,
when they started to cook a loon.
Among the old settlers Sqnaconning Creek
was pronounced "Squire Conning." Harry
Campbell met a wandering dentist at Saginaw
and induced him to row 18 miles to Ports-
mouth, to look after the mouth of "Squire Con-
ning." At Portsmouth he was told that he ha{l
passed the "Squire's" mouth some miles up the
river, whereupon the settlement enjoyed a good
laugh. Incidentally the dentist found some
work in his line down here, so he did not regret
looking for the "Squire."
One of the early settlers to .select the mound
for his cabin was a rollicking Scotchman,
named Thomas Stevenson. His one failing
was the genuine Scotch "liot stuff," which he
usually bought by the barrel. One of these
barrels was delivered to Jule Hart, who kept
it in his warehouse for his friends, old Tom
himself getting a drink of it occasionally and
cussing it furiously, as "poor Indian whiskey."
Finally he wrote to Detroit asking about his
barrel. They promptly replied that they had
Jule Hart's receipt for it. Then Stevenson
stormed down to Hart's warehouse, where a
council of war had been held meanwhile and
Tom's barrel filled with river water and care-
fully hid away. Stevenson found his barrel,
cussed Jule for not finding it sooner, and over-
looking it so long, and after some trouble and
expense got it into the basement of his cabin.
Then he invited all the boys to come and have a
drink of the "real stuff." After this character-
istic introduction, the river water failed to
tickle the palate of his hardy neighlxjrs. and
when the truth dawned on Tom Stevenson, it
was time for Jule Hart to get busy at his fish-
eries on the Ijay shore, with a scout out to warn
him if danger approached in the pei'son of an
e.\'tra-dry Scotchman. And it required a full
barrel of the liest "e.xtra dry" before Tom
would again allow the pipe of peace to circulate
in the settlement.
Many good bear stories were told by the
old settlers around their camp-fires, but none
was repeated with more zest than Harry Camp-
Iiell's. Prolate Judge Sydney S. Campbell had
Harry to dinner one day, and while Harry was
toasting himself in front of the fireplace, the
Judge came rushing into the house, shouting
"bear" at the top of his voice. Bear were a
common sight in the wilderness, and guns were
equally common, so it was only the work of a
minute before Harry was "hot footing it"
through the clearing of stumps to the woods,
which then began where Washington avenue's
fine business blocks now stand. Scouting cau-
tiously into the thick underbrush toward a
big black objecl, Harry concluded that it must
|je a tame bear, for it showed no inclination
either to fight or to run away. On closer insjicc-
tion he found it was only a large, coal-black
hog. and the laugh that followed the discovery
might have been heard at Wenona, across the
river, were the wind favorable. On the way
back, Harry placed a six-inch charge into the
old gun and bided his time. Presently Harry
wan<iered down to the river and soon came
hurrying back with the information, that a
thundering large flock of ducks had just settled
in the river near the fishing dock where Fifth
avenue now reaches the river. Judge Camp-
bell's sportsman's blood was up in an instant.
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
and the rest of the company followed as a mat-
ter of course. The Judge hurried to his favor-
ite log, from which he ne\'er failed to bag his
game, aimed carefully and "blazed away." The
spectators were never quite certain which end
of that gun was most fatal. It knocked the
venerable Judge flat on his back, some dis-
tance east of the log, too sore for utterance,
while the ducks were mowed down as by a
cyclone. When the Judge came to, he won-
dered what had got into that infernal old gun.
But Harry quickly set him right, by suggesting
that probably he had been shooting ducks with
a bear charge. All present saw the point, and
are said to have joined themselves into a relief
committee, vying with each other in relieving
the sufferer by copius applications of whiskey
internally and externally, with a tittle faith
cure thrown in, by occasionally taking a little
themselves to relieve the mental anguish of the
duck hunter.
One of the earliest arrivals at Portsmouth
was a retired merchant from New York State,
who sought rest and solitude, and a chance to
gratify his main passion, which was hunting
and which was generally gratifie<!. Yet his
pleasures were not unmixed with alloy. He
stammered a little, and when Judge Birney
said to him one day : "This is a great place for
change and rest." he replied promptly:
"Th-th-this is a inagn-ni-ni-nif-ficent place
f-f-f-for l>-b-b-both. The M-In-d-d-dians
SSS^i your ch-ch-ch-change. and the tavern
kee-kee-keepers g-g-get th-th-the rest." Of
the same jovial soul was it written, that an
anxious frien<l down East heard he had been
killed by the Indians. A letter inquiring if
this sad news were true came directly into the
hunter's hands. He set the fears of his friends
at rest by writing curtly: "Reports of my
death are greatly exaggerated !''
Judge Miller was always positive that the
pioneers of this valley were an obliging lot.
He used to quote this note which he received
from a worthy German settler while he was
teaching school in the South End: "Mr.
Teecher : Pleas excuse Fritz for staying home.
He had der meesels to oblige his vader. Louis
Mnller." A more vigorous epistle came from
a robust Irishman : "Just you knock hel! out
of Mike when he gives you any lip and oblige,
Tom."
The settlers seemed lo agree with Oliver
Herford, who wrote ;
Some take their gold in minted mold,
AikI some in liarps hiTeafltr.
And keep tlie change in iaiigliter.
Some of the irrepressible wags of that set-
tlement were wont to tell this story of Ephraim
S. Williams. During the Mexican War there
was a camp meeting near Mosby's clearing on
the ri\"cr. The roving missionary asked Brother
Williams to pray for the success of the Ameri-
can arms, which he did. In the course of his
petition he said: "And, O Lord, do help the
American arms, and do not forget the legs also.
Take the arms, if you must, but spare the legs,
spare the legs!"
One day while James Eraser and Medor
Trombley were riding across the prairie lo
Quanicassee, they passed a little log cabin in
the swampy wilderness. Mr. Eraser remarked
that he pitied the poor man who lived here.
This riled the occupant of the shack, who
shouted through the open door : "Gints. I want
j'er to know I'm not as poor as you think. I
don't own this 'ere place."
The greatest activity prevailed in the valley
during the mosquito season. Some of the pio-
neers' mosquito legends would discount the best
fish story ever told. Baking day was the mos-
fjuitoes" delight and the housewives' torment.
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
They organized a modern plan of campaign
against ihe "animals," which was rigidly car-
ried out, in more senses than one. After
"shooing" out the kitchen and securely fast-
ening the doors and windows, for fear the
winged monsters would carry off the "dough,"
of which none of the pioneers had an over-sup-
ply, ihe brave women would begin the real ex-
erciser of the day by placing some maple sugar
on the stove. The sugar smudge would often
drive out the housewife, but it is nowhere al-
leged that these organized defensive measures
ever seriously interfered with the business of
the mosquitoes. But they had all the elements
of a formidable demonstration, as the soldiers
among the pioneers were wont to put it, and
were comforting to reflect upon in after years.
Alas, the mosquito does not recall altogether
pleasant memories. They, at least, were no
joke, if they were "suckers!"
Unwillingly, I own, and wliat is worse.
Full angrily men harkeii to tliy plaint;
TliDu getlest many a brush and many a curse,
For saying thou art gaunt and starved and faint.
Even ihe old beggar, while he asks for food,
Would kill thee, hapless stranger, if he could!
— IFitliam Cullcn Bryant.
But we must turn from this page of mirth,
and look again upon the more serious side of
pioneer life in this settlement. Yet a good
joke was the music and the spice of life for
these pathfinders. Isolated in a wilderness they
formed a world by themselves. And to this
day they will tell you, that while the privileges
and the diversions have multiplied with the
years, yet their real enjoyment, the hearty ring-
ing laugh and the rugged jest, have been lost
in the whirlpool of modern business aclivities,
and the rush of a multitude of strangers from
strange lands.
But we have anticipated our narrative! The
recital of pioneer life has carried us beyond the
years when William R. McCormick found but
two log cabins along the entire river from the
Carroliton sand-bar to the bay. Let us retrace
our steps, and follow the development of our
settleiuent as we glean it from the meagre rec-
ords at hand.
In 1834, John B. Truefell built a log cabin
near the McCormick mound, where he Hved
for 16 years with his wife, a daughter of Be-
noit Trombley; and Ben Cushway built his log
cabin and blacksmith shop near the west ap-
proach of the Lafayette avenue bridge of later
days. Leon Trombley (father of Mrs. P. J.
Perrott and Louis Leon Trombley), who was
an Indian trader and farmer, about this time
declined to trade his horse for a whole section
of land that to-day is in the very heart of Bay
City. In later years he used to say, that he
little thought then that this swamp, with its
prairie grass high enough to hide a man, and
with impenetrable woods, where the wolves
howled continuously, woidd within 30 years
become a thriving and attractive city. He
kept his horse. But there were other Trom-
bleys who had more faith in the future of this
little-known valley. In 1835 we find Medor
and Joseph Trombley building the first substan-
tial frame house, with a warehouse in connec-
tion for storing the goods they exchanged for
the Indians' furs and venison.
The persistent booming Michigan's interior
had received from Governor Cass, and later
from Governor Stevens T. Mason, showing
that Michigan was not a hopeless swamp and a
barren wilderness, together with easier trans-
portation facilities, made Michigan the El
Dorado of the West in 1835. The craze for
land speculation was at its height in 1836 and
1837. The few traders and hunters in the
Saginaw Valley during those years had nothing
to do but show the country to these speculators.
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
89
They received liberal pay in bank-notes, which
being largely "wild-cat" were as worthless and
elusive as this terror of the backwoods itself.
Among the first to recognize the advantages
of this valley were Governor ilason and the
late Judge Albert Miller.
James Fraser, born in Inverness, Scotland,
February 5, 1S03, the son of a soldier who had
lost a leg ill 1796, in the wars with the French,
was another pillar among the elite who created
a city and county out of this wilderness. Hav-
ing accumulated a few thousand dollars by
thrift and industry, he immigrated to the Uni-
ted States in 1829, coming straight to Michi-
gan. He lost nearly all his money in a disas-
trous attempt at building a sawmill near Ro-
chester, Oakland County. With less than $100
he started a small grocery in Detroit, and started
life anew. In 1832 he married Elizabeth
Busby, a brave young woman of more than
ordinary personal charms, whose parents had
only the year previous emigrated from Eng-
land. In 1833 he determined to settle on some
land he had located on the Titlabawassee. From
Flint the family entered the wilderness on the
Indian trail, Mrs. Fraser and infant riding on
an ingenious ox-sled he had built, wdiile he and
her parents rode on horseback. After getting
his family settled in the solitude, he returned
to Detroit to bring up some cattle for his ranch.
Between I'-Jint and Saginaw they became stam-
peded, and while chasing them he hung his coat
with al! the cash he had in the world, over
$500, on a tree near the trail! and never after
found it. Long years afterward, when he had
amassed a fortune, he used to say, that this was
the greatest loss of his whole life. He cleared
a nice farm, and planted a flourishing orchard,
for years the pride of that neighborhood. But
farm life was too tame for this man on horse-
back. He spent most of his time in the saddle,
looking up land^, and in 1836 moved his family
to Saginaw, in order that they might be nearer
his favorite haunts, the shores of Saginaw bay
and river.
That same year Albert Miller bought land
along the Saginaw River, in what is now Bay
County, and proceeded to lay out the town of
Portsmouth. At the same lime, Mr. Fraser
planned the purchase of the Riley Indian Re-
serve, given to that family of half-breeds by
the government for bringing about the favor-
able treaty of 1819 with the Indians.
In September, 1836, this reser\e was
lx>iight by Ihe Saginaw Bay Company, which
Mr. Fraser had organized, for tlie sum of
$30,000, an enormous price in those davs. The
stockholders included some of Michigan's most
prominent citizens; Governor Stevens Thomp-
son Mason, the first executive of our State,
whose remains lie buried in New York, — they
are now to be brought back to Detroit, to be
buried on the site of the first Capitol of Michi-
gan, Griswokl Park, through the consent of
his sister, iliss Elizabeth Mason, now of Wash-
ington, D. C, secured on the day folloiving
President Roosevelt's inauguration,— March 5,
1905; also Henry R. Schoolcraft {Indian com-
missioner). Frederick H. Stevens, John Hnl-
bert, Andrew T. McReynolds, Horace Hailock,
Electus Backus, Henry K. Sanger, Phineas
Davis and James Fraser. The articles of
association were executed February 9, 1837,
and a deed in trust, naming Frederick H. Ste-
vens and Electus Backus as trustees, was exe-
cuted February 11, 1837. The company at
once caused 240 acres to be surveyed an<l plat-
ted for a town, and named it "Lower Saginaw."
The boundaries of this embryo city were
the present Woodside avenue, the river, a line
400 feet south of and parallel with loth street,
and a line 100 feet east of and parallel with
Van Buren street. The energy and enterprise
shown in making the purchase was continued
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
in laying out the future city. A dock and ware-
house were built, and a large liotel was framed
and lumber provided for its completion. A
building was also erected to contain the "wild-
cat" bank. The plans of the company were
only just maturing, when the panic and finan-
cial crash brought the work to a standstill, and
the stockholders of the Saginaw Bay Company
to the verge of bankruptcy. James Fraser alone
was able to tide over the storm.
In 1838 business in the valley was at a
standstill, and the land-lookers vanished. The
Saginaw County Bank, projected for Lower
Saginaw, and the Commercial Bank of Ports-
month had bills engraved for circulation, but
aside from those stolen wdiile in transit from
the engra\-ers in New York, none w-as ever put
into circulation. On March i, 1838, Sydney
S. Campbell and family arrived to take charge
of the hotel, and with their advent begins the
real history of Bay City proper.
In 1837, John Farmer resurveyed and re-
platted the town of Portsmouth for the Ports-
mouth Company, headed also by Governor S.
T. Mason, and including Henry Howard, State
Treasurer; Kensing Pritchet, Secretary of
State; John Norton, cashier of the Michigan
State Bank; John M. Berrien, of the United
• States Army, and All>ert Miller, judge of the
Probate Court of Saginaw County. That also
was before the great financial crash came, and
things for a season looked bright indeed for
this valley. Judge Miller, B. K. Hall, Thomas
Rogers and Barney Cromwell erected the first
sawmill here in 1837. The first postoffice was
established the same year at Portsmouth, with
Judge Miller, as postmaster, and Thomas Rog-
ers as mail carrier, bringing mail once each
week from Saginaw. Three or four letters
each way, and a few weekly papers coming
down, was the extent of the mail business for
several years to come. Dr. J. T. Miller located
at Portsmouth about this time, — -the first physi-
cian to begin practice here.
Mrs. Elizabeth Rogers, wife of Thomas
Rogers, was the daughter of Dr. Wilcox, of
Watertown, New York. She was an earnest
student of medicine, putting up the prescrip-
tions for her father, and when but 18 years old
was often consulted by her father on difficult
cases. In 1S28 she married Thomas Rogers,
coming with him to this county in 1837. For
years she was the ministering angel of the
early pioneers. Through storm and night she
would hasten to the bedside of the sick and the
dying, sometimes on horseback, more often on
foot, through the ^voods, swamps and prairie,
wherever the call of duty might be. For 15
years she was present at every birth in the set-
tlement. During the epidemic of cholera she
was the constant attendant of the sick and the
dying, day and night. She would take no
money and had no price. Some of the daily
necessities of life sent to her home would be
accepted, but nothing more. After 1850 many
practicing physicians came to the valley, yet
many of the old settlers would call Mrs. Dr.
Rogers, as they fondly called her. William R.
McCormick was taken with the cholera, and
ever after credited Mrs. Rogers with saving
his life. The Rogers family occupied a little
block -house on the banks of the river in Ports-
mouth, and the venerable old latly never
wearied in after years of telling her many har-
rowing experiences in those dismal years. The
wolves howled so at night that the newcomers
could not sleep. In time they became so accus-
tomed to these nightly wolf concerts that they
did not mind tliem any more, and often in after
years she would start out to see a sick person
with the howling of the wolves as accompani-
ment all the way. Often in the daytime she
could see packs of wolves romping on the oppo-
site river bank, where Salzburg is now located.
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
One day two drimkeii Indians came to her door
while her huslxind was away. She refused
them admittance, when they secured an axe
and proceeded to break down the door. She
seized an iron rake, flung open the door and
knocked the nearest redskin senseless with one
blow, and the other was glad to make off. Then
she nnrsefl the wounded Indian back to con-
sciousness and bade him begone. Siie was at
once bra\'e and tenderhearted, and gave the
pioneers credit for all the noble characteristics
siie herself possessed. When the tide of com-
mercialism swept over the valley, she fre-
quently remarked the change. Our settlement
has grown from three families to more than
20,000 inhabitants, she would say, but the
greatest change is in the people themselves.
They do not seem to be as hospitable, noble-
hearted and generous, as they used to he. And
the surviving pioneers readily agreed with her.
She died July j6. 1881, in the community for
which she had tlone so much during the trying
days of the early settlement.
Cromwell Barney brought his family to this
place in 1838 from Rhode Island and on May
22, 1838, there was born in the little block-
house on the river bank, now Fourth avenue
and Water street, Mary E. Barney, the first
female white child born in Bay County, later
Mrs. Alfred G. Sinclair, a well-known resident
of Bay City. Barney was the messenger of the
httle settlement in those years, and freciuently
made the trip to Detroit in winter for supplies,
which he would bring back on a little sled, re-
quiring nine days for the round trip! The
"Barney farm, located within the boundaries of
the First Ward of Bay City, was long a land-
mark in the county, and a street of that ward
has been named after him. He later went into
the Kimbering business with James Eraser oil
the Kawkawlin River, where he lived until his
death, November 30, 1851. He was a con-
spicuous type of the early pioneer. Upright
and straightforward in all his dealings with his
fe!low-men, of unbounded energy, to whom
idleness was a crime, he was one of the ster-
ling builders of this community. In 1838,
Cromwell Barney was working on the Globe
Hotel, which is slill standing, though consider-
ably altered, at the corner of Water street and
Fifth avenue. At that time the clearing along
the river front extended only from what is now
Tliird street to Center avenue, and east hardly
as far as Washington avenue. Four block-
houses comprised the settlement.
Mr. Eraser induced Sydney S. Campbell
to open the Globe Hotel, the first hosteh-y here,
his friends insisting ever afterward, that Syd's
love of ease made it easy for him to doze in ihe
wilderness. Born at Paris. Oneida County,
New York, February 29, 1804, Judge Camp-
bell did not enjoy many birthdays during his
long and useful life. In March, 1830, he mar-
ried Catherine J. McCartee. at Schenectady,
New York, and immeth'atcly started life near
Pontiac, Michigan, They were of that sturdy
Scotcli stock, which did so much to build up
this valley. Their eldest son, Edward Mc-
Cartee Campbell, was the first white boy born
in Lower Saginaw. He built a brick business
block on Water street, and looked after the
Globe Hotel continuously for more than 45
years. The venerable old couple spent the last
years of their life in the commodious farm
house at Woodside avenue and Johnson street,
surrounded by a large orchard, which 23 years
ago yielded many a juicy apple to the humble
scribe of these chapters, whose good fortune it
was to be a favorite of the pioneers. The jovial
old settler provided the children of the neigh-
borhood with their pet rabbits and tame pig-
eons, and seemed never happier dian when a
group of youngsters would listen to his Indian
yarns and play with his many pets.
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
Sydney S. Campbell was the first supervi-
sor of Hampton township, elected in 1843, and
was judge of probate of Bay County for i5
years after its organization. He used to tell
the writer that it was a common thing for him
to paddle 16 miles to Saginaw for one pound
of tea. In 1839 he borrowed the government
team of oxen and plowed up the site of the
Folsom & Arnold mill, now the Wylie & Buell
lumber-yard, and sowed a field of bvickwheat,
which he and his good wife harvested on a sail-
cloth and stored it away in the loft of Camp-
bell's hotel. That winter there was a scarcity
of flour, and pioneers and Indians helped them-
selves to Mr. Campbell's buckwheat, which
they ground in a coffee-mill in the "wild-cat"
bank building, just across the way. Frederick
Derr, a young mechanic, came here that year,
and meeting Miss Clark, a young lady teacher
who had been engaged to teach the young idea
to sprout, promptly proposed, was accepted,
and before night the blacksmith of the settle-
ment, who was also justice of the peace, tied
the knot in the smithy by simply pronouncing
them man and wife. This was the first wed-
ding here. Mrs. Derr lived only a year after
the marriage, being the second person to be
buried in the cemetery established by the set-
tlers where Columbus and Garfield avenues
now meet, A death in that little backwoods
settlement cast a gloom over the population,
which it took months to efface.
During the winter of 1838-39. General
Rousseau and his brother. Captain Rousseau,
with Dr. Rousseau, an uncle, were busy sur-
veying new townships in this vicinity for the
government, which had lately acquired a clear
title to the lands from the Indians. Owing to
the swampy nature of much of the land, this
work could best be done when the ice and snow
made them passable. In 1839, Louis Clawson,
assisted by some of the well-known trappers
and traders of the valley, surveyed much of the
territory along the shore of Lake Huron for
the government. Tradition and speculalion
on those lands were giving way to scientific
research and established fact.
In July, 1839, Captain Stiles with a char-
tered \essel brought Stephen Wolverton from
Detroit to begin the erection of the ok! light-
house at the mouth of the river, which is still
standing, a picturesque landmark of those early
mariners. It has since been replaced by a larger
and more modern lighthouse. Capt. Levi John-
son, of Cleveland, finished the first one in 1S41.
In September, 1839, the early settlers had a
chance to see one of the large assemblies of In-
dians, which in years previous had lieen a com-
mon occurrence in the valley. Seventeen hun-
dred Indians camped about the Glol>e Hotel
and on the Fitzhugh mound on the West Side
for two weeks, while John Hulbert, the Indian
agent, distributed the final payment of $80,000
for the purchase of their reservation, consum-
mated in 1837. The Indians camped there for
two weeks, ami not one overt act is charged to
them during their stay. It was an event the
old settlers long remembered and often recalled.
For a time Poor Lo lived high, but he ha<i not
the faculty of handling money, and fakers of
all descriptions soon separated him from the
fruits of his land sale.
In 1838, Capt. Joseph F. Marsac came
here as Indian farmer and government agen!,
and he did his best to secure to the red men a
safe method of keeping their money, and a few
who followed his advice and invested their
cash in real estate in this vicinity, reaped the
harvest a few years later. Captain Marsac was
one of the most popular pioneers here. Bom
near Detroit about 1790, he commanded a
company at the battle of the Thames in the
War of 1812. The Indians were fighting for
the English, and when General Proctor wanted
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
messages taken back to Detroit, he selected an
old scout, James Groesbeck, and Captain Mar-
sac for the perilous undertaking. They hid
in the daytime, and traveled at night, until the
message was safely delivered to the American
commander at Detroit, In i8i6 he visited
Chicago as interpreter and trader. That future
metropolis of the West then contained but five
block-houses. In 1819, General Cass sent for
him to assist in passing the treaty of that year
with the Indians, where Captain Marsac did
excellent service. He rode on horseback with
General Cass all over Michigan, as the Gov-
ernor was determined to see how things actu-
ally looked in the much-abused interior. Com-
missioned by Governor Porter to raise a com-
pany of Indian fighters for the Black Hawk
War, he got as far as Chicago, when news came
that Black Hawk had been captured, and Cap-
tain Marsac's company of border scouts re-
luctantly returned home. In 1836 and 1837
he took a prominent part in the final treaties
for the Indians' lands. He was a close friend
of 0-ge-ma-ke-ga-to, and did much to win over
that powerful chieftain. His estimable wife,
Theresa Rivard, was bom at Grosse Pointe,
Michigan, July 22, 1808, and in 1829 became
the bride of the famous Indian fighter. They
had six children: Charles, Octavius, for 12
years recorder for Bay City and Democratic
candidate for another term for Greater Bay
City; Mrs. Leon Tronibley, Mrs. W. H. South-
worth, Mrs. T. J. McClennan, and Mrs. George
Robinson, all residents of the city their father
helped to build. Captain Marsac died in the
old homestead in this city, June 18,1880.
On November i6,i840,Capt. John S. Will-
son sailed into the river with his family, just
ahead of a cold wave which froze up the river
the next night, which remained closed until
late the following April. He took his family
to the little block-house on Albert Miller's prop-
erty in Portsmouth, where he lived until the
McCormicks bought the homestead in 1842.
Then he bought 27 acres of land on the river
front, between the present i8th and 21st streets,
building a cabin and planting an orchard. He
spent the winters hunting and trapping, with
good success, and in summer he sailed the 40-
ton schooner "Mary" along the shore between
Lower Saginaw and Detroit. In the fall of
1844 he was caught in a terrible storm off the
mouth of the river, blown across the lake and
shipwrecked on the Canadian shore, 80 miles
airove Goderich. He and his crew had to walk
to that little port with frozen feet and without
food. They could get no help until they
reached Detroit, and from there they had to
walk to their homes in the Saginaw Valley!
The settlers had long since given boat and crew
up for lost, and their surprise was unbounded
when the hardy mariners arrived. Captain
WilJson's oldest daughter had died during his
absence, and he gave up sailing for the less
risky occupation of farming. Little did he
dream that within 10 years his farm would
become the site for a mammoth sawmill. The
sturdy pioneers had 14 children, seven of whom
survive. Captain Willson died in this city
August 21, 1879, and his good wife did not
long survive him. A suitable monument marks
their last resting place in Pine Ridge Cemetery.
In 1840, Dr. Daniei Hughes Fitzhugh
bought considerable land on the west side of
the river, opposite Portsmouth and Lower Sag-
inaw. In 1841 came Bay City's most famous
citizen, Hon. James G. Birney, in pursuit of
solitude and rest, which he found. Dr. Fitz-
hugh, James Eraser and Hon. James G. Birney
were practically the sole owners of Lower Sag-
inaw, having bought the rights and properties
of the defunct Saginaw Bay Company. Theo-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
dore Walker, of Brooklyn, New York, also
held some of the scrip for the land, which he
secured, for an unpaid tailor bill, from one of
the bankrupt stockholders of the original com-
pany. Little did he dream that some day this
discredited bit of paper would bring him wealth
and a new home. He came here in 1842, and
for years after was one of the town's most ec-
centric characters, until death claimed him in
1870. The lives of ihese three projectors of
Bay City, — Fitzluigh, Eraser and Birney,— are
so closely identified with the growth and de-
velopment of these cities that their persona!
sketches belong of right to the section of this
work devoted exclusively to biographies. The
first six years of their activity in the new settle-
ment were rather monotonous.
In 1842, Frederick Backus brought a stock
of goods and opened the first store in Bay
County, in the vacant warehouse on the river
front.
In 1843, Michael Dailey, the Indian trader
and interpreter, opened his trading house at
the mouth of the Kawkawlin River, and began
his travels alx>ut Northern Michigan, which
gave him a well-merited repute as a fur hunter
and pedestrian. Each winter he would take
his blanket and pack and follow the shore of
Lake Huron as far north as the Straits of Mac-
jnac and even the shores of Lake Superior.
On one of these trips he met the two Indians
whe were handling Uncle Sam's mail with a
dog train, at Sault Ste. Marie, bound for Lower
Saginaw. The Indians were on snow-shoes,
and calculated to go 50 miles each day. This
did not discourage Mr, Dailey, who led the
Indians a merry pace for 150 miles, finally left
them, and came into this settlement some hours
ahead of the dog train. In 1857, Mr. Dailey
married Miss Longtin, daughter of an estima-
ble pioneer, and having unbounded confidence
in the future of this settlement invested all his
earnings in real estate, which eventually be-
came very valuable. The last years of his life
were spent in the family homestead on Wash-
ington avenue and First street, suffering much
from rheumatism due to exposure and over-
exertion in his younger days.
In 1843 the settlement was separated from
Saginaw township and created into Hampton
township. In 1844 the first school house was
built jiear the north end of Washington ave-
nue, and Israel Catlin arrived, Hon. James G.
Birney held religious services in this building,
with the often dubious assistance of the irre-
sistible Harry Campbell. In 1845 ^li^^ '^te P.
J. Perrott joined his fortunes with the settle-
ment. J. B. Hart and B. B. Hart came in 1846.
In April, 1846, Hon. James Birney, of Con-
necticut, came to visit his father. His experi-
ence on this trip is a vivid reminder of the prim-
itive conditions still existing in the interior of
Michigan at this time. He journeyed from
Flint to Saginaw by the stage, a springless
wagon drawn by two ponies, over a road of
corduroy and mutl, each worse than the other,
with plenty of trees and roots adding excite-
ment and jolts to the trip. After wailing two
days at Saginaw for a boat to bring him down,
he hired an Indian for 75 cents to paddle him
down. He surprised his famous father while
the latter was working in mud and water up
to his ankles on a hne fence where St. Joseph's
Church is now located, then a long way in the
wilderness.
In 1847, James Fraser proceeded to carry
out his pet scheme of converting these majestic
pine trees into hmiber, and the lumber into the
circulating medium of the realm, by construct-
ing the first sawmill in conjunction with Hop-
kins and Pomeroy.
In the winter of 1847, H. W. Sage, of New
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
York, who later did so much to develop the
west side of the river, came with Deacon An-
drews and Jarvis Langdon, of Elmira, New
York, and Joseph L. Shaw, of Ithaca, New
York, to negotiate with Mr. Birney for some
of the property in the settlement, whose fame
was gradually finding its way to the business
centers of the East. They put up at the Globe
Hotel, where they found only one little bed
available for strangers. They cast lots to see
who would sleep in the bed, and three drew
lucky numbers, while Deacon Andrews drew
the floor, but as the latter was old and in poor
health, Mr. Sage took his place on the pine
knots. After several nights on the floor, Mr.
Sage concluded he had had enough of rough
pioneer experience and salt pork thrice daily,
so on the Sabbath Day he hired a sleigh and,
despite the Deacon's scruples about traveling
on the Lord's Day, hied himself back to civil-
ization.
In 1847. Daniel H. Futzhugh, Jr., built
what was then considered an extravagant house
on the comer of Third and Water streets.
In 184S the fortunes of the settlement be-
gan to brigliten, and soon a boom was in full
swing. In 1848 there were added to the popu-
lation. — Curtis Hunger, who opened the sec-
ond store in the settlement ; and Edward Parke,
an experienced pioneer. Thomas Carney and
wife came to look after the boarding house
being buiJt for the sawmill employees, and J.
S. Barclay and wife reinforced the Scotch col-
ony in this outpost of civilization in the north
woods, as Deacon Andrews described it, after
regaining his equilibrium and his cottage in
the East.
J. L. Hibbard came to clerk in the Munger
store in 1849, as did Alexander McKay and
family and J. W. Putnam, who erected homes
en the river front in keeping with the
modest pretensions of the settlement. Old
settlers assure us that life in the colony
was now picking up. The social forces
consisted of the Mesdames Barney, Bar-
clay, Cady, Catlin, Campbell, Hart and
Rogers, all of whom belonged to the "social
set" and kept perpetual open house, where they
disseminated the local news with conscientious
promptness and due diligence. A serpentine
foot-path winding in and out among the stumps
on the river bank furnished an ample thorough-
fare for the equippages of the little settlement.
But the tall and whispering pines on the Sagi-
naw had been heard in the business centers of
the country, and soon there came "the first low
waves, which soon will be followed by a human
sea."
The settlement is growing apace in 1850,
and space will forbid calling the roll of these
new arrivals. The little community soon began
to grow by leaps and bounds. The axe of the
woodsman is heard all along the shores of the
river, the clearings are increasing in numljer
and in size, new cabins and cottages, more or
less pretentious, are springing up under the
merry music of hammer and saw, new mills
are furnishing work for new arrivals, new busi-
ness places are opened up, the river is alive
with craft of all descriptions, roads are opened
to the south and east, fisheries prosper, and
farms are in bloom, where once the whip-poor-
will was undisturbed. The settlement is out-
growing its last suit of homespun, and the
boundaries are being steadily pushed eastward,
northward and southward, while an equally
ambitious community beckons to Lower Sagi-
naw from the village of Wenona across the
river. The settlers have become villagers and
citizens. The reminiscences of the pioneers
must give way to the record of achievements
in the fields of commerce and industry. The
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
pathfinders have shown the way! The muhi-
tude wiil soon follow. Ever new shoulders are
being put to the wheels of progress and devel-
opment. The long drawn out and hard fought
battle of the early settlers with dangers, priva-
tions, toil and hardships is clearly won. The
"Garden Spot of Michigan," but yesterday a
howling wilderness, has been revealed even
under the primitive work of the pioneers. An-
other new era is dawning in this blessed valley t
Hosted by
Google
CHAPTER V.
ORGANIZATION AND GROWTH OF BAY COVNTY.
Early Land Transactions and Settlements— Hampton Township Erected — Early
Elections — The Strenuous Fight for Separation from Saginaw County — Era
of Prosperity — Early Official Transactions — Arenac County Erected — Cen-
sus Figures and Some Vital Statistics—Synopsis of Election Returns — Some of
Those Who Have Served in Official Positions — Roster of County Officials.
Up to our altars, then, haste we ;
Courage and loveliness, manhood and woman !
Deep let our pledges be ; Freedom for ever !
Truce with oppression, never, oh never!
By our own birthright-gift, granted of Heavet
Freedom for heart and lip, be the pledge given !
-Wkitiic
The Saginaw Bay Company, led by the late
James Fraser, and organized February 9, 1837,
named the embryo city they had sut^eyed and
platted "Lower Saginaw," which name the set-
tlement retained for 20 years. Lower Saginaw
contained 240 acres within the Uniits now
bounded, roughly speaking, by Woodside ave-
nue on the north, Columbus avenue on the
south and by Grant street, then away out in
the wilderness, which formed the eastern
boundary.
In 1836 the late Judge Albert Miller pur-
chased a tract of land some three miles from
the month of the river, which lay somewhat
higher above the river level than the surround-
ing country, and therefore to his practiced eye
offered the best opportunities for early settle-
ment. This tract includes the district now
lying south of Columbus avenue and west of
Garfield avenue, the western portion of n'hich
now constitutes the greater part of the I^fth,
Sixth and Seventh wards of Bay City. After
being surveyed and platted, it was named
Portsmouth, Judge Miller recognized the im-
mense value of the vast timber belt then skirt-
ing the river, and his first enterprise was the
erection of a sawmill in 1837, the first at this
end of the river, designed to furnish prospect-
ive settlers with an easy and cheap means of
erecting their Immbie cabins, and also to sup-
ply the other sections of Michigan south of the
Saginaw River, which during those years of
colonization in the "Peninsular" State, were
rapidly being populated.
The subsequent panic throughout the coun-
try, particularly disastrous to the development
of the interior of our State, crushed for a time
all the prospects of these two prospective set-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
tiements. In 1838 the affairs of the Saginaw
Bay Company, openetJ under such auspicious
and enterprising circumstances, went into
chancery, and its bright prospects were blight-
ed. But the original projectors never lost
faith in the future of this end of the valley.
In 1840, Dr. Daniel Hughes Fitzhugh
took advantage of the recent survey by govern-
ment officials of the Indian reservation on the
west shore of the Saginaw River, by purchas-
ing several of the more desirable parcels of
land lying directly across the river from Ports-
moulh.
It will be noticed that all these early land
transactions dealt in the few locations directly
on the river bank, where elevations, natural
or artificial, removed the danger of the peren-
nial floods at that time. During the following
60 years the waters have gradually receded,
the river hanks have been artificially dammed,
and the river channel deepened at its mouth,
so that e\'ery foot of the rich, low river bot-
toms has been made available for farms and for
factory sites. Could the pioneers of 1840 have
foreseen these favorable changes with the pass-
ing j'cars, they would undoubtedly have in-
vested in much more of the valley property, the
choicest parcels of which then sold for $5 an
acre, and what is now some of the choicest city
property was then bought for $3 an acre. But
even at that price it required some foresiglif
and faith in the future of the.se lowlands, for
any large purchases. For die settlements at
the mouth of the Saginaw River were the out-
post of civilization in the interior of Michigan
for many years.
In 1840 there was not a single known white
settler between here and Mackinaw, and Fort
Mackinac itself was only a military outpost,
with a mission for the Indians. On the old
map owned by Captain Marsac the country
norlh of here showed but crude outlines of a
few of the many large streams that pour their
waters info Lake Huron. Ouisconsin, as the
State of Wisconsin appears on that map, was
scarcely known beyond the outskirts of the
first settlements on its southeastern border. The
entire country from this valley to Mackinaw
was included in the township of Saginaw, with
the exception of a part of Arenac, which was
attached to Midland for judicial purposes.
In 1842 the projectors of Bay City made
an effort to secure a separate township organi-
zation, and in the winter of 1843 ^^''^ Saginaw
County Board of Supervisors erected the town-
ship of Hampton, which included at the time
all the territory from the lower end of the Sag-
inaw River to Mackinaw. This vast territory
was named Hampton by Hon. James G. Bir-
ney, in honor of the country seat of his wife
in New York State, Hampton-on-Hudson.
The organization of Hampton township
was completed in March, 1843, and on April
I, 1843, the settlers held their first election in
the Globe Hotel. William R. McCormick's
hat was the ballot-box and it was a stand-
ing joke of the old settlers ever after that he
wore a haf; large enough to hold all the votes
between here and Mackinaw. The more super-
stitious of the settlers had cause for reflection
when it was found that just 13 citizens were
present and eligible to vote. Hon. James G.
Birney, who that very year was nominated for
the second time by the Liberty party for the
highest office in the gift of our people, the
presidency of the United States, received six
votes for supervisor, while the proprietor of
the settlement's only hostelry received seven
votes, and thus Sydney S. Campbell was de-
clared duly elected to attend the board meet-
ings at Saginaw, and privileged to paddle his
own canoe for t6 miles each way for glory and
the prestige of the settlement.
That first vote has been subject to consid-
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
erable criiical analysis. That party spirit ran
high is evident by the close vote. Just why
[ames G. Birney, one of the brightest and most
advanced citizens of the country, without a
<loubt Bay County's foremost citizen, who
had done much to bring; about the separate or-
ganization of Hampton township, and who
was at that very time bending- every energy
an<t dollar be liad in the world to the develop-
ment of this Httle settlement, shouM be defeated
bv die jolly tavern-keeper, has been the subject
for discussion and conjecture. The Democratic
party was then still in the ascendency in the
land, and Sujwrvisor Campbell belonged to
the dominant party. Perchance the party whip
and party loyalty was as effective in 1843 as it
certainly is in 1905. Or mayhap the refreshing
influence of the tavern was more persuasive
in securing voles, than pre-eminent ability, pub-
lic-spirited effort or the undivided interests of
the h'ttle settlement. Be that as it may, the
contents of William R. McCormick's hat
showed that a majority of the settlers wanted
Sydney S. Campbell on the board, and his elec-
tion was duly celebrated far into the night by
the successful "party." differing from our mod-
ern-day celebration of election victories only
in point of numbers.
Old residents are authority for the deduc-
tion, that diere was more good cheer dispensed
as a result of that first election on the soil of
embryo Bay Coimty, per capita of population
taken into the reckoning, than was dispensed in
these parts in November, 1904. when the popu-
larity of President Theodore Roosevelt landed
bim in the White House by the largest electoral
as well as popular vote ever given a presidential
nominee, and incidentally resulted in a land-
slide for the local Republican ticket in Bay
County, every candidate on that ticket being
elected, with hundreds of votes to spare, against
an unusually strong ticket on the other side.
Judge Campbell in later years enjoyed
many jokes about that first election in Hamp-
ton township, while some of the best eiiianated
beside his own fireside. He served as super-
visor for a number of years, being succeeded
by George Lord, who came here from Madison
County, New York, in the winter of 1854. and
who built the Keystone mill on the West Side.
He had hardly settled here before public office
and honors were showered on bini by die little
community, and during the next 20 years he
held a number of the highest offices in the gift
of the people here. He was a robust type of
the early pioneers, wdio liked a joke as well as
his predecessor, Judge Campbell, and bolh
were correspondingly popular. He represented
this community on the Ixiard of Saginaw
County at the time the agitation was on for
creating a separate county down here, and was
bitterly opposed by the supervisors of Saginaw
and Midland townships. When Midland set
up for itself, he was active in securing the or-
ganization of another township on the west
side of the river, and in 1855 the Midland
board organized the township of Williams,
comprising townships 14, 15 and 16 north,
range 3 east, and all of Arenac County,
How thinly this vast territory was settled
in those early years, is best shown by the \'Ote
at presidential elections, Michigan being ad-
mitted to Statehood in 1835, the first presiden-
tial election took place in November, 1836.
Oddly enough, Saginaw County, which then
included all the territory from the Flint River
to Mackinaw, is credited with giving 165 votes
to Martin Van Buren, Democrat, while not a
single vote is credited to "Tippecanoe" Har-
rison, the Whig candidate. Undoubtedly the
Democratic politicians of that day and of this
vast territory knew at that early day how to
manipulate returns and votes. Four years later,
in 1840, Van Buren received 100 votes, to Har-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
rison's 89. In 1844, President Polk received
but 104 votes, to 107 for Henry Clay, the Whig
candidate. These several elections not only
show a slow but positive increase in population,
but they also show much change of sentiment.
This vote of 1844, as recorded in the Capi-
tol at Lansing, would also show that this settle-
ment of future Bay City did not show due re-
spect and appreciation for the distinguished
lawyer and citizen who for the sake of princi-
ple, in defense o£ human liberty, equality, and
the very birthright of the human race, had
given up his slaves, much of bis earthly pos-
sessions, had forsaken the charming scenes of
his childhood in "Old Kentucky," and all the
comforts and luxury of his Southern home, to
seek exile in Michigan, where freedom was all
that the word implies, and not merely an idle
phrase. For nowhere do we find that one
single vote was cast in this election of 1844 for
Bay County's most distinguished pioneer, Hon.
James G. Bimey, who in this very election re-
ceived 62,300 votes for President of the United
States on the ticket of the Liberty party. While
thousands of his fellow-citizens in other parts
of the country were by tlieir votes honoring
the grand old man and his principles, his neigh-
bors in the wilderness, for whom he was doing
so much, do not appear to have voted for him
at all! Yet this sterling citizen, defender of
liberty for all, an earnest preacher in the wil-
derness, eloquent in his defense of the en-
sla\ed black race of the South, who through
a long life practiced all the Christian virtues,
this pioneer in our own backwoods settlement,
received in the very next year (1845) 3^023
votes for Governor of Michigan on his party
ticket. The county did better by him in this
election, giving him 37 votes, but even these
are paltry returns for all that he daily did for
these hidebound partisans,
James G. Birney came upon the political
arena just 20 years too soon! Had he been
eligible in i860, the whole trend of our coun-
try's history might have been changed. But it
was his duty in life to "blaze" a way for future
generations. His self-sacrifices and his elo-
(|i;ent championship of the down-trodden
slaves of the South showed the way for the
next generation of abolitionists, who completed
the work he had so well begun. He was a
leader in that great movement, when leader-
ship meant social exile and banishment from
his native hearth. He was one of the prophets
in the wilderness, who was figuratively cruci-
fied for the cause he served and that world-wide
humanity he loved. And he was as eminent
and successful a pioneer in this valley, as he
was in that movement to free the slaves of the
South.
That his preaching was not utterly lost
upon his neighbors, is shown by the vote of
1848, when this vast county gave Gen. Lewis
Cass, the famous Indian fighter and territorial
Governor of Michigan, 183 votes on the Demo-
cratic ticket, while Gen. Zachary Taylor,
Whig, received 118, and Martin Van Buren,
Free Soil candidate, received 47 votes. Those
47 votes wei'e cast for the principles James G.
Birney fought for. The lide had not yet set in,
that wovild sweep old prejudices away, but
the first low waves were rolling, even here.
In 1852 the vote for President was as follows;
Franklin Pierce, Democrat, 694; Gen, Win-
field Scott, Whig, 367; John P. Hale, of New
Hampshire, Free Soil, 73. The younger gen-
erations of this settlement were most impressed
with the spirit of their tutor, and he lived to
see the work he did in the vineyard of his
Master bear good fruit in the organization in
July, 1855, under the oaks at Jackson, of the
Republican party, embodying all the principles
for which he fought.
This little settlement was represented at
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
the birth of the "Grand Old Party" by the late
Gen. Benjamin F. Partridge, Judge Albert
Miller, John McEwan, and Col. Henry Ray-
mond. The movement started by Judge Birney
and his compatriots had now gained full swing,
and through the entire North there rang the
songs of Whittier and Longfellow, and the
eloquence of Daniel Webster and his co-labor-
ers in the halls of state at Washington, while
thousands of volumes of "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
were sold in Michigan. The result of this
propaganda is evident in the last election held
jointly by this community as part of Saginaw
County in 1856. John C, Fremont, Repub-
lican, received 1,042 votes, to 1,222 for James
Buchanan, Democrat. It will also be noted
that the vote of this vast region had almost
doubled in those short four years. Verily many
good citizens had entered the wilderness in
Michigan's interior since 1850 and a large pro-
portion settled here.
In 1850 the work of building up a prosper-
ous community in these wilds of Lower Sag-
inaw, begim in earnest in 1842 by Hon. James
G. Birney, the late James Eraser and Dr. Daniel
Hughes Fitzhugh, began to show excellent re-
sults. Capitalists w^ith money to invest, pro-
fessional men with energy and ability, brainy
mechanics and enterprising merchants, came
to swell the population, undaunted by the
primitive means we then had of communicat-
ing with the outside world, or the still more
primitive environs of the settlement itself. The
acute biisi]iess men of that army of hardy pio-
neers and home-builders recognized in this lo-
cation with its wealth of pine and other tim-
ber, and its many probable though undiscov-
ered and undeveloped natural resources, a busi-
ness diamond cut in the rough, and their judg-
ment has been verified by subsequent events.
By 1856 this settlement became ambitious,
and the pioneers were no longer satisfied to be
a mere tail to the Saginaw kite, and around
their firesides and in public meeting places they
demanded a title more distinctive for their
rising community. In that year Hon. James
Birney came here to carry on the business en-
terprises of his worthy father, and one of his
first public acts was the introduction of a hill
in the Legislature in January, 1857, providing
"That the name of the village of Lower Sag-
inaw, in the Township of Hampton, State of
Michigan, be, and the same is, hereby changed
to Bay City." The bill was passed and ap-
proved February 10, 1857, Governor Btngham
willingly signing the bill, for Saginaw had
given him an adverse vote, while the little set-
tlement, whicli was not yet incorporated as a
village, had shown some of the spirit of the
leading pathfinder of the community in regis-
tering its sovereign will. This success spurred
the ambitious settlers on to new efforts for a
separate county organization.
In November, 1854, Jonathan Smith Bar-
clay, one of our county's pioneer business men,
builder and owner of the famous old Wolver-
ton House, managed to secure the nomination
and election to the Legislature from Saginaw
County. In 1855, aided by Judge Albert Mil-
ler and Daniel Burns— another of the galaxy
of irrepressible sons of Scotland among our
pioneers — a bill to create Bay County was in-
troduced and later defeated by only a narrow
margin, despite the bitter antagonism of both
Saginaw and Midland, Iroth of whom coveted
this rich belt on the shores of Saginaw Bay.
Gen. Benjamin F. Partridge is the historian
of this memorable contest for recognition by
his fellow-citizens of embryo Bay County, his
sketch being published in pamphlet form by the
Board of Supervisors in 1876. It now occupies
a conspicuous place in the State Pioneer So-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
ciety's "History of Michigrin." The opposi-
tion in the "Third HoLise" was pronounced
strong, numerous and influential.
Tile determination of the now tlioroughly
aroused settlement was equal to the emergency,
however, and, having a good and just cause,
won out o\'er seemingly insurmountable ob-
stacles, just as. 48 years later, equally public-
spirited citizens won out over a similarly ob-
durate Legislature, in the endeavor to unite
the sister cities. Then as now there were luke-
warm citizens, conservative men who thought
that possibly the matter was a liitle premature,
who wanted to wait and see, who wanted to
leave well enough jdone, who were afraid we
were not yet old or rich enough to
stand alone, just as 48 years after equally
conscientious and good citizens thought
and argued, that we were not yet old enough
or well enough balanced to "stand together."
It is interesting to note that the progress of
events for separation from Saginaw in 1857
were very similar to the course of events that
UNITED the two Bay Cities in 1905. With a
divided House behind them, and with seem-
ingly insurmountable obstacles before them,
there were able and willing spirits in the com-
munity who dared to do the impossible. They
insisted that the separate organization of Bay
County, as they had determined to name the
new constituenc)'', was proper and right, and
being RIGHT was not something to be allowed
by an unwilling Legislature, but something
that should be at once conceded.
In 1856 Hon. T. Jerome, of Saginaw, was
elected to the Legislature from that county, and
Henry Ashman, from Midland County, with
the express understanding that they were to
frustrate ail efforts for the creation of Bay
County, and both stood resolutely by their
guns. Their opposition was at all times hon-
orable and above Ixiard, but none the less
strenuous. The Legislature being almost unani-
mously Republican, the settlers here wisely de-
cided to send, as their missionaries, the leading
residents of that political faith. There jour-
neyed to Lansing, in behalf of a separate and
distinct county organization, a large commit-
tee headed by Hon. James Birney, Gen. B. F.
Partridge, Col. Henry Raymond, William Mc-
Ewan, John McEwan, Judge Albert Miller,
and as many other .settlers as could spare the
time from their urgent daily duties of life.
The act creating Bay County was drawn
by Chester H. Freeman, one of the first lawyers
to come to this wilderness, and the description
of territory was drawn by Gen. B. F. Partridge,
himself an able surveyor and civil engineer.
But the representatives of Saginaw and Mid-
land counties did not want the bill to pass in
that form, hence they added Section 2, which
after a prolonged struggle before the Legisla-
ture was finally accepted by all parties
as a compromise. The act creating Bay
County was as follows : "Section i : That
the following territory (then followed the
description) shall be organized into a county,
which shall be known and called Bay County,
and the inhabitanls thereof shall be entitled
to all the rights and privileges to n^hich by law
the inhabitants of the other organized coun-
ties of this State are entitled. Section 2 : This
act shall be submitted to a vote of the electors
of Bay, Saginaw, Midland, and Arenac Coun-
ties, at the township meetings to be holdeii in
said county (here followed provisions how the
vote should be taken), and in case a majority of
the said votes upon the approval of this act
shall be in favor of such approval, then this
act shall take effect upon the 20th day of April,
1857; but if a majority of said votes shall be
against such approval, then Ihis act shall not
take effect, but shall be void."
The anomaly of the wording was caused by
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
tlie worthy member from Midland, who also
wanted his people to have a vote in killing off
the anibitions of "those mosquito fighters" at
the mouth of the river, as the inland settlers
were wont to refer sneeringly to the men ivho
dared to seek homes amid tlie malaria and deso-
lation of the wild and wooded lowlands. The
member from Saginaw was willing to have
the bill pa.-'s in this thrice altered way, satisfied
to leave the matter to his constituency, and
happy himself to be rid of the bother on the
floor of the House, The representative from
Midland County urged the claim of his county
for the privilege of voting on this proposition,
which seemed to concern them so little, with
the undoubted purpose of later urging the rea-
sons why Midland and not Saginaw should
have that sneered at, but none the less growing,
settlement near the bay.
By mutual consent the bill as thrice
aniende<I was passetl by the Legislature on Feb-
ruary 17, 1857, and was duly signed by Gov-
ernor Bingham. The territory included in
Bay County by this act was taken partly from
Saginaw and Midland, and included all of
Arenac County, which was attached to Mid-
land for judicial purposes. It comprised town-
ship 13 north, range 6 east; all the north half
of township 13 north, range 5 east, that lies
east of the Saginaw River; all of township 14
north, ranges 3, 4, 5 and 6 east ; all
of townships 15, i 6, 17 and 1 8 north,
ranges 3, 4 and 5 east; all of townships
19 and 20 north, ranges 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 east ;
and the Charity Islands in Saginaw Bay. All
this territory lies around the shores of Saginaw
Bay, including the valleys of the Saginaw,
Kawkawlin and Pinconning rivers, which are
still within the boundaries of Bay County
proper, and the Pine Rifle and Au Gres rivers,
now in Arenac County, and the Quanicasse
River, now in Tuscola County. In this entire
territory but two townships were regularly or-
ganized — Hampton and Williams, The changes
of the original boundaries have come since
then; as this vast territory became settled, the
inhabitants wante<l to set up housekeeping for
themselves, much as Bay wanted to do in 1855,
and did do in 1857. To our credit be it said,
we have never compelled other communities
to fight for their rights, as Bay County had to
do, until the Supreme Court set things right
in May, 1858.
In accordance with the provisions of the en-
abling act, Bay, Saginaw, Midland and Arenac
counties all voted on the proposition on the
first Monday in April, 1857. In embryo Bay
City a new light had dawned since the bitter
fight was waged against the new county at
Lansing, and some of those who were most
emphatic in opposition to the separation now
became the most urgent advocates of a separate
county. Once again note the parallel between
the evolution of the forces of progress and de-
velopment in the fight for separation in 1857,
and the endeavor for union in 1905. When the
votes were counted at Birney Hall that rainy
April evening in 1857, the entire settlement
was out in the storm, anxiously awaiting the
result.
The vote of Bay County was almost unani-
mous in favor of the separate organization, the
vote being 204 for separation, and only 14
against! Saginaw and Midland counties voted
almost as unanimously against the separation,
as was to be expected, and they forthwith con-
fended that the act creating Bay County was
null and void, and the Circuit Court at Saginaw
continued to claim jurisdiction over Bay
County. Most of the conservative and peace-
loving residents of Bay were resigned to their
fate, and proceeded to accept the discouraging
consequences of that election with such good
grace as they could command. Not so Hon.
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
Chester H. Freeman, the framer of the act, and
one of its sturdiest champions. He contended
from the day the act was passed, that the Legis-
lature did not intend to have Saginaw and Mid-
land vote on it, and that the words "at tiie
township meetings to be hoiden in said coun-
ty"' dearly proved that the election was to be
held by Bay County alone. A handful of stal-
wart and progressive citizens alone took Judge
Freeman's view of the case.
Determined to have a settlement of the case
one way or the other, the township authorities
called an election of county officers to be held
the first Monday in June, 1857. So little faith
did some of the more conservative settlers have
in this election, that they did not even take the
trouble to vote, and consequently less than half
as many \'otes were cast for the first county
officers as Jiad previously been cast in favor of
the separate county organization. The officials
elected, however, were determined to see the
case through on its merits, and the following
day qualified for their respective offices, to
which they were later duly entrusted by the
Supreme Court : Sheriff, William Simon ;
clerk, Elijah Catlin; treasurer, James Watson;
register of deeds, Thomas M, Bligh; judge of
probate, Sydney S. CampbelJ; prosecuting at-
torney, Chester H. Freeman ; circuit court com-
missioner, Stephen P. Wright; surveyor, B. F.
Partridge; coroner, William C. Spicer. These
were the first county officials of Bay County,
and the ticket was as well balanced as any
ever named since at the polls.
Hardly had this organization been per-
fected, when Saginaw and Midland protested
the election as illegal, and for some months
things were badly mixed in the valley. The
collection of taxes and all proceedings in court
were practically paralyzed. Litigants would
start suit in Bay County, and if the judgment
was against them would promptly appeal to
the Saginaw Circuit Court, claiming Bay had
no jurisdiction and vice versa.
Thus matters drifted with clash of juris-
diction and worse confusion, until even the
most ardent separationists advised giving way
and postponing the organization of Bay County
until a more opportune time. But Judge Free-
man stood like the proverbial stone wall. Dan-
iel Burns was chargel by Dr. Dion Birney
with having committed a perjury in Hampton
township, June 29, 1857. Hon. John Moore,
prosecuting attorney for Saginaw County, rep-
resented the complainant, and Chester H. Free-
man, prosecuting attorney for Bay County,
was retained by Daniel Burns, who entered
into the spirit of this test case with all the zeal
he' could command. Although all the leading
lawyers in Michigan expressed the opinion
that the act creating Bay County was null and
void. Judge Freeman decided to carry this test
case to the Supreme Court. Before going to
this last court of appeal, he once more tried to
get the Legislature to put Bay County on its
feet. But the Saginaw and Midland represent-
atives were as immovable as before. Then
Judge Freeman tried a stratagem that nearly
succeeded. He drew a bill, defining where the
court should be held in the judicial district in
which Bay City was situated which, had it
become law, would have established Bay
County at once as a separate organization.
Here is the outline of the bill : "It is hereby
provided that the circuit judge of the district
in which Bay County is situated shall hold
court in Bay City, in said territory, and shall
hear, try, and determine all suits commenced
in said circuit court in said territory, and all
appeals to the same." The final section con-
firmed jurisdiction in this territory! This hill
met the approval of the Governor and of the
Saginaw and Midland representatives and
promptly passed the House on Friday. As
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
the Governor had left the Capitol, and did not
retum until Monday, this bill was not signed;
when about to sign, the Governor on reading it
again before signing, recognized its force,
called the opposing representatives' attention to
it; as Messrs. Jerome and Ashnuni wished to
recall it, it was never approved. The Repub-
lican party leaders at Lansing were not very
anxious to create another new county, which
ihey had reason to believe would be largely
Democratic, and they hastened to put a quietus
on the settlement's ambitions. So anxious were
some of the local Democratic party leaders of
those years to have Bay County recognized as
a separate organization, that they promised
to send Hon. James Birney as the first repre-
sentative from this county, in case it was then
recognized. This was not an idle promise, for
Judge Birney soon after entered the State Sen-
ate from this senatorial district.
The stalwart defenders of Bay County's
interests never faltered in the face of these re-
peate<l rebuffs. Realizing that there was no
hoije for the county in the Legislature, they
turned resolutely to the courts for a settlement
of their case. Chester H. Freeman and Stephen
P. Wright prepared to carry the Birney z-s.
Bums suit to the Supreme Court, and they
called ill as assistant counsel Hon. William M.
Fenton, of Genessee County. The defendant,
Mr. Burns, through his attorney, Judge Free-
man, filed a bill of abatement, alleging that
"the said supposed ofifense, if any was com-
mitted, was committed within the jurisdiction
of Bay County, and not within the jurisdiction
of tlie Saginaw Circuit Court." Upon this
plea, issue was taken, and the case was made
and certified to the Supreme Court, and was
heard at the May term, at Detroit.
Judge Freeman had staked his reputation
as a lawyer upon the result of this'suit, and he
prepared a full and exhaustive argument in the
case. Unfortunately the strain and worry
over this case brought on a fever, so that at the
very time the case was brought up, Judge Free-
man was prostrated. Mrs, Freeman promptly
gathered up all the papers in the case, together
with Judge Freeman's arguments, and sent
them all to Mr. Fenton, at Flint. The case had
meanwhile attracted State-wide attention, as
citizens of al! the counties interested asked the
opinions of various attorneys throughout the
State. When Mr. Fenton reached Detroit, he
was urged by some of the most prominent
attorneys in the State to let the case go by de-
fault, as he would only lay himself liable to
ridicule and defeat. He was assured that not
a single attorney, aside from Judge Freeman
himself, had any faith in the case of Bay Coun-
ty. Fortunately for Bay County, Mr. Fenton
was an honest and fearless citizen, and he as-
sured his advisers that he knew of points in the
case which they overlooked, that he had prom-
ised Mrs. Freeman to see the case through to
the end to the best of his ability, and this
he was now prepared to do. He had not gone
far into the argument, before the listening
jurists conceded that there was some plausi-
bility to his line of reasoning, and before he
closed many of the most eminent practition-
ers became themselves convinced that Bay
County had taken a perfectly legal and proper
course under the circumstances. Seldom had
any case aroused such wide-spread interest
among the members of Michigan's bench and
bar, and many were the arguments pro and con
that May evening in the metropolis of the State,
on the chances of the Supreme Court sustain-
ing the little settlement on the Saginaw River.
The case was submitted just before the close
of court that afternoon, and Mr. Fenton and
the few Bay citizens who had wandered up to
Detroit to hear the case slept but little that
night. At the opening of court next morning.
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
the now famous decision was handed down,
sustaining every contention of Bay County,
and declaring the county duly and properly
organized. The decision is found on page 114,
5th Michigan Reports, First Cooley.
A messenger who had been waiting for the
decision for hours, started on a speedy horse to
bring the news to Bay County, this being a
faster route than coming by stage to Saginaw
and by canoe down the river. But the news
first reached here by the Detroit boat, which
left shortly after the Supreme Court had ren-
dered its decision. The progressive and enter-
prising citizens who had never lost hope in the
establishment of a new county, with the county
seat in their midst, were naturally elated, and
even the more easy-going and indifferent cit-
izens came out of their hard shells long enough
to take part in a genuine backwoods celebra-
tion. Thomas Rogers and a corps of willing
and muscular assistants, having no cannon to
sound the glad tidings, hammered the old anvil
until the welkin rang with the merry music.
Old fowling pieces were brought forth, loaded
to the muzzle, and their explosion sounded to
the up-river settlers like a battle down the river.
All the instruments of music and of noise were
called into use, and good cheer flowed, as it
oniy conid flow, in an open-hearted and prim-
itive community.
The venerable recorder of those far-reach-
ing and exciting events reports in the quaint
style of those years, that this cannonading did
drown some of the sleepy ideas of some of the
sleepy people of this infant city, and did awaken
them to a realization that from their little ham-
let there did lead a sure road to prosperity and
wealth, did they but realize it, and try it out.
"The glad news brought the people to their
right senses! Since then the city and county
have rushed along the rough track of building
up and burning down, and rebuilding in more
substantial style." So far. General Partridge.
In view of events in recent years, one would
almost believe that the effects of that early
stimulant had worn off, that some of our able
citizens have again wandered away from that
vitalizing road that by the value of our natural
resources must lead to prosperity and success.
Verily we are dozing off again, resting on our
oars, drifting with the tide, waiting with the
stoical indifference of the original aborigine in-
habitant of this region for something easy to
turn up. And to the south and east and "-est
of us, more enterprising and wide-awake com-
munities in Michigan were snatching from our
slumbering brow the honor, prestige and busi-
ness, of being the third city in Michigan. But
happily for us, like our ancestors of 48 years
ago, over many obstacles and seemingly im-
passable barriers, we have pursued our court-
ship ; Wenona of old has won forever and ever
the strong arm and devoted co-operation of the
older community. Joined always together by
the commercial ties created by the mighty Sag-
inaw, it remained for the revival of 1905 to
unite those which had ever belonged together.
And just as the victory of Bay County in 1858
roused the slumbering energies and gave re-
newed hope to the pioneers of Bay County, so
let us strive to gain new hope, new life, new en-
terprise, progress and prosperity from the
united strength of the consolidated cities.
Certain it is, that this valley in 1858 at once
assumed a place in the State it had not pre-
viously occupied. The little settlement at once
found a place on the maps of the country. Those
already here sent the good tidings to friends in
distant localities, and a stream of settlers was
soon coming this way. Business and profes-
sional men like to be in a county seat, and the
new dignity of Bay City attracted some of the
men who later did much for the city and
county. The men already here felt the vitaliz-
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
iiig influence of the new spirit which seemed
to animate everything and everyhody, and the
men of means, who often ching timidly to their
cash, preferring to have it lie idle in distant
banks now called this vital spark home, to
combine with the brawn and sinew of labor
for the mntual benefit of both. New mills
were erected. Stores were stocked with mer-
chandise that at first seemed all out of propor-
tion to the demand or needs of the rising com-
'munity, only to be exhausted within a few short
months and requiring replenishing. That
"inisiness creates business" was proven on every
hand. The money that one enterprising citizen
put into circulation drew out the hidden gold
of his neighbor. Fortunes were accumulated in
the next 30 years in every avenue of business
an<l trade. The wheels of trade, industry and
commerce, stopped for many years by the
panic of 1837, were again set in motion all
over the country, anrl nowhere was this vitaliz-
ing influence felt more keenly than in this
"neck of the woods."
Bay City was advertised from ocean to
ocean by this tenacious fight of a handful of
men for recognition in the councils and the
business of the great young State of Michigan.
The rivalry l>etween the older community at
Saginaw and its robust offspring at the head of
navigation began in earnest, and soon became
a by-word throughout the countr}-. However
keen and strenuous that rivalry may have been
and is now; however frequently it may have
verged to a point where the rest of the State
held its breath in anticipation of a general riot
call, one thing this rivalry has always done for
the valley : It has gi\'en us publicity and unlim-
ited free advertising abroad. And since com-
petition is the life of trade, and publicity its
handmaiden, this keen rivalry has at least done
as much as all other factors combined, to call
the attention of the restless world outside to
the wonderful advantages of this valley of the
Sauks, so blessed by Nature, and so well de-
veloped by its pioneer sons. The first clash
came when Bay wanted to set up housekeeping
for itself, and through the indomitable spirit
of its leaders, Bay won. Many have been the
clashes between the vigorous old colony above
the Carrollton sand-bar, and the vigorous set-
tlement in the lowlands near Saginaw Bay,
but the most far-reaching clash was that legis-
lative and legal battle fought to a successful
issue by the cohorts of Bay in 1858,
The county of^cials elected the previous
June immediately took up their official duties,
except William Simon, sheriff-elect^ who had
removed from the county ; B. F. Partridge was
appointed in his place. The first meeting of
the Board of Supervisors was held August 10,
1858. Hampton township was represented by
Sydney S. Campl>ell and Williams township
by George W. Smock. Judge Campbell was
unanimously elected chairman and, by the same
unanimity, Mr. Smock became the committee
of the whole. It was also nnaniously voted by
these two supervisors, that the chairman was
entitled to a vote on all questions coming be-
fore the board. Suggestive of the times and the
place was the first disbursement of the board,
when they paid $88 to Indians for 11 wolf
certificates, and $24 to pale face hunters for
three wolf certificates. They also paid $70.43
for constable bills, indicating that the justice
courts were grinding merrily, although the jus-
tices' fees amounted to only $66.61. Some en-
terprising citizen demanded $10 for posting
election' notices, but the board concluded $5
was enough for that service, which amount was
allowed. Tliey also allowed August Kaiser
$1 for boarding prisoners. Judged by that
standard, the cost of living must have been
trivial in 1858 in this settlement, compared to
the accredited rates of 1905. While the set-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
tiement was still in its swaddling clothes, stiil
the supervisors, after due diligence and impar-
tial application of their tax yard-stick, found
the assessed valuation to be $530,589, while
their tax levy for the first year was $1,165. ^^
one looks at the several pictures of Bay City
and vicinity about that time, one would find
it difficult to size up the property exposed to
view at anything like the imposing array of
figures, produced officially by that able two-
man board. Evidently no one was overlooked,
and every dollar's worth of property was made
to pay its fair and equal share for the privilege
of prospering with the prosperous and promis-
ing young community. The county officials
were not paid in accordance with their evident
worth, but rather in strict accordance with
the visible means of the county as then consti-
tuted. The energetic prosecuting attorney,
Judge Freeman, received the then princely
sum of $50 per year for his public services,
and the other officials were paid in proportion.
The supervisors appointed E. N. Bradford,
Israe! Catlin and Jule B. Hart as superintend-
ents of the poor, for verily "the poor ye shall
have always with ye." The poor board held
its first meeting October 10, 1858. The county
treasurer's report showed that county poor or-
ders to the amount of $78.14 had been paid,
and $2.85 remained in the poor fund.
Things moved fast in the new county, and
the two-man board was soon more than doubled
by the creation of .new townships. In Febru-
ary, 1859, Arenac was erected into a township,
with Daniel Williams, N. W. Sillibridge and
Daniel Shaw on the Board of Inspectors. Peter
Marksman was elected supervisor, but being
unable to act, M. D. Bourasso was appointed
and became the third member of the board. A
special meeting was called in March, 1859,
when the board erected the township of Ports-
mouth, with J. M. Miller, Appleton Stevens
and William Daglish on the first Board of In-
spectors, and Appleton Stevens was elected
supervisor. Shortly after, the township of
Bangor was created, with Scott W. Sayles as
the first supervisor chosen by the constituency-
then residing on the west bank of the Saginaw
River. Dr. George E. Smith represented
Hampton in the fall of 1859. He was chosen
chairman of the board, then consisting of five
members.
The election in November, 1858, brought
about some changes in the county officials, the
successful ones being as follows: Nathaniel
Whittemore, sheriff ; Thomas VV. Lyons, clerk ;
W. L. Sherman, circuit court commissioner;
T. W. Watkins, surveyor. Those honored
with succeeding terms were as follows: Ches-
ter H. Freeman, prosecuting attorney ; Thomas
M. Bligh, register of deeds; James Watson,,
treasurer; Sydney S. Campbell, judge of pro-
bate.
In the fall of 1S58 a cheap wooden building
for jail purposes was erected on what is now
Sixth sireet, near Saginaw street. Sheriff Part-
ridge did not have any vicious prisoners, for the
shack woukl not have held them for a minute.
This primitive bastile was destroyed by fire
in 1863.
At the first meeting of the Board of Super-
visors in 1858, the county seat was located
in Bay City. The following year the enter-
prising supervisor from Portsmouth nearly kid-
naped the distinction from the larger settle-
ment. When the aroused Bay Cifyans heard
of the invasion of their prerogatives in that
smooth manner, they made a counter demon-
stration and at the next session of the Board of
Supervisors the county seat was restored to
Bay City.
The projectors and sponsors of Bay City
had a fair idea of the probable trend of the
county's development, when they set aside twO'
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
lots on Caiter avenue, wliere the Court House
ant] County Jail are now located, for the pros-
pective county headquarters.
The first case in tlie Probate Court of Bay
County was the appointment of Michael Win-
terhaher as administrator of the estate of Fred-
erick Wintermnr, deceased.
The Legislature in February, 1883, created
Arenac County, taking most of its territory
from Bay County, including the following
to\\nships, and in order to indicate their popu-
lation we append with each the vote cast by
each at the presidential election in 1880:
Arenac, 63: Au Gres, 61; Clayton, 62; Deep
River, 76; Lincoln, including the village of
Standish, 80; Mason, 34; Moffatt, 31; Stand-
ish„ 69; Whitney,49. Arenac was organized by
the supervisors of Bny County immediately
after their organization in February, 1859, and
was important at that time because of the lum-
bering along the Rifle River. Au Gres was or-
ganized by the same toard in February, 1870.
Its first supervisor was W. R. Bates, then a
young attorney, later representing Bay in the
House at Lansing, 1871-72, and in 1905 we
find him United States marshal for Eastern
Michigan ! Lumbering along the Au Gres River
was its main industry while the township be-
longetl to Bay. Clayton township was also
organized in February, 1870, while Deep River
and Standish were organized by act of the
Legislature in February, 1873, Moffatt and
Mason by the Board of Supervisors in 1874.
and Whitney was erected as a township 011
October 16, 1879.
On the first Monday in June. 18S3. this
ofl^shoot of Bay held its first county electitin,
naming men who for years had stood high in
the counsels of their foster county. The f<il-
lowing were the first officers of Arenac Coun-
ty; George Keeney, sheriff; P. M, An,gus.
treasurer; William Smith, register of deeds:
F. E, Carscallen, clerk; John Bullock, judge
of probate; Larry McHugh, prosecutor. The
last named official later moved to Bay County,
served as county drainage commissioner for a
term of years, antl in this year of grace, 1905,
this old soldier hobs up serenely as candidate
for first justice of the peace of Greater Bay City
on the G. O. P. ticket ! While Bay County thus
lost nine townships by the simple strnke of a
pen at f-ansing, Bay City has never lost th.eir
business. Then, as now, Bay City was the
mart for the residents of Arenac, and then, as
now. Point Lookout on Saginaw Bay in Are-
nac County was the most popular camping
ground for Bay City folks during the heated
season of midsummer. Many Bay Cityans
have moved across the northern county line,
creating new ties that still bind these good
neighbors together. During the Encampment
of the Gran<! Army of the Republic for North-
eastern Michigan at Standish, September 14-
16, 1904, Company B, 3rd Infantry, M. N. G.,
of Bay City, 75 strong, were the honored
guests of the Arenac County people at Stand-
ish. camping on the Court House square. They
were made to feel, as their hosts put it, that
"they were right at home," for was not Bay
County the "mother of Arenac"? And the
greater the prosperity of Arenac County, the
better will be the business of Bay City.
The first authentic figures on Bay County's
population were secured in the United States
census of i860, when the county was credited
with having 3,164 people. The growth of the
county is well indicated in the official census
returns of the next 40 years. In 1864 the
population of Bay County was 5.517; in 1870
it was 15,900; and in 1874, 24,832. The next
20 years were the booming years of the lumber
industry, and the rural townships secured the
overflow in the way of Uimljer camps, traders
and settlers. The population in 1880 was
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
38,081; in 1884, 51,221; in 1S90, 56,412; in
1894, 61,304; and in 1900 Bay County had
62,378 inhabitants, with a total area of 437
square miles. This was the last Federal cen-
sus. The State census in 1904 shows that Bay
County contains 13,422 families, with 32,108
males, 31,340 females and a total population
of 63,348.
Since the male population is found to out-
number their fair sisters, we have one of the
reasons why there are so few spinsters in Bay
and why Cupid is so extremely busy, W^e find
that 10,234 marriages have been performed in
Bay County since the present license law went
into effect, in 1894, and 587 marriages were
performed in 1904.
The birth rate in this healthy valley has
never given cause for complaint, and our virile
race is growing nicely, with no signs of race
suicide, so much mooted in the older and de-
crepit civilization of the Far East. Bay County
was blessed with 1,378 babies in 1899; 1,266
in 1900; 1,382 in 1901 ; 1,512 in 1903, and the
last year found it difficult to overcome this en-
couraging increase, but managed it by just one
little "dumpling," the total births for 1904
being just 1,513.
These vital statistics still further prove that
Bay County is a good place to live in, since
Nature has been aided by man's ingenuity and
industry, creating thriving farms amid the once
malaria and mosquito-breeding swamps and
lowlands, by reviewing the ledger that is the
end of things, just as the births are the begin-
ning. Since 1890 there have been 9,307 deaths
in Bay County, of which number 968 occurred
in 1904.
Since President Roosevelt has called public
attention to the divorce evil, through his special
message to Congress, in January, 1905, urging
Congress to pass some general divorce law, be-
cause some States are too lax in protecting the
sanctity of the marriage vow, it will be espe-
cially interesting to note that despite Judge T.
F. Shepard's aideavor to grant decrees only in
worthy cases, where in his judgment both the
individuals and the community would be better
off, were the marriage ties severed, the list of
divorces in Bay County, — the i8th Judicial
Circuit,- — grows constantly. Under the provis-
ions of the law of 1897, 40 divorce cases were
filed here in 1899, of which 19 were granted.
In igoo, 56 divorces were started and 38
granted. In 1901, 62 divorces were asked for
and 42 granted. 1902 showed the high-water
mark for divorces in Bay County, as well as
throughout the country. The reaction and re-
vulsion of public sentiment, is plainly evident
in the figures for the last three years. In 1902,
67 divorce suits were started and 54 granted!
In 1903 w-e find 80 pending; 55 were started,
41 were granted, i refused and I withdrawn.
In 1904, 64 were pending, 65 were started, 32
were granted, i refused, 2 withdrawn, and 25
were contested and are pending, together with
39 others, where there is no contest! At this
March term {1905) of the Circuit Court,
Judge Shepard has refused one of the most
conspicuous divorce cases, owing to the promi-
nence of the contesting parties, the case being
Moore vs. Moore, and in his finding he recites
that their applications are based on such differ-
ences as arise daily in the lives of married peo-
ple, but are wisely passed over or adjusted, and
might have been in this instance, resulting
among other things in ruining the husband's
dental business, and the wife's application as
well as the husband's cross bill for divorce were
refused.
Bay County, with its sons of many nations,
has ever presented an interesting study for the
statesman and the politician. A review of our
popular vote for 47 years will show that while
Michigan. Ihe birthplace of the Republican
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
pnrty, has ever since 1854 stood with that
liarty, Bay County until very recently voted
with the minority. Here are the figures:
jg'g. For Governor: Wisner, R., 140; Stu-
art, D., 270. Bay's first presidential vote came
at the most critical juncture in the history of
our country, when Abraham Lincoln held up
the banner of the liberty-loving North, held in
1S40 and 1844 by Hon. James G. Birney, of
Bay City! Yet if we are to judge by the vote,
Birney's work had been best appreciated away
from home, for Bay gave the martyr, Abraham
Lincoln, R., but 311 votes, to Douglas, D., 324!
For Governor, Austin Blair, R., 306; Barry,
D.. 327. In 1862, Blair, R., 256; Stout, D.,
390! Evidently the peace party had a strong
following in Bay! In 1864, Lincoln received
462; General McClellan, D., 584! For Gov-
ernor, Crapo, R., 460; Fenton, D., 586. By
1866 the war has been successfully ended, and
many battle-scarred veterans are seeking this
peaceful and prosperous valley to begin life
anew in the realms of industry, in field, mill or
factory, and the vote shows the impetus of these
veterans, for, in 1866, Governor Crapo re-
ceived 713 votes, to Williams, D., 737, and in
1 868, General Grant carried the county for the
first time for his party, with 1,176 votes, to
Seymour, D., 1,081, while for Governor, Bald-
win, R,, received 1,157 votes, to Moore, D.,
1.098. In 1870, Bay showed signs of back-
sliding. Governor Baldwin receiving 1,186
votes, to Comstock, D., 1,10:. In 1872, Gen-
eral Grant polled 1,948 votes, to 1,270 for
Horace Greeley, and 46 Prohibitionists went
on record for their party faith, while Bagley
for Governor received 1,943 votes to Blair,
L'b., 1.341. In 1874, Governor Bagley lost
the county by a vote of 1,742 to 1,943 for
Chambedain, D. By 1876 the reaction was
complete. Gen. Rutherford B. Hayes receiving
but 2,407 votes to 2,840 for Samuel J. Tilden!
The influx of German immigrants is also
noticeable in the vote on Governor, Croswell,
R,, receiving but 2,405 votes, to Webber, D.,
2,859! In 1878, Go\'ernor Crosswell received
1,387 votes to Barnes, D., 1,592. In 1880,
General James A. Garfield's popularity jiere
carried the county by 2,404, to 2,068 for Gen-
eral Hancock, D., while Jerome, the Republi-
can candidate for Governor, lost it by 2,367,
to Holloway, D., 2,438, and Governor Jerome
fared even worse in 1882, with 2,156, to 3,318
for Begole, Fusionist (who was elected that
year), and 818 for May, National.
This was the first election the writer wit-
nessed in this country. Although but 10 years
old, I noticed that my father, with most of the
German residents, was a stalwart Democrat,
and that the French, Polish and other residents
of foreign birth voted the Democratic ticket
straight. Let me say in passing, that our be-
loved mother disagreed with father, being a
stalwart though silenced Repulallcan, loving
the memory of the martyr Presidents — Lincoln
and Garfield — and her influence was para-
mount with her children, for her two sons cast
their first vote in after years for the political
faith of "mother," and her two daughters in
their voteless way have ever been ardent mis-
sionaries for the "G. O. P." Often in the years
that followed, with the gradual change in the
political complexion of Bay County, have I
wondered if in other homes other mothers were
exerting that same influence in the same direc-
tion. For it is certain that few of the old stal-
warts have changed their political faith or
tenets, and that the change has been almost en-
tirely brought about by the "First Voters," the
rising generation in Bay. This is particularly
true of the native children, and the sons of
German and Polish settlers. It is less notice-
able in the voting districts where the French
and Irish vote is largely represented.
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
But to resume: In 1S84, Grover Cleveland
carried Bay 4,963 votes, to James G. Blaine,
2,916, and St John, Prolii., 161. It should be
noted that Cleveland received 3,436 Democrat
votes, and 1,534 Greenback and Anti-Monop-
oly votes. Gen. Russell A. Alger, now United
States Senator from Michigan, in 1884 re-
ceived but 2,930 votes in Bay, to 4,683 for
Begole, Fus. In 1886, Cyrus G. Luce received
2,957 votes for Governor, to Yaple, Fus.,
4.305, In 1888, Gen. Benjamin Harrison
fared a little better, getting 4,378 votes, to
Cleveland, D., 5,714, and Fiske, Prohi., 127.
In 1 888, Governor Luce secured 4,364
votes to W. R. Burt, Fus., 5,422. Governor
Luce, one of Michigan's sterling sons, and a
public man of the old school, died at his home,
Coldwater, Michigan, March i8, 1905, of
heart failure, aged 80 years. He was a rugged
representative of the common people, and an
honest defender of the public interests. With
him the Republican party went out of power
for one term, for in 1890 E, B. Winans, D.,
was elected Governor, Bay giving him 5,152
votes, to Turner, R., 3,216. In 1892, General
Harrison received 4,587 votes; Grover Cleve-
land, D., 5,714; Eidwell, Prohi., 187. That
year John T. Rich redeemed Michigan for the
Republicans, Bay giving him 4,652 votes for
Governor, to Morse, D., 5,783.
In 1894 Bay County had the honor of nam-
ing the Democratic candidate for Governor of
Michigan, Hon. Spencer O. Fisher, formerly
Mayor of West Bay City and Congressman
from the loth Congressional District, being
selected to contest the second term of Governor
Rich, the sage farmer and statesman, who in
1905 is still in the public service as collector of
customs for Eastern Michigan. This guber-
natorial contest, in which Bay County sup-
ported a favorite son, was made remarkable by i
caustic recriminations within the Democratic
party itself. Congressman Fisher owned a fine
white horse, which for years has been and in
1905 is still in demand, for use in public pa-
rades and on public occasions. This horse led
an Orangemen's celebration parade on Orange-
men's Day, the owner permitting all celebra-
tions to use that horse, but even this horse was
made a campaign issue, and as "Fisher's White
Horse" is still a fixture in Michigan folk-lore
and local political annals. Bay gave 4.933
votes to Hon. Spencer O. Fisher, and 4.365 to
Governor Rich.
The campaign of 1896 went down in local
political history as the hardest fought campaign
ainl while the \'Ote eventually showed but a
narrow margin for the silver-tongued Bryan
of the Platte, yet for a time it looked like a
landslide. The Greenbackers, Fusionists and
Democrat all rallied to his standard, and many
stalwart Republicans wandered from the fold,
and only prodigious work saved a stampe<le
locally. Thousands were on the streets of Bay
City on the night of that memorable election.
The advocates of "Free Silver" had their in-
ning when the vote of Bay was announced as
giving William Jennings Bryan 6,296, the late
lamented President William McKinley, 6.037,
General Palmer, Gold Democrat, 151, and Lev-
ering, Prohi,, 63. Later in the night, as the
returns from the State and country at large
came in, the local minority partisans started a
celebration in honor of the national victory of
their standard-bearer. This same campaign
brought out another of Michigan's foremost
sons, in Hazen S. Pingree, the famous shoe-
maker and philanthropist of Detroit, who in
his race for the office of Governor carried Biy
by 6.307 votes, to Sligh, Fus., 6,030. Then
came the war with Spain, and with it the turn-
ing of the political tide in Bay County, for in
1898 the late Governor Pingree received 5,617
votes to 3,899 for Whiting, D., 76 for Cheever,
Prohi., and 24 for Hasseier, Sec. Labor. As
secretary of the Republican County Committee,
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
the writer was in the thick of this friendly but
snirited fray. Bay sent almost the entire Re-
puhlicaii county ticket into office, and for the
first time in many years the judge of pro-
bate, county treasurer, county clerk, circuit
court commissioner. Representatives and Sena-
tor were of that faith.
The election of 1900 was chiefly remarka-
ble in demonstrating that the change of senti-
ment in Bay was permanent, for President
William McKinley carried the county by 6,462
votes, to 5.081 for Bryan, D., and 233 for John
G. Woolley, Prohi., and 23 for Eugene Debs,
Soc. Lab. Gov. Aaron T. Bliss, of Saginaw,
received 5.896 votes, to 5,907 for Maybury, D.,
in 1900: and in 1902 lie received 3,824 to 4,223
for L. T. Durand, D. The old rivalry between
the cities of the Saginaw Valley had brought
Ba}- County into the 1900 con\'ention at Grand
Rapids for Justus S. Stearns, of Ludington,
and undoubtedly contributed to the adverse
vote for the up-r!\-er resident at Ixith these
elections. It may he interesting to future gen-
erations to know the political division in the
several townships and wards of Bay County, as
shown in this table giving the vote for Gover-
nor in the election of 1900, and the population
for the different civil divisions, according to the
V. S. Census of that year:
Bangor townsliip 1,195 133
Beaver township 1,539 136
Fran ken III St township 1,395 78
Frawr townsliip 1,656 180
Garfidd township 555 106
Gibson township 761 92
Hampton township 3.319 a'jr
KawkawUn township 1,864 163
Merritt township 1,562 121
Monitor township 2,150 145
Mount Forest township ... 350 65
Pinconning township 2,104 I0
Portsnionth township 1,363 129
Williams township iSiS 101
Eay City 27,628 a. 523 3,067
jst Ward 3,213 2S0 412
2d Ward 1,304 223 184
3d Ward 1,265 isy '25
4th Ward 3,529 350 362
5th Ward 3,533 224 298
6th Ward i,943 160 217
7th Ward 1,318 172 129
8th Ward 6,492 280 728
gth Ward 1,458 227 144
lOth Ward i,933 129 265
nth Ward 2,640 318 203
West Bay City 13,1 19 1,376 1,160
1st Ward 2,025 191 212
2d Ward 3>396 283 3,57
3d Ward 1,475 ^76 I59
4tb Ward 2,477 287 190
5th Ward 2,008 216 T43
6th Ward 1,738 223 119
Total fob Ciiun'tv, 62,378 5,896 5-907
The Prohibition. Socialist and Socialist La-
Iwr parties polled 264, 13 and 49 votes, respect-
ively, making the total vote of the county
12,129.
In the general election of November, 1904.
record-breaking in its results, President Theo-
dore Rooseveh carried the county by the largest
majority in its history, receiving 7,615 votes to
3,095 for Parker, D. The Prohibitionists
polled 245: Socialists, 76; Social Labor party,
53; and People's party, 23. The Republican
candidate for Governor, Fred M. Warner,
polled 5,777 votes to 4.939 cast for Wood-
bridge N. Ferris, D. : 220 for James M. Shack-
leton, Pliohi. ; 63 for Clayton J. Lamb, Soc. ;
and 37 for Meeko Meyer, Soc. Labor. The
other candidates for State offices on the Repub-
lican ticket ran far ahead of Governor Warner,
in most cases receiving twice as many votes as
their Democratic oi>ponents.
i8th Judicial Circuit. — One of the hottest
fought elections for judicial honors was fought
out on April 3, 1899, with the following re-
sults : Judge Theodore F. Shepard, R., 4,571 ;
Hon. Archibald McDonell, D., 3,315; Ex-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
Judge Andrew Maxwell, Independent, 1,751.
The term of office is for six years. At the
April election, 1905, Chester L. Collins, R., and
Edward E. Anneke, D., are the contestants.
Bay County has for years taken a promi-
nent part in the councils of the State. From
the very organization of the county to this day,
some of our ablest citizens have given freely
of their time and experience to the service of the
State, while still others have served in the halls
of state at Lansing.
On March 31, 1S71, Hon. James Shearer
was appointed one of the three building
commissioners who planned and superin-
tended the construction of the magnifi-
cent Capitol of Michigan at Lansing.
Hon. James Birney represented Bay County
at the constitutional convention at Lan-
sing, May 15 to August 22, 1867, and Hon.
Herschel H. Hatch attended a similar conven-
tion, representing Bay County, August 27 to
Octoljer 16, 1873. William A. Bryce of Bay
was Secretary of the State Senate, 1863-4.
The State Senators from Bay have been :
James Birney, 1859; Nathan B. Bradley, 1867;
Harrison H. Wheeler, 1871-73; John D.
Lewis, 1874; Charles Frost Gibson, 1881-82;
Daniel Campbell, 1883; Columbus V. Tyler,
1878-79 and 1889; Mendel J. Bialy, 1895;
Frank L. Westover, I90H34; A. O. Heine,
1905.
The representatives from Bay have been :
Henry Raymond, 1859; Theophilus C. Grier,
1867; Luther Westover, 1869; Isaac Marston,
1872 ; George Lewis, 1873-74; Nathan Knight,
1877-79; Andrew Wahon, 1879; Gen. B. F.
Partridge, 1881-83 ; George P. Cobb, 1881-82 ;
James A. VauKleeck, 1883; Hamilton M.
Wright, 1883-85; Martin W. Brock, 1887;
James A. Green, 1887; John Briske, 1889;
Alexander Zagelmeyer, 1889; Birdsey Knight,
1891 and 1894; Christopher Mohr, 1893; John
H. Holmes, 1893; Sam. K, Bradford, 1895;
John Donovan, 1895-99. (Mr. Donovan was
"The Only Democrat" in the Legislature of
1897, and was known far and wide as "Dono-
van of Bay," and "Mr. Donovan, the Demo-
cratic Party in the Legislature." He voted
often with the opposition, making meritorious
legislation unanimous, but as often fought
stoutly, solitary and alone, for the things he
deemed right. He was the nominee of his par-
ty for Secretary of State in 1902, and received
a flattering vote from his neighbors in Bay
County.) George L. Lusk, 1897-1900; John
Washer, 1897-98 and 1903; G. W. Willis
1901 ; Michael Ricgel, 1901 ; John E. Bonser,
1901 ; Clarence L. Sheldon, 1903-04; J. E.
Brockway, 1905 ; Adam Walker, 1905. New-
comb Clark, 1883-86, was Speaker of the
House, 1885-86.
The following State appointees have hailed
from Bay: Commissioner of insurance, — Col.
Henry S. Raymond, 1885-91, and William E.
Magill, 1891-93; State salt inspector, Jabez B.
Caswell, 1897-01 ; deputy State game warden,
Theo. Trudell, 1900-06; deputy State labor
commissioner, Richard H. Fletcher, i905h38.
The following residents of Bay have been
elected or appointed to high official positions
in Michigan : Lieutenant-Governor, Hon.
James Birney, 1861 ; Auditor Generals, — Emil
Anneke, 1863-66, and Henry H. Aplin, 1887-
91 ; State land commissioner, Gen. Benjamin
F. Partridge, 1877-78; Attorney -General,
Isaac Marston, 1874; regent of the University
of Michigan, James Shearer, 18S0; brigade
commander, Michigan National Guard, Gen.
Charles R. Hawley, 1894-96; Members of
State boards from 1902 to 1904: State Med-
ical Board, Dr. Henry B. Landon; State Den-
tal Board, Dr. Frank O. Gilbert; State Agri-
cultural College, Thomas Frank Marston; In-
dustrial Home for Girls, Mrs. May Stocking
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
Knae"'s ; Michigan Home for Feeble Minded,
Dr. N. R. Gilbert; Michigan State Agricultur-
al Society, Eugene Fifield (president 1904-
05) and W. E. Boyden; Michigan Department
Commandery, G. A. R., 1901, James Van-
Kleeck; aide-de-camp, 1903-04, Maj. L. G.
\MiIcox; State Homeopathic Society, Dr.
James H. Ball (general secretary I903hd5) ;
State Teachers' Association, E. D. Palmer
(secretary, 1903-05) ; Michigan Woman'-;
Press Association, Mrs. Martha S. Root (vice-
president, 1902-03), (deceased 1903) ; Republi-
can State Central Committee, Dr. N. R. Gil-
bert, 1904, and Devere Hall, 1905; Democratic
State Central Committee, John E. Kinnane,
1904-05 ; Prohibitionist State Central Com-
mittee, Lewis R, Russell, 1904-05.
The following residents of Bay County
have been honored as presidential electors:
Seth McLean, 1884; Harry P. Merrill, 1888;
Worthy L, Churchill, 1892; Major Lyman G.
Willcox, 1900 (elector-at-large) ; Maj. E. B.
Nugent, 1900; Homer E. Buck (elector-at-
large) 1904; Edgar B. Foss (messenger to de-
liver the electoral vote of Michigan to Presi-
dent Roosevelt at Washington), 1904-05.
The following residents of Bay County
have been elected Representatives in Congress :
Hon. Nathan B. Bradley, 1875-77; Hon! Her-
sche! H. Hatch, 1883-84; Hon. Spencer O.
Fisher, 1885-88; Hon. Frank W. Wheeler,
1889-90; Hon. Thomas A, E. Weadock, 1891-
94; Hon, Rousseau O. Crump, 1895-1902 (de-
ceased May I, 1901) ; Hon. Henry H. Aplin,
1901-02. For the first time since the organ-
ization of the loth Congressional District, as
now constituted, Bay County has not the hon-
or of having the Representative, Flon. George
A. Loud, 1903-06, hailing from Au Sable,
Iosco County.
Bay County has two prosperous building
and loan associations. The Mutual Building
and Loan Association of Bay County was in-
corporated in 1890, with a capital of $2,000,-
000; the following are the officers: President,
Henry H. Norrington; secretary, Thomas E.
Webster; treasurer, Charles R. Hawley. The
Savings, Building and Loan Association of
Bay County was incorporated in 1887, with a
capital of $1,000,000. The officers are: Presi-
dent, Henry B. Smith ; secretary, Allen G.
Plum; treasurer, M. M. Andrews.
Every township in Bay County is now
reached by rural free delivery, the fine road
system and well-distributed population mak-
ing the laying out of routes easy for the Fed-
era! officials. The post offices of the townships
are being continued as heretofore, only five be-
ing discontinued when the rural service went
into effect. The post offices are: Am, Au-
burn, Bay Side, Bentley, Bertie, Crump, Cum-
mings, Duel, Essexville, Garfield, Glover, Ham-
blen, Kawkawlin, Laredo, Lengsville, Lin-
wood, Loehne, Michie, Monitor, Mount For-
est, Munger, North Williams, Pinconning, Te-
bo, Upsala and Willard.
The roster of county officials since the or-
ganization is as follows ;
Judges of Probate. — Sydney S, Campbell,
1858-66; Herschel H. Hatch, 1867-70; J. W.
McMath, 1871-74; John Hyde, 1875-78;
Thomas E. Webster, 1879-87; Hamilton M.
Wright, 1888-99; Griffith H. Francis, 1900-05.
Sheriffs.— WWhmTi Simon, 1858 ;B. F. Par-
tridge, 1858: Nathaniel Whittemore. 1859;
Jonathan S. Barclay, 1860-61; R. H. Weid-
man, 1862-63; Patrick J. Perrott, 1864-65;
John G. Sweeney. 1866-67; Patrick J. Perrott,
1868-69; Myron Bunnell, 1870-73; Martin W.
Brock, 1874-77; George Washington, 1878-
81 ; Charles F. Marsac, 1882-84; Martin Bren-
nan, 1885; Benson Conklin, 1886-89; Henry
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
Gunterman, 1890-93; Alexander Sutherlaiid,
1894-95; Henry Gunterman, 1896-99; Henry
Kinney, 1900-03; John Hartley, 1904-05.
County Treasurers. — James Watson, 1858-
61: Algernon S. Munger, 1862-67; Curtis
Miinger, 1868-71 ; diaries Supe, 1872-73; W.
H. Fennell, 1874-75 ; Jacob Knoblauch, 1876-
77; James A. McKniglit, 1878-79; Charles
Babe, 1880-81; William E. Magill, 1882-83;
Charles Babe, 1884-85; William E, Magill,
1886-89; W. V. Prybeski, 1890-93; Michael
Riegel. 1894-97; Charles J. Smith, 1898-1901 ;
Alexander Zagelmeyer, 1902-05,
County C/ur^j,— -Elijah Catlin, 1858;
Thomas W. Lyon, 1859; Scott W. Sayles,
1860-61; Nathaniel Whittemore, 1862-65;
Harrison H. Wheeler. 1866-67 ; H. A.
Braddock, 1868-75; William M. Keliey, 1876-
83; Wiliam Gaffney, 1884-89; George Reilley,
1890-93; Frank L. Westover, 1894-97; Lud-
wig Daniels, 1898-1901 ; John G. Buchanan,
1902-03; Warren D. Richardson, 1904-05.
Registers of Deeds. — Thomas M. Bhgli,
1858-59: F. A. Martin, i86o-6i ; August Kai-
ser. 1862-63; Bernard Wittauer, 1864-67; T.
A. Delzell, 1868-71; H. M. Hemstreet, 1872-
77: William G. Beard, 1878-79; William G.
McMath, 1880-81; William G. Beard, 1882-
83; John Savage, Jr., 1884-87; W. A. Petta-
piece. 1888-91 ; Henry Fenton, 1892-93 : Lewis
Anders. 1894-97; John Boston, 1898-99;
George E. Wedthoff, 1900-05.
Prosecuting Attorneys. — Chester H. Free-
man, 1858-59; Theophiius C. Grier, 1 860-6 i ;
Luther Beckwith, 1862-65; Isaac Marston,
1866-69; C. H. Dennison, 1870-71 ; Theron F.
Shepard. 1872-73; G. M. Wilson, 1874-77;
Alfred P. Lyon, 1878-81; Henry Lindner,
1882-83; John E. Simonson, 1884-85; James
A.Vankleeck, 1886-87 ;Curtis E. P'^rce, 1888-
91; Lee E. Joslyn, 1892-93; I. A. Gilbert,
1894-97; Edward E. Anneke, 1898- 1903;
Brakie J. Orr, 1904-05.
The counly officers for 1905 are as follows :
Circuit judge, Theodore F. Shepard; judge of
probate, Griffith H. Francis; sheriff, John
IJartley ; county clerk, Warren D. Richardson ;
county treasurer, Alexander Zagelmeyer; reg-
ister of deeds, George E. Wedthofif; prosecut-
ing attorney, Brakie J. Orr; circuit court com-
missioners, — Wilkie A. Collins and George Roy
Fox; coroners, — Fred C. Van Tuyl and Fred
LaFrance;county school commissioner, John B.
Laing; county surveyor, G. Edwin Turner;
county agent. Wiiliam Grandy; county road
commissioners, — Fred A. Kaiser, Hugh Camp-
l;el!, George L. Frank, William Houser, Frank
Kusmierz and Gnstav Hine; county poor su-
pureintendents,^Char,les Anderson, August
Meisel and William Maxson; drain commis-
sioner, John G. Weggel.
The Bay County Board of Supervisors for
[904 was constituted as follows :
Names. Townships and IVards.
Stewart M. Powrie Bangor
William Peoples Beaver
John J. Dc Young Frankenlust
Henry B. Lints Eraser
William H. Reid Garfield
Ezra Truax Gibson
Birclsey Knight Hampton
Peter Bressettc Kawkawlin
C. A. Howell Merritt
Henry Moeller Monitor
John Anderson Mount Forest
George Hartingh Pinconning
William Wagner Portsmouth
Linns W. Oviatl Williams
Bay City.
John C. Bacon First Ward
Lorenz Weber Second Ward
Daniel M. Pierce Third Ward
Franklin M. Olmstead Fourth Ward
John Combs Fifth Ward
Frank Hewitt Sixth Ward
Charles Schuessler Seventh Ward
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
Antiicnj- WjTjbske Eighth Ward
Louis C. Garrison Ninth Ward
WarrcLi Ciirley Teiitli Ward
Henry Fehrciibach Eleventh Ward
Frank T. Woodwortli Mayor, Bay City
Thoitias W. Jloore Comptroller, Bay City
Brakie J. Orr City Attorney, Bay City
West Bay City.
Patrick Lourim First Ward
J- H. Little Second Ward
Frank H. Davis Third Ward
Joseph E. Logan Fourth Ward
August Jonas Fifth Ward
S. R. Birchard Sixth Ward
George M. Staudacher Comptroller, West Bay City
William E. Iilagill Treasurer, West Bay City
John &r. Roy City Clerk, West Bay City
John R. Cotter President, Essexville
Edward Jennings President, Pinconning
Hosted by
Google
CHAPTER VI.
CREATION AND GHOWTH OF THE CITIES. TOWNSHIPS AND VILLAGES
OF THE COUNTY
Incorporation and Growth of the Village of Bay City^ the Successor of Lower
Saginaw and Portsmouth Village — Chartered as a City— Roster of City Of-
ficials—History OF the Villages of Banks, Salzburg and Wenona and of
Their Successor, West Bay City — Roster of Village and City Officials— The
Townships of the County with Historical, Geographical and Census Data —
The Villages of Essexville, Kawkawlin, Pinconning, Auburn and "Iceburg,
U. S. A."
Having brought the available data of Bay
County down to the present day, we must turn
back to the pages of time, and review the in-
ward development of the units comprising the
county, — the townships, with their thriving
little villages, and, above all, the twin cities,
which until this year of grace, 1905, have been
compelled by circumstances to live together in
constant social intercourse, in joint business
pursuits and transactions, one community of
interests save that of political unity. It is well
in this first year of the united cities, in the year
which will ever be commemorated and blessed
as the birth-year of Greater Bay City, to review
the creation, growth and organization of the
little hamlets and frontier cities, which first
formed the nucleus of the metropolis of North-
ern Michigan.
The new life and energy and impetus given
the river bottom settlements by the securing of
the new county seat, in 1858, brought with it
rosy visions of a mighty city, and the residents
of Bay City at once planned to incorporate their
village. The disappointed ones from Saginaw
and Midland couiifies had their hammers out
for Bay, and the anvil chorus was working
overtime. But at the winter session of the
Legislature, in 1859, Bay City was duly incor-
porated. In the 46 years since that incorpora-
tion the growth and development of that ambi-
tious little village, on the border of an almost
unknown wilderness in 1859, have surpassed
the fondest hopes and expectations of its incor-
porators. Years after, when the new City Hail
with its imposing high tower was being con-
structed, that veteran pioneer, Judge Sydney
S. Campbell was taken to its cupola, and shown
the beautiful panorama of the now beautiful
city. The sight seemed to bewilder the sage
pioneer. AH he could say was: "Wonderful,
wonderful," and "Who would have thought it !"
When the village of Bay City was incor-
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
porated, it had probably 700 inhabitants. It
was still a crude, booming, frontier kimber
mamifacturing: settlement. The river front for
some miles on the east shore was cleared of
timber, the clearing extending back as far as
Washington avenue. Most of the homes of the
setders stood in these clearings, with stumps
all about, and the village could lay no claim
to pastoral beauty. The place had ample school
accommodations for the rising generation,
Judge Birney, Dr. Fitzhugh, James Fraser and
Judge Miller of the neighboring town of Forts-
mouth doing much for the settlers' education.
The spiritual welfare of the pioneers was not
neglected, and even the Indians had their own
place of worship at this time on the banks of
the Kawkawliii. The lumber industry fur-
nished employment to the community, and
offered ever greater opportunities for the
owners and operators of sawmills. The seem-
ingly inexhaustible supply of pine and other
timber, and the constantly increasing demand
for manufactured lumber brought new saw-
mills at ever shortening intervals. The fishing
industry also furnished employment to many
hardy fishermen, and fish formed one of the
most important exports of the village. So busy
were the pioneers with the cutting down and
sawing of the pine trees, and the catching of
the finny tribes in Saginaw bay and river, that
farming was attempted only in isolated cases,
and the fertile soil had to wait for future gen-
erations to reap the bounteous harvests which
bless this valley, season after season. There
was easy and ready money in lumber, and pine
could be secured for a song. It was only after
the pine trees had fallen under the axes of the
picturesque backwoodsmen, and been devoured
by the insatiable maw of many saws, that the
virgin soil received the attention it merhed.
But for all that the village was highly prosper-
ous. Wages were high, and living commodi-
ties were still simple and reasonable.
The boundaries of the new village, as it
was incorporated, included all of the original
plat of Bay City, and the territory originally
in Portsmouth, extending from Columbus ave-
nue to Lafayette avenue, which formed the
section line. This was an error, for the lines
of Portsmouth were then drawn along 24lh
street, and this block was for a time without
both the municipal lines. At a later session of
the Legislature this error was corrected by
making the southern line of the village of Bay
City extend to 24th street.
The first village election was held in the
Birney Hall on Water street. May 2, 1859.
Calvin C. C. Chiison and Dr. Louis Fuchsius
were judges at the polls, and Albert Wedhoff
was clerk. There were cast at this election 155
votes, of which Curtis Munger, merchant, re-
ceived 92 votes for the office of president,
against 63 cast for George Lord and Jonathan
S. Barclay. Charles Atwood was elected re-
corder, John F. Cottrell was elected treasurer,
while the trustees chosen were Albert Miller,
James J. McCormick, Henry W. Jennison,
Israel Catlin, Henry M. Bradley and Harmon
A. Chamberlin.
The first meeting of the trustees was held
in a room over the store of Jennison Brothers,
located on what is now Water street and Fifth
avenue, and where, oddly enough, 46 years
later we find the Jennison hardware store, with
its great business managed by the descendants
of those early pioneers. The trustees did little
more than organize on May 5, 1859, but at
another meeting, held May 23, 1859, they com-
pleted the government of the village by appoint-
ing John A. Weed, village marshal ; Henry M.
Bradley, street commissioner, while the asses-
sors named were Algernon S. Munger and
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
William Daglish. Evidently things politic
were managed somewhat differently during
those early years, than they are in this year
of grace, 1905. The gentlemen named for
assessors not only did not seek the honor, but
felt that their private affairs did not allow them
to do justice to the public duties. Consequently
the village trustees appointed in their stead A.
G. Sinclair and Charles D. Fisher. But Mr.
Sinclair was equally scrupulous in the matter,
and Col. Henry Raymond was chosen on June
6, 1859-
One of the first official acts of the trustees
was the ordering of board walks on Washing-
ton avenue from First to Tenth streets, and the
opening of Jefferson street and Madison ave-
nue, north of Center avenue. On June 3,
1859, Hon. James Bimey was appointed attor-
ney for the village at a salary of $75 per year!
On June 27, 1859, a general tax for village
purposes of $1,047 was certified to by the asses-
sors, and they also levied a highway tax of
one-haif of one per cent. The efficient fire de-
partment of this community had its inception
on December 19, 1859, when Israel Catlin,
Henry 'SI. Bradley and Harmon A. Chamljer-
lin were appointed a committee on fire protec-
tion ; on January 4, i860, they were authorized
to rent a sufficient amount o£ leather hose for
use until spring, and they also procured a tri-
angle for the hose house.
The first year of the village was rich with
promise of future greatness and development.
The go\-ernment census showed a population
of 810 in Bay City, and 3,164 in Bay County.
Saginaw County, even after losing Bay two
years previous, had 12,693 people. This first
year of Bay City as an incorporated community
was marked by a large increase in population,
and new impetus in the financial and social
conditions. The first salt-well was sunk in
i860, the lumber industry assumed larger pro-
portions, and a few enterprising farmers pro-
ceeded to carve farms out of the wilderness of
swamp and pine stumpage. The pioneers felt
ihe need of better connection with the outside
world, and about 1 1 miles of the plank road
toward Tuscola County had been built before
snow came that fall, and naturally the earliest
farms were situated largely on this important
highway. It has ever since been known as the
Tuscola road. It was for, years a toll road, and
toll houses were doing business there during
the first drive the writer took over its well-
worn surface in 1882.
A roster of the village officers reads as fol-
lows: 1861 : W. L. Fay, president; Sydney S.
Campbell, recorder; B. Whittauer, treasurer.
1862: James Watson, president; J. L. Mon-
roe, recorder; August Kaiser, treasurer. 1863 :
Curtis Munger, president; Nathaniel Whitte-
more, recorder; C. Scheurnian, treasurer.
1864: Curtis Munger, president; Nathaniel
Wliittemore, recorder ; C. Scheurman, treas-
urer. 1865: Jule B. Hart, president; P. S.
Hiesordt. recorder ; Ernst Frank, treasurer.
In January. 1865, the village showed a
population of 3.359, and the Legislature was
asked to give the community a city charter,
which was granted.
On the first Monday in April, 1865, the
city of Bay City perfected its organization, by
electing a full set of city officials, including
aldermen for the three wards into which the
ambitious settlement had been divided. The
pioneers of that city of a little more than three
thousand souls, hardly foresaw that in the
course of events, just 40 years later, at the
election on the first Monday in April, 1905,
this city of Bay City would be united in wed-
lock to the equally healthy and beautiful city
across the river, and that the family thus united
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
would bring over 41,000 people within the
boundaries of the new and greater city of Bay
Gty.
At the time Bay City was chartered, the
site of fnttire West Bay City was a l>eautifnl
grove of oaks and stately pines. The httle
elevation extending back from the river was a
favorite camping ground of the wandering In-
dians, and their bark and hide wigwams gave
the western landscape a pretty and picturesque
setting, as viewed from Bay City. But there
was little evidence of the rapid development in
store for that side of the river in the years
to come. There was a settlement near the
mouth of the river, which in 1865 became
Banks, and an equally ambitions burg opposite
Portsmouth fostered by Dr. Daniel Hughes
Fitzhtigh, which was called Salzburg by its
German pioneers, a name which is still all its
own. Since the years of agitation about unit-
ing all these scattered and yet connected little
communities under one head, the people liav^
often expressed wonder why they were not al!
included in the charter provisions of Bay City
as originally drawn by the Legislature in 1865.
But in view of the foregoing it will be appar-
ent, that there was really nothing but virgin
forest and a few roving Indians to take in at
that time on the west bank of the river. In
1864, H. W. Sage began the erection of his
"Big Mill" directly across from the heart of
Bay City, and workingmen were hurrying to
the new lumber El Dorado, but it was not until
IVIay, 1866, that the village of Winona was in-
corporated. Hence Bay City did not take in
anything originally, excqit the central portion
of what is now included in the corporate city
limits.
The first election of city offices in Bay City
resulted as follows: Hon. Nathan B. Brad-
ley, mayor; William T. Kennedy, recorder;
Ernst Frank, treasurer. In this year of grace,
1905, Hon. Nathan B. Bradley is still with us,
the same public-spirited, enterprising, beloved
and esteemed citizen, that he was Just 40 years
ago! It is a rare anniversary in the life of a
community and in the career of a public offi-
cial. And during all those 40 years our "First
Mayor" has been indefatigable in the work of
building up these communities, and in blessing
its inhabitants. He is to-day the "Grand Old
iVIan" of our city's surviving pioneers, just as
Hon. James G. Birney was the "Grand Okl
Man" of the pioneer days of our county. Nor
is Mr. Bradley alone in celebrating this anni-
versary, for the first city treasurer of Bay City,
Ernst Frank, is still actively engaged in his
business pursuits, occupying a suite of offices
in the Crapo Block, from whose lofty pinnacle
can be gained a fine view of the new greater
city, so far ahead of anything the first officials
of our city perceived even in their fondest
tlreams. Both of these veteran officials and
sterling citizens held many offices of trust and
responsibihty in the years following the incor-
poration of our city, and contributed much to
the development of the city and county.
The first Board of Aldermen was as fol-
lows: First Ward: George W. Hotchkiss and
Jerome B. Sweet ; Second Ward : Alexander
M. Johnson and JetTrie R. Thomas; Third
Ward: James Watson and Herschel H. Hatch.
Hon. Herschel H. Hatch is in 1905 a resident
of Detroit, and one of Michigan's most distin-
guished lawyers. He, too, filled many places
of trust and responsibility in this city, county,
district and State, and lives to enjoy the 40th
anniversary of the birthday of this city, and of
his entry upon its public duties. On April 11,
1865, these councilmen fixed the bond of the
treasurer at $3,000, and appointed Thomas
Carney, Sr., street commissioner; Theophilus
C. Grier, city attorney; C. Feige, city marshal;
and Andrew Huggins, city surveyor.
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
One of the first requirements of this bust-
ling little "sawdust" town was more ample fire
protection, and at a special election held the
first Monday in September, 1865, the people
voted in favor of purchasing a steam fire-
engine. Accordingly on September 30th the
aldermen ordered the sum of $4,997.47 spread
on the city tax-rolls for the ensuing year, and
by resolution, adopted November 18, 1865, the
new "Silsby" fire-engine was duly accepted.
The valuation of the city's property during the
first year of its existence was placed at
$633,000.
Hon. Nathan B. Bradley came to Bay City
in 1858. engaging in the lumber business, in
which he has ever since been more or less in-
terested to this day. He was one of the first
lumber manufacturers to add the making of
salt to his sawmill plant, using the refuse as
fuel for the salt plant. In 1865, with that fore-
sight which has ever made him the foremost
citizen in all public enterprises in Bay City,
he interested others with himself and applied
for and secured a charter for building a street
railway in the new lumber town ! Verily things
were moving fast! Only seven years before,
the supervisor from Portsmouth had to come
down in a canoe, because the Indian trail and
ri\"er road were both difficult and uncertain as a
means of reaching the heart of the settlement,
and now these settlers already have metropoli-
tan ideas and want an up-to-date street car serv-
ice ! It is also to be noted in passing, that those
sturdy pioneers did not enter any protest
against giving away valuable franchises, about
bartering away the people's rights without ade-
quate return, such as have become the fashion
of these latter days. In 1865 the residents of
this booming lumber town welcomed the pros-
pect of rapid and easy transportation, such as
the horse cars furnished all over the country
at that time. Mr. Bradley was the secretary-
treasurer and one of the managing directors
for many years of the local street railway sys-
tem. He served this growing community with
eminent distinction in the State Senate, 1866-
67, and in 1872 was elected to the 43rd Con-
gress. He served on the committee of public
lands, doing much to develop the interior of
Michigan, which then contained much of the
country's public lands. He also secured large
appropriations for dredging the Saginaw River
and the harbors of his district, making them
navigable for lake boats of the deepest draught,
both of which measures were of vital import-
ance to the commercial development of this
city and county. The first mayor of Bay City
stood like a stone-wall in defense of the elec-
toral bill in the 44th Congress, believing it the
only peaceful solution of the all important
question. During all the 40 years since Mr,
Bradley first guided the pubHc affairs of the
growing city, he has been conspicuous in every
discussion of important public questions. He
has presided at many city, county and district
conventions, and there has not been an import-
ant political campaign during that long period
tliat has not found him fighting in the very van
for the principles he holds dear. Yet the love
and esteem in which he is held by the entire
community attest the fact, that he has never
stooped to the guerrilla tactics, so common in
partisan warfare during the heat of political
campaigns. He has set the good example of
placing his citizenship first! Partisan consider-
ations come thereafter. Hence while his neigh-
bors might differ with him on questions of
national economy and the particular manner
of conducting our national affairs, yet they
were, after all, his fellow-citizens, whom he
knew to be as honest, as earnest and as sincere
as he was himself.
The writer has no apology to offer for this
transgression upon the tide of events in the
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
city and county. For the first mayor of Bay
City is to-day such a bright and hving example
of all that is noble, progressive, charitable,
forceful and worthy of emulation by coming
generations, that the pause in the narration of
municipal events is really but an indicator of
one of the leading factors in their consumma-
tion. It is usually easy enough to carry on a
city government that has been well organized
and properly started, and hence more import-
ance attaches to the charter organization than
to subsequent administrations, that had the
benefit of the experience of the earlier officials.
The esteem in which the iirst officials of Bay
City were held, and the ability with which they
served their young constituency, is best attested
by the many honors subsequently conferred on
Mayor Nathan B. Bradley and on City Treas-
urer Ernst Frank, who served continuously
until April, 1869, and again in later years, and
on Recorder W. T. Ivennedy, who served until
April, 1867.
The roster of city officials from that day
to this includes many prominent names in the
annals of the city, men who stood high in the
business world, and others who stood equally
high in their chosen professions. Here is the
list of ihe successors of the first officials :
Mayors. — ^James Watson, 1866-67; W. L.
Fay, 1868; James J. McCormick, 1869; Alger-
non S. Munger, 1870; G. H. Van Etten, 1871 ;
Appleton Stevens, 1872-75; Archibald Mc-
Donell, 1876-77; George Lord, 1878; John H.
^^'ilkins, 1879-82; Hon. T. A. E. Weadock,
1883-84; George H. Shearer, 1885-87; Hon.
Hamiiton M. Wright, 1888-89; Hon, George
D. Jackson, 1890-95 ; Hon. Hamilton M.
Wright, 1895-97; Alexander McEwan, 1897-
1901 ; Dr. William Cunningham, 1902-03 ;
Frank T. Woodworth, 1904-05.
i?ccorrf^r.j,— Nathaniel Whittemore, i868-
70; I. G. Warden, 1871-77; T. A. Delzell,
1878-85; James B. Barber, 1886-92; Octavius
A. Marsac, 1S92-1905,
Treasurers. — I. G. Warden, 1869; August
Kaiser, 1870; Lucien S. Coman, 1871-74; C.
S. Braddock, 1875-76; Charles Supe, 1877; E.
Wood, 1878; Jacob Knoblauch, 1879-80; Jo-
seph Cusson, 1881-S2; Charles Babe, 1883-85;
William G. Beard, 1886-87; Albert Jeffrey,
1888-91 ; Ernst Frank, 1891-95 ; Ludwig Dan-
iels, 1895-99; H- A. Gustin, 1899-1903; Ed-
ward E. Corliss, 1903-05,
Comptrollers. — R. McKinney, 1869;
George Lord, 1870-74; Patrick J. Perrott,
1875-76; W. H. Fennell, 1877-78; C. F. Bra-
man, 1879-89; Capt. William Keith, 1889-97;
G. F. Ambrose, 1897-1901 ; Thomas W.
Moore, 1901-05.
The present city officials are as follows;
Mayor, Frank T. Woodworth ; recorder, Oc-
tavius A. Marsac; treasurer, Edward E, Cor-
liss; comptroller, Thomas W. Moore; city at-
torney, Brakie J. Orr; city engineer, Capt.
George Turner; chief of the fire department,
Thomas K. Harding; chief of police, N. N.
Murphy; police justice, William M. Kelley;
street commissioner, Henry Fox ; pound mas-
ters,— John Rowell, Sr., and Michael Dom-
browski ; librarian, Capt, Aaron J. Cooke ;
superintendent of water-works, E. L. Dunbar;
superintendent of schools. Prof, John A.
Stewart.
WEST BAY CITY.
Banks.— In 1851, Joseph Trombley, the
far-famed Indian trader and pioneer, had 25
acres of his large land holdings on the west
bank of the river, platted into village lots,
which Thomas Whitney, of Bangor, Maine,
who erected the first sawmill in that locality,
named in honor of his birthplace, Bangor. In
1865 "Uncle Sam" established a post office in
this little settlement, and finding another post
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
office with the same name in Michigan, had it
changed to Banks, which 40 years later still
marks this enterprising portion of Greater Bay
City. The village of Banks in 1865 was sit-
uated on section 16, in the township of Bangor,
and had 350 inhabitants.
The village of Banks was incorporated by
act of the Legislature, April 15, 1871, and this
act was amended March 31, 1875, by extending
the boundaries, which then included "all of
Sections 15 and 16 lying north and west of
Saginaw River, and the east half of the south-
west quarter of Section 17, and al! of said lands
being in town 14 north range 5 east are
made and constituted a village corporate by the
name and title of the village of Banks."
The first village president in 187 1 was
Robert Leng, a prominent salt manufacturer.
Under the new charter, the recorder, treasurer,
and assessor were to be elected, instead of ap-
pointed, and this first election proved unusually
interesting. Fred W. Bradfield, now manager
of the Bay City Hardware Company, and still
a resident within the old corporate limits of
Banks, was elected president without opposi-
tion. Since most of the inhabitants were of
French extraction, the officials elected reflected
the predominant nationality. John B. Poirier
won out for recorder with 40 votes to spare,
Robert Leng was chosen assessor, with 53
majority, while Bernard Lourira, treasurer,
had no opposition. The trustees were Joseph
Trombley, John Brown and Peter Smith. The
village management was very pubUc-spirited,
especially in the matter of public schools, the
improvement of roadways, and the securing of
new industries. In 1877, by act of the Legisla-
ture, Banks became a part of West Bay City.
Salzburg.— In 1862 Dr. Daniel Huglies
Fitzhugh plaited a strip of land fronting on
the west bank of the river, and extending from
the Lafayette avenue bridge north to the sec-
tion line. The Laderach and other German
families had settled here in 1861, and as the
salt excitement ran high in the valley in those
years, they named the embryo village Salzburg,
after the ancient town of Salzburg in Austria.
The village was never incorporated, yet
fought vigorously against consolidation, to-
gether with its northern neighbor, Wenona
village, in 1875, whai the central division
sought to absorb the wings. In 1868 the post
office was established in the flourishing village,
and as Frankenlust and Monitor townships be-
came settled, and the population rapidly in-
creased, this office did a thriving business. In
1877, Salzburg became a part and parcel of
West Bay City, but the southern suburb of the
West Side will ever be known by the appropri-
ate name accorded the hamlet by the early
pioneers.
Wenona. — The Ijeautiful grove of oaks
and pines extending along the little sand-ridge
above the river bank and river bottom, directly
opposite Portsmouth and Bay City, was a nat-
ural park, as beautiful and pleasing to the eye
as any park ever artistically laid out by the
hand of man. It was the favorite camping
ground of the Indians, and Indian trails led to
this picturesque park from all directions. It
was picked out by Henry AV. Sage, capitalist
and lumberman of Ithaca, New York, during
his first memorable visit here in 1847, as a very
likely location for a booming lumber town.
Yet the years rolled by and, while the less de-
sirable east side of the river grew and pros-
pered, "Jolly Jack" Hays in his lone cabin, the
man who operated the only ferry across the
river for years, and the Indians, who at all
of the year returned to their favorite
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
camping ground, were the only people who en-
joyed the many natural advantages offered by
this site. The trail through the woods to Mid-
land, 20 miles to the west, began here. On the
edge of the grove stood the little cottage of
George King, the second settler, and near by
was the little school house, where the children
of Bangor township were taught, and which
also was the town hall of the few scattered set-
tlers.
In 1862 Henry W. Sage proceeded to carry
out the plans for building a sawmill on this
promising site, which appeared to have waited
all these 16 years for the return of the master
mind that bad so quickly grasped the advan-
tages which appealed to later arrivals appar-
ently in vain. After long and almo.st fntile
negotiations for the desired site, then owned by
Dr. Daniel Hughes Fitzhugh and Mrs. Eliza-
beth P. Birney, who naturally desired to drive
a sharp bargain, the late James Eraser suc-
ceeded in harmonizing the differences, and the
great limiber iirm of Sage, McGraw & Com-
pany transferred their activities from Lake
Simcoe, in Canada, to the site of future We-
nona, in 1863. They at once proceeded to
erect the largest sawmill in the world, and the
magnitude of the entrprise drew the attention,
not only of this country, but also of Europe,
to the shady groves of Wenona.
The little settlement gathering about the
mammoth mill grew with leaps and bounds.
The company at once laid out a village, selling
the lots, 200 by 50 feet in dimensions, for $200
each, and named it Lake City, but when they
applied for a post office, it was found that an-
other village in Michigan had prior claims on
the name. The wives of Messrs. Sage and
McGraw then decided to call it Wenona, after
the lamented mother of Hiawatha, in the book
of Indian legends and traditions of that name.
written by Longfellow, and then at the height
of its popularity.
In May, 1866, the village of Wenona was
incorporated by the Board of Supervisors,
which described the village as lying in section
20, township 14 north, range 5 east. The first
election was ordered held on June i, 1866, at
the school house in Bangor township, and C. F.
Corbin, J. B. Ostrander and W. D. Chambers
were named as election inspectors. The fol-
lowing village officials were elected : President,
Maj. Newcomb Clark; trustees, — ^John G.
Emery, William D. Chambers, Martin W.
Brock, Lafayette Roundsville and Marcellus
Faxon; clerk, Harrison H. Wheeler; treasurer,
David G. Arnold; marshal, Ainsworth T. Rus-
sell; pound master, J. B. Ostrander; assessors,
— John G. Sweeney and James A. McKnight;
street commissioners, — Wilson O. Craft, Hi-
ram C. Allard and Ainsworth T. Russell: fire
wardens, — William Swart, Ainsworth T. Rus-
sell and John H. Burt.
In February, 1867, the Legislature granted
a charter to Wenona^ and on April 2, 1867, the
charter election was held, resulting as follows:
President, David G. Arnold; recorder, Maj.
Newcomb Clark; treasurer, George A. Allen;
assessor, James A. McKnight; trustees, — J. G,
Emery, M. W. Brock, Carlos E. Root. Wilson
O. Craft, Lafayette Roundsville and Harrison
H. Wheeler. The charter was drawn by Maj.
Newcomb Clark, the first president of Wenona,
and speaker of the House of Representatives,
33rd General Assembly of Michigan, He was
educated at Oxford Academy, served with dis-
tinction through the Civil War, with the 14th
Regiment, Michigan Infantry, and later with
the 102nd Regiment, U. S. (Colored) Infan-
try, and came to Wenona in 1865. For many
years he held offices of trust in the rising com-
munity, and contributed much to the Ijusiness
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
development of the village and later of the city.
Treasurer Allen, Assessor McICiiight and Trus-
tee Roundsville are still residing here, having
watched through the varying fortunes of 40
years the gradual growth and increasing im-
portance of the place that was infinite enough
when it first assumed a place on the map of the
county and State. They will likely live to see
the cities united in April, 1905, and assume the
place in onr nation's constellation of great
cities, to which they are entitled.
It was Major Clark who drew up the special
charter, and carried it to Lansing for the Board
of Trustees. He placed it in the hands of Hon.
Nathan B. Bradley, then State Senator, and it
was made effective in short order. While such
men as Mr. Bradley served this constituency
at Lansing, there was no "railroading" of home
rule measures. The people through their ac-
credited representatives had merely to express
their wishes, and the representatives saw to it
that they were gratified without alteration of
any kind.
The roster of village officials contains the
names of some of the most enterprising pio-
neers, and the few survivors are among the
most prominent and prosperous of our citizens,
as tiie following roll of those who succeeded
the first officials, will show: Village presidents,
—Harrison H. Wheeler, 1867; David G. Ar-
nold, i86g and 1874; E. T. Carrington, 1870;
C. F. Corbin, 1871 ; Lafayette Roundsville,
1872; S. A. Plummer, 1873; James A. Mc-
Knight, 1875; George Washington, 1876.
Village recorders,~C. P. Black, 1868; Maj.
Newcomb Clark, 1869; O. J. Root, 1870; E.
C. Haviland, 1871 ; Maj. Newcomb Clark,
1872; T. P. Hawkins, 1873; C. F. Corbin,
1874; A. S. Nichols, 1875; E. S. Van Liew,
1876. Village trustees.— J. G. Emery, 1868;
Wilson O. Craft, 1868-69; ]■ B. Ostrander,
1868; W. D. Chambers, 1868; Lafayette
Roundsville, 1868-69; Martin W. Brock, 1868-
70; C. W. Rounds, 1869; W. F. Hicks, 1869
and 1871; C. P. Black, 1869 and 1876; S. A.
Plummer, 1S70-72 ; George A. Allen, 1870
and 1872; C. F. Corbin, 1870; David G. Ar-
nold, 1870 and 1876; James A. McKnight,
1870, 1873 and 1876; A. Agans, 1871; R.
Stringer, 1871 ; W. M. Green, 1871-73; O. J.
Root, 1871; P. Irwin, 1872-73; William
Moots, 1872-73; George Kiesel, 1873; George
G. Van Alstine, 1873-74; George Harmon,
1873 ; E. T, Carrington, 1874-75 ; A. S.
Nichols, 1874; W. E. Lewis, 1874-75; Alex.
Laroche, 1874-75; T. P. Hawkins, 1874-75;
Perry Phelps, :875-76; R. H. Chase, 1875;
John G. Kiesel, 1876; Benjamin Pierce, 1876.
Wenona had high ambitions in 1868, when
it secured the Michigan Central Railroad line
to Jackson, and it is pertinent in this consolida-
tion year of 1905, to know that on March 2,
1867, at a trustee meeting to grant the railroad
the right of way through Wenona, one of the
enthusiastic citizens announced that Wenona
was disposed to be magnanimous to Bay City
folks, who should be allowed to take the cars
over there for the outside world, and that if
Bay City applied in good form for annexation
to Wenona, the application would be granted!
Nor was this assumption merely a play of
words, for in 1877 Wenona reached out and
annexed to itself it's not too willing neighbors,
— the village of Banks on the north, and the
village of Salzburg on the south, — and all
three little burgs disappeared from the map,
while by act of the Legislature there sprang up
in their place the promising city of West Bay
City. The residents of Wenona said this con-
solidation was a forcible illustration of the oft-
repeated maxim : "In union there is strength !"
The Legislative act was called "An Act to con-
solidate Wenona, Banks and Salzburg, to !)e
known as the city of West Bay City," and the
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
Ixiiindaries included so much of the township
of Bangor as formerly belonged to Wenona
and Banks, and the plat, of Salzburg included
u'itbin the described limits.
The little ciiy was divided into three wards,
and the charter election was held on the first
Monday in May, 1877. The vote in the First
W'ard was taken in the old Banks town hall,
P. Lourim, Robert Leng, Alex. B. Moore,
Thomas B. Raymond and Ephraim J. Kelton
being the inspectors. The Second Ward held
its election in the council rooms, David G.
Arnold, T. P. Hawkins, James A. McKnight.
S|iencer O. Fisber and George G. Van Alstine
being the inspectors. The Third Ward vote
was taken at Davis' Hotel, Frank Fitzhugh, J.
W. Babcock, Bartholomew Staudacher, Aaron
Wellman and Robert Elliott being the inspec-
tors.
The first officials of West Bay City were as
follows: Mayor, David G. Arnold; recorder,
E. S. Van Liew; treasurer, W. M. Green;
aldermen : E. J. Kelton, C. E. Root, William
Davis, William J. Martin, W. I. Tozer and
Michael Hufnagel. The mayor was an old and
respected citizen of the rising community, and
together with the Board of Aldermen did much
in the next year to secure better fire proteclion,
better roads and other local improvements. The
salaries were fixed as follows : Recorder, $400 ;
comptroller, $800; city attorney, $200; mar-
shal, $300; harbor master, $100; while the
mayor and aldermen received the munificent
sum of 50 cents per session! This did not deter
many good men from serving the city in an
official capacity, as is shown by the following
roster of city officials, until the consolidation
of the East and West sides in 1905.
Mayors. — David G. AmoUi, 1877; George
Washington, 1878; William I. Tozer, 1879-
80; William E. Magill, 1881-82; Hon. Spencer
O. Fisher, 1883-85; S. A. Plummer, 1886-87;
William J. Martin, 1888-91; Rousseau O.
Crump, 1892-1895; Peter Lind, 1896-19^1;
John Walsh, 1902-03; C. J. Barnett, 1904-05,
Recorders. — E, S, Van Liew, 1877-81 ;
Henry C. Thompson, 1882-83; William H.
Phillips, 1883-87; William Stewart, 1888-89;
WilHam H. Phillips, 1S90-91 ; John C. Angell,
1892-93; George L. Lusk, 1894-99; Fred G.
Sweeney, 1900-1901 ; John M. Roy, 1902-
1905.
Comptrollers.— W\\\\nm E. Magill, 1885-
86; Alexander Zagelmeyer, 1887-88; James A.
McKnight, 1889-90; F. C. Thompson, :89i ;
Charles Glaser, 1892; James Scott and Charles
Glaser, 1893; Charles Glaser, 1894; Henry S.
Lewis, 1895-96; F. W. Ingersoll, 1897; Frank
G. Walton, 1 898-1 900; John Boston, 1901-03;
George M. Staudacher, 1904-05.
Treasurers. — W. M. Green, 1877-81; An-
drew Weir, 1882-83; James A. McKnight,
1884; H. W. Weber, 1885-86; D. McLaugh-
lin, 1887-88; Theo. E. Bissel, 1889-90; W. M.
Green, 1891-92; R. C. Tasker, 1893-96; Au-
gust J. Bothe, 1897-1900; C. M. Larue, igoi-
02; William E. Magill, 1903-1905.
THE TOWKSIIirS OF THE COUNTY.
Bangor.- — On petition of 18 freeholders,
led by John G. Kiesel, John Gies, Charles
Nickel, Scott W. Sayles, Frederick Kiesler and
Mathew Miller, of Hampton township lying
north and west of the Saginaw River, the
Board of Supervisors on March 23, 1859,
erected the township of Bangor, and on April
7, 1873, the township held its first election.
Scott W. Sayles, John Raymond and Frederick
Kiesler were the inspectors, and Scott W.
Sayles was chosen supervisor. When West
Bay City was chartered in 1877, Bangor lost
most of its territory, wealth and importance.
In 1864, for instance, Bangor paid $6,457.40 in
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
county taxes, while for some years after losing-
the three villages the tax was less than $800,
and the assessed valuation dropped from $259,-
885 in 1866, to a little over $100,000, in 1880.
Since the land comprising Bangor has been
thickly settled, some of the most important coal
mines have there been opened, and the township
is again taking a prominent place in the affairs
of the county, despite its mutilation. The pop-
uaUion in 1880 was but 371, while in 1894 it
was 843, and in 1900, 1.195. Bangor town-
ship is bounded by Monitor and Kawkawlin
townships on the west, West Bay City on the
south and west, the Saginaw River on the east
and Saginaw Bay on the north. The township
officials for 1905 are: Supervisor, Stewart M.
Powrie ; clerk, N. D. Zimmer ; treasurer,
Charles Lind; highway commissioner, George
Walker ; School Board,— Nicholas Casper and
Stephen Corliin; justices of the peace, — Joseph
Carrier and John Zentz.
Beaver. — In February, 1867, the I^egisla-
ture created the township of Beaver, by taking
from Williams "Towns 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,
20 north, range 3 east." On the first Monday
in April, 1867, the first election was held at the
home of Levi Wiilard.
The inspectors were Levi Wiilard, Josiah
L, Wellington and Oscar H. Kellogg. Levi
Wiilard was the first supervisor. The new
township was bounded on the north by Fraser
(now Garfield) township, on the east by Kaw-
kawHn township, on the south by Williams
township and on the west by the Midland
County tine. It lies 10 miles west and five
miles norlh of Bay City. During its early
years considerable lumbering was done in its
vicinity and the pioneers had no trouble selling
their hay and other products right at their
doors. Later the Midland Branch of the Mich-
igan Central Railroad was constructed five
miles to the south, on an east and west line
through WilHams township, and an excellent
road system provided excellent means of dis-
posing of the products of their rich farms. As
late as 1873 there were less than 50 families
in the township, and the land brougjit from
$2.50 to $5.00 per acre. In 1905 this same
land, since improved, drained and cleared,
brings from $75 to $125 per acre. Branches
of the Kawkawlin River thread all portions
of the township. The population in 1870 was
161 ; in 1880, 350; in 1894, 1.236; and in 1900,
1,539. The present township officials are:
Supervisor, William Peoples; clerk, John End-
fine; treasurer, Charles B. Craig; justice of
the peace, Frank Nowak ; highway commis-
sioner, George Buchler, There are postoffices
at Wiilard, Loehne and Duel villages.
Frankenlust township is bounded on the
south and west by Saginaw County, on the
north by Monitor township and on the east
■by the Saginaw River. When the Legislature
in February, i88r, took the township of Koch-
ville from Saginaw County, it gave to Bay
County at once one of its richest and most in-
teresting additions. Rev. Ferdinand Sievers,
Ixirn in Lunenburg, Germany, May 18, 1816,
was left an orphan at the age of seven years.
His uncle. Rev. Philip Sievers, educated the
promising boy, who graduated from Goettin-
gen University in 1838. After teaching school
for three years, he studied theology at the
universities of Berlin and Halle, taught for
three years more to accumulate a little frmd of
his own, and in 1847 ^^'^s ordained for the
Lutheran ministry. Led by Rev. Mr. Sievers,
a number of German families immigrated to
the Saginaw Valley in 1848, and with com-
mendable perseverance and foresight estab-
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
lislied the now prosperous townsliip of Frank-
enliist. In May, 1S50, Rev. Mr. Sievers mar-
ried Caroline Koch, daughter of Rev, Fredec-
ick Koch, who had left the comforts of home
to follow her affianced to the wilds of Michi-
gan. Eleven children blessed their home, crude
enough during the early years. Seven siir\'ive,
but like most of the descendants of these early
pioneers of far-famed Fraiikenlust, they have
scattered o\'er the surrounding townships and
to other pastures new. The early history of
Frankenlust is the story of the life-work of
Re\'. ilr. Sie\"ers and his de\'oted colony.
Their judgment in selecting that neighborhood
has l>een verified by the passing years.
Frankenlust is one of the richest townships,
for its soil is fertile, its location higher than
the east shore of the riv'er, and by thrift and in-
dustry these hardy pioneers and their descend-
ants have made it a veritable garden spot in
the Slate, Here it was that the infant beet
sujjar industry found experienced and willing
cuUurists, and the prosperous farmers of
Frankenlust willingly invested in the German-
American Sugar Factory buik at their very
doors on the cooperative plan, and which in
1904 had a most profitable season's campaign.
The discovery of coal added three mines to
the industries of the township, and as a fine
fire clay is found in these coal shafts, another
industry of great possibilities is just beginning
in die township, — the manufacture of building
and paving brick. A busy little village has
sprung up around the white spire of the Ger-
man Lutheran Church at Amelith, while well-
kept roads poi[it the way to Bay City.
Gemian hospitality is proverbial, hence the
cozy farms and inviting cross-road hostelries
of Frankenlust township are the most popular
outing places in the coitnty. A drive over those
well-kept roads, past thriving little settlements
and weli-kept farms, either during the heat of
summer, or over the snow on a crisp day in
winter, is one of the townsi>eople's delights. It
usually produces an appetite for the good
things to eat which always grace the tables of
these hospitable people. The township has fi\-e
school districts, and four churches, three of
them German Lutheran, and the fourth, Ger-
man Methodist.
Upon the application of 75 freeholders, the
Board of Supervisors of Saginaw County erec-
ted Frankenhist township, then kno\\'n as
Kochville township, on October 12, 1855, in-
cUiding "Town 13 north, Range 4 east; sec-
tions 6, 7, 18, 19 and the north half of Sec-
tion 30, Town 13 north, Range 5 east; and Sec-
tions 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33. 34. 35
and 36, Town 14 north, Range 4 east." The
first election was held April 7 1856. at the home
of Adam Goetz, in the little village of Koch-
ville. G. Stengel, J. P. Weggel and J. S. He-
belt were the inspectors, and the following offi-
cers were elected : Supervisor, Luke Welling-
ton; clerk, John C. Schmidt; treasurer, An-
dreas Goetz; school inspectors, — J. G. Helm-
rcicb and Caspar Link; highway commission-
ers. — William Biitz, Heinrich Hipser and Paul
Stephan; justices of the peace — Luke Welling-
ton and Louis Loefller: iK>or commissioners, —
George Henger and Andreas Goetz. Fifty-
nine votes were cast, and the action was prac-
tically unanimous, the German settlers sympa-
thizing with the oppressed black race of the
South. They had left their native land seek-
ing the land of liberty, and they had fovmd
peace and personal freedom in the wilds of
Michigan, and their hearts went out to the
chattel slaves of other days.
In 1851-52, John A. iLeinbergcr carried
"Uncle Sam's" mail on foot between Saginaw
and Bay City, He would go up one day, and
come back the next. One day he met the late
James Eraser, Bay County's famous "man on
Hosted by
Google
136
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
horseback," in the woods, where both were
following an Indian trail. Fraser asked Lein-
berger why he did not get a horse to carry him
and the bag tliose i6 miles, and on being told
that he could not afford the luxury of a horse,
at the exorbitant value of horses in these wilds,
Fraser told him to go to Fraser's stable and
take his pick, which was promptly done the
following day. Meeting Fraser soon after on
the same trail, Leinberger asked how mucii
he owed for the horse. "Well, John," Fraser re-
plied, "when you get able, you can pay me $50,
and if you never get able, keep the horse any-
how." That horse helped John Leinberger
over many a rocky place in the road, and by
dint of thrift and industry he soon owned one
of the finest farms in Frankenlust. Since the
Frankenlusters sold all their farm products In
Bay City, they long desired to join the new
county near Saginaw Bay, and in 18S1 they
kept John A. Leinberger at Lansing to lobby
for the separation. Having brought about the
union' with Bay County, he was elected the
first supervisor, and ior years represented
Frankenlust on that board. He had 10 chil-
dren by his lirst wife, and was married again
in 1883.
The population of Frankenlust was 768 in
1880: 1,266 in 1894, and 1,395 '" 1900.
The pioneers erected a log hut, 30 by 40
feet, in the wilderness in 1850 for a house of
worship, and a frame church, 38 by 70 feet,
was built in 1870. The year 1905 will he
made memorable in the township by the erec-
tion of a large and handsome new brick and
stone church, the material for which is now
being gathered, and work will begin this spring.
The opening of the coal mines has brought
new life and activity to Frankenlust, but it will
require some time for the staid, quiet and de-
voted German farmers to become accustomed
to the influx of coal miners from other States,
with customs and manners so foreign to their
own, and clashes between the younger genera-
tions are not infrequent. The present town-
ship officers are : Supervisor, John J. De-
Young; clerk, Philip Martens; treasurer,
George C. Schmidt; justice of the peace, J. C.
Neumeyer ; highway commissioner, Fred Kolb.
Fraser township was created at the ses-
sion of the Legislature in 1875, and included
"Town 16 north. Ranges 3. 4 and 5 east." On
the first Monday in April, 1875, the settlers of
Fraser township met at the home of William
Michie, and elected their first officials. Mr.
Michie, Albert Neville and E. W. Merrick
were the inspectors. William Michie was
elected supervisor; B. W. Merrick, clerk; and
Albert Neville, treasurer. Fraser is one of
Bay County's largest townships. It is IxDund-
ed on the east by Saginaw Bay, on the north by
Pinconning township, on the south by Kaw-
kawlin township, and on the west by Garfield
township. The Michigan Central and Detroit
& Mackinac railroads traverse Fraser, stations
being located at Lengsville, Michie and Lin-
wood. Many French Canadians were among
the early pioneers, and they have exercised a
growing influence over the development and
the destinies of the township.
Lumbering has been carried on for years in
the township. After the virgin forest was de-
nuded of pine, came the demand for the previ-
ously ignored and despised hardwood timber,
and ere long the last giant of the primeval for-
est in that section will have fallen before the
axes of the industrious settlers and lumber-
jacks. As the forest disappears, new farms
spring up, and the locality will soon compare
favorably with the older townships.
Among the pioneers of this township are a
few men with interesting incidents in their ca-
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
reers, one of which will bear repeating. Will-
iam Fitch, at the age of 21, was a sailor before
the mast on the schooner "Henry Watson"
when, in 1857, she collided with the brig "Gid-
dings" on Lake Erie. With a boy as the only
other survivor, he navigated the ship into the
harbor at Buffalo, and was promoted to be cap-
tain of the ship. By 1868 he had wearied of a
sailor's life and having a good opinion of Bay
County, which he had often visited in his lum-
lier craft, he purchased a farm in Eraser town-
ship. Tliere were no roads, and his team of
oxen were his only help in erecting his large
Ing hut, and his bam, 38 by 28 feet in size, with
]>osts 10 by 10 inches and 16 feet long. He
cleared the land with his own hands, solitary
and alone. Twice, falling trees injured him,
once breaking his leg. and next breaking bis
ann. He was of herculean strength. He wouk!
take a barrel of flour, placed in two sacks,
one on each shoulder, and carry it nearly four
miles to his log hat. The first supervisor,
William Michie, was murdered near his home
in Eraser township in 1882. The post office at
State Road Crossing is named in his honor.
The population of Eraser township was 301
in 1880; 1,444 in 1894, and 1.656 in the United
States census of 1900. The present township
officers are: Supervisor, Henry B. Lints;
derk, Benjamin F. Parsons; treasurer, Joseph
Lover; justice of the peace, John Vincent;
highway commissioner. George W. Meddangh.
Garfield.— On October 18, 1886, the fol-
lowing residents of Eraser township petitioned
the Board of Supervisors to grant them a sepa-
rate township: Elof Johnson, Gustav Men-
ten, Valentine Knoedel, Owen Hazen, James
Potter, Samuel L. Bishop. Francis Gallagher
and Urban Lewenson. On October 19, 1886,
the committee on township organization,— J.
M. Reichard, Charles Fischer, Fred Schoof, J.
Lourim and Jacob Dardas, — reported favor-
ably on the petition, and by a vote of 18 ayes
and no nayes the board concurred. In accord-
ance with the action of the board at this session,,
the township of Gai"field was organized, taking
in the west half of Eraser township. Garfield
township is bounded on the north by Mount
Forest township, on the east by Eraser town-
ship, on the south by Beaver township, and on
the west by Midland County. The first town
election was held on April 4, 1887, and the fol-
lowing town officers were elected : Supervisor,
Elof Johnson; clerk, Joseph H. Waldron;
treasurer, Charles Johnson ; school inspectors,
— Erick Erickson and James Potter.
There is still consideraljle hardwood tim-
ber standing in Garfield, while the farms
cleared show the soil to be fertile, while the
North Branch of the Kawkawlin and the
ilichie drain furnish both a water supply and
drainage. The Garfield stone road gives a
ready means of getting to market, and has done
much to develop the interior of the township.
The post offices are at Tebo and Crump, the
latter named in honor of the late Hon. R. O.
Crump, Memljer of Congress from this district.
The population in 1894 was 302, and 555 in
1900. Industrious and thrifty Swedes form
the bulk of the iX)pulation, who have their own
church services. The township also has ample
public school facilities for the scattered popu-
lation. The voters are largely of Republican
faith, casting 98 votes to their opponents' 21
at the last election for Governor. The present
township officials are: Supervisor, William
H. Reid ; clerk, W. V. Renner ; treasurer, Fran-
cis Conrad; justice of the peace, Joseph Du-
ben ; highway commissioner, Alonzo Dodge.
GiosON township was erected by the Board
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
of Supervisors on December 3, 18S8. On
October 18, 1888, tbe following residents of
Pinconning township petitioned for the separa-
tion : Garrett J. Stanton, Charles L, Bingham,
S. S. Morris, William Carter, W. J. Shirley,
L. A. Pelkey, Dr. W. B. Abbott, J. Edmunds.
H. Shook, H. Gardner, Z. W. DeGraw, B. W.
Stewart, J. Barie, M. Dowley, A. E. Bell, M,
G. Benlley, Frank E. Bentley, E. M. Burlin-
game, O. G. Davis, Peter Edmunds, C. Peter-
son, O. S. Bentley, James Johnson, Ed. Walsh,
Samuel McGlinchey, Abram Edmunds, Will-
iam Edmunds. The organization was to date
from April i, 1889, and on the first Monday in
April, 1S89, the town meeting was held at the
school house in School District No. 5, Peter
Edmunds, Frank E, Bentley and O. G. Davis
being inspectors of the election. The follow-
ing town officers were elected : Supervisor,
Murray Bentley; clerk, Edward Walsh; treas-
urer. Smith Bowers; school inspectors, An-
drew Faulds and Lafayette Dento.
Gibson township is bounded on the north
and east by Arenac Couuty, on the south by
Mount Forest township, and on the west by
Midland County. The branches of the Pine
and Saganing ri\-ers traverse Gibson from west
to east. It will be seen that Gibson township
is really a projection into Arenac County, and
the people of that county, which formerly was
a part of Bay, have ever since their separate or-
ganization been trying to pry Gibson from Bay
and add it to their own southern border.
The eastern part of Arenac want the county
seat at Omer, while the western part want to
keep the county seat at Standish. Since
Omer is more centrally located, Standish has
to keep constantly on the alert to prevent the
honor going to her enterprising rival on the
east. The Standish people figure that with
Gibson township added to Arenac County, the
position of Standish as county headquarters
would be secure for all time. The Michigan
Central Railroad passes through Standish and
hence is interested in the fight for Gibson be-
cause the Detroit & Mackinac Railway touches
Omer.
These combined interests made an almost
succussful attempt to kidnap Gibson from Bay
County in tbe legislative session of 1903. Rep-
resentative J. J. McCarthy of Standish, Arenac
County, introduced the bill, well backed by
Senator Doherty of that district. The Bay
County representatives turned up missing one
fine day, and next morning Bay was notified
that one of its most promising townships had
been taken away, without one word of protest
from Representatives Washer or Sheldon. De-
spite the protests from Bay, the sqiaration bill
was rushed through the Senate, Senator F. L.
Westover also turning up missing, and as the
Bay representatives made no protest the ef-
f(;rts of Hon. T. E. Webster and others were
unavailing. The bill was signed by Governor
Bliss and Bay had but 12 townships left.
When the citizens of Bay County realized
their loss, they went to work with a will to
save Gibson. The super\-Jsors carried the case
into the courts, claiming among other things
that this steal of Gibson dix'ided tlie 24th Sena-
torial District, contrary to law, besides causing
no end of confusion in the affairs of the town-
ship and county. Judge T. F. Shepard of the
i8th Judicial Circuit decided the case in favor
of Bay; his decision was later sustained by the
Supreme Court of Michigan and Gibson
brought back into the fold. The three repre-
sentatives of Bay, who allowed the disruption
of the county without active opposition, were
relegated to private life at the 1904 election,
and any future attempts of Arenac to profit at
the expense of Bay will be vigorously contested.
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
As a matter of fact. Bay is one of the smallest
counties in Michigan, owing to the large por-
tion taken out by Saginaw Bay.
The residents of Gibson township are as
earnest in their desire to remain with Bay
County, as we are to have those sturdy pio-
neers remain. They are many miles nearer to
Standish than they are to Bay City, but they
will soon have stone road communication all
the wa\'. the splendid macadamized road sys-
tem reaching out year after year in their direc-
tion, and the Gladwin Branch of the Michigan
Central crosses Gibson from north to south,
furnishing a ready and cheap means of reach-
ing the metropolis of Northern Michigan. Gib-
son had for years paid its share of this stone
roail tax, and by the forced separation stood
to lose it all. The to^\-nship and county affairs
were naturally much muddled during the in-
terim between the legislative separation and the
Supreme Court reunion, Init these matters have
now all been satisfactorily adjusted, and things
are moving as smoothly as if though nothing
had ever happened in our sisterhood of town-
ships.
Gibson township has the same rich black
and clay loam soil which makes farming in
Bay County so easy and profitable, and many
of die farms there had enough standing hard-
wood timber to more than pay for themselves.
Bentlcy is the shopping center and post office
of this flourishing young community. The
residents are public-spirite<l. look well after
their schools and their spiritual welfare, and
have many road and drain problems to solve
in the immediate future. Like their neighbors
in Garfield, they are of the political faith of
Lincoln. Gartield and McKinley, almost to a
unit, and by their vote have contrihuteil much
in recent years to the remarkable change of
Bay County's political complexion. The popu-
lation in 1894 was 494, and 761 in 1900. The
present town officers are : Supervisor, Ezra
Truax ; clerk, John C. Smith ; treasurer, Mat-
thew Loeffler ; justice of the peace, Sam-
uel Yeager; highway commissioner, Charles
Shoultes.
Hampton. — The history of Hampton
townsliip, the first organized in Michigan
north of Saginaw, is the early history of Bay
City, Bay County, and the northern part of the
Lower Peninsula of Michigan, from 1843 to
1857, when the county was organized. This
township during its first years comprised more
territory than many famed kingdoms of the
Old World! As these outlying districts be-
came settled, they secured separate organiza-
tions, until to-day the township comprises but
"23 full sections, and 11 fractional sections."
Its boundaries are Saginaw Bay and Saginaw
River on the north, Saginaw Bay and Tuscola
County on the east, Merritt and Portsmouth
townships on the south, and Bay City, the
Saginaw Ri\'er and Portsmouth township on
the west. Since Bay City became a separate
corporation, the village of Essexville is the am-
bitious "capital" of Hampton, and the founders
of the one are the pioneers of the other. Joseph
Hudson and Ransom P. Essex, who came in
1850. were the first settlers of Hampton town-
ship proper. Their descendants have done
much to develop the rich farming country,
which in 1850 was largely marsh, swamp and
bayou. Huge ditches and numerous drains
have been aided by a slight drop in the water
level of the Great Lakes in leaving that rich
alluvian soil in an ideal condition for culti-
vation.
Three nationalities have distinct settlements
in Hampton. The large colony of Hollanders,
settled south and east of their pretty church
proijcrty, found their advance guard in Henry
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
Rooiaker, Gerardus Vennix,A. Van Wert, Peter
Vanerp, Anthony Walraven, Charles God-
tleyne and P. Van Hamlin, pioneers of 1857-
60. The German colony, located in the south-
ern section of Hampton, was led by Carl Wag-
ner, Charles Wintemeyer, William Roecker,
Michael Englehardt, Charles Weber, Philip
Weber, Joseph Scheimer and John Meyer, all
of whom took up the privations and incessant
toil of pioneer life in Hampton in 1S57-59.
Louis Guilette, who married the widow of Leon
Trombley, one of Bay County's first traders
and settlers, and Joseph Paul DeCourval, were
the first of the French Canadian nationality
to appreciate the opportunities of Hampton, the
former locating on a farm in 1858, the latter
following the lumber and shingle business there
since 1866.
One family has been signally honored by
the township. Hon. Nathan I-Cnight, a native
of Maine, came to Hampton township in 1856
and hewed a farm out of the wilderness. He
represented the Bay City district in the State
Legislature of 1S77-80, was justice of the
peace for 10 years, and supervisor for 14 con-
secutive years. In this office he was succeeded
by his son, Hon. Birdsey Knight, who is still
in the harness, and who also served four years
in the State Legislature, — 1891-94, — from this
district. Father and son were Democrats, but
their personal popularity carried them safely
over several political landslides in their baili-
wick.
Joseph Eddy came to Hampton in 1858,
and five sons and one daughter reside there
now. Three sons, — George P., Edward and
Albert H.,— served through the entire Civil
War in Company F, 23rd Reg,, Michigan
Vol. Inf., the former two being mustered out,
when peace came to bless the land, as lieuten-
ants, the last named with the rank of sergeant.
Hampton township has a beautiful location
on Saginaw Bay, and the wooded ridge which
skirts Saginaw Bay below Oak Grove, the
most popular resort for family picnics on the
bay, will some day surely rival the booming
summer resorts on the west shore of the bay.
The Center and Woodside avenue stone roads,
witli excellent cross-roads and all the facilities
of the belt line railway, which skirts Hampton
and connects with all the railroads centering
in Bay City, give unrivaled shipping facilities
to this rich farming country. The early pio-
neers paid $2.50 per acre of water, with here
and there a visible speck of land thrown in for
good measure, but by hard work, systematic
draining and dyking in the lowest places,
Hampton has been made one of the brightest
flowers in this most favored garden spot of
Michigan, where farm property ranges now
from !f 100 to $350 per acre.
The industries of the township center in
Essexville, and it was there that the first beet
sugar factory, the Michigan, was built in 189S,
to be closely followe<! by the mammoth Bay
City Sugar Factory. The projectors of these
factories selected these sites liecause they are in
the very center of the most fertile lands in the
county, lands owned and tilled by a sturdy race
of intelligent and industrious farmers. Mere
land grubbbers could never succeed in raising
profitable sugar Ijeets. The soil must be right,
then It must be thoroughly and properly pre-
pared, the planting must be done as early as
will be consistent with a proper germination
of the beet seed, the thinning out requires good
judgment and thorough work, and no crop re-
quires such freedom from noxious weeds, as
do the sugar beets. Frequent cultivation is
essential to their full and sweet development.
Fine discrimination is also required in their
harvesting. It will not do to pull them
too early, for every day of the ripening
season adds sugar to their contents. Neither
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
must they be left too long-, lest they fall victims
to one of the periodical cold waves, and freeze
fast in the ground, as has happened to fanners
in Hampton. Then, too, freedom from dirt
and proper topping will reduce the loss from
tare at the sugar factory, and a proper appre-
ciation of the food value of the beet tops and
the beet pulp at the factory will mean much
profit to the beet grower. It will readily be
seen that few farm crops require such constant
study and close attention, but the wise farmers
of Hampton township and the county at large
also know, that no other crop will yield such
liberal and certain returns.
Since Hampton township has the distinc-
tion of having the first beet sugar factory in
Michigan, a word on the industry in this con-
nection is bodi opportune and appropriate.
Hampton also had two of the first chicory fac-
tories, one on Borden avenue, wliich was de-
stroyed by fire, and merged with the other plant
recently enlarged and still doing a thriving
business on Center and Livingston avenues,
just east of the city limits. The location of
these infant industries at the doors of Hampton
reflect credit on the farmers tributary to these
hives of industry. The investment of several
million dollars was staked on the ability of
these veteran farmers to supply the raw mate-
rial needed and while there have been seasons
when the farmers did not provide the acreage
desired for a full operation of all these mam-
moth plants, still the experimental stage has
been safely passed and, with better understand-
ing all around, beets and chicory will take a
foremost place in the crop rotation of the suc-
cessful farmers of Bay County. Since these
factories are operated late in fall and early
winter, they offer employment to the sons of
the country folk at the precise season in the
year, when work on the farm is slack. Every
acre devoted to sugar beets or chicory removes
the competition of that acre from farm truck
and other farm crops, which have e\er since
commanded higher prices. Hampton and the
other townships have been correspondingly
prosperous in recent years. Hundreds of mort-
gages have been lifted and hundreds of farms
improved with the cash proceeds of these new
industries. One has but to drive over the fine
roads of Hampton to appreciate the amount
and extent of improvements carried out on the
farms of the township, to appreciate how much
good has been accomplished in six short years!
Hampton's growth has been in keeping with
these additions and improvements. The popu-
lation in the State census of 1874 was 1,247;
in the national census of 1880, It was 2,016;
in 1894 it was 3,204; and in 1900 it was 3.319.
In the fall election of 1904, Hampton gave a
clean Republican victory, for the first time in
its history, and on March 13, 1905, the village
of Essexvilie also elected a Republican ticket,
for the first time in many years. The present
officers of Hampton, elected in April, are: Su-
pervisor, Hon. Birdsey Knight; clerk, William
J. Stagray; treasurer, Frank Sirmeyer; justice
of die peace, John H. Sharp; highway com-
missioner, John VanSumer.
Kawkawi-tn, — On January 7, 1868. the
Board of Supervisors erected the township of
Kawkawlin by detaching its territory from
Bangor, upon the petition of O. A. Ballou,
Samuel Woods, John Sutherland, Charles Rad-
cliff, Patrick Reynolds, Jeremiah Mack, Alex.
Baird, A, G. Sinclair, Charles Powell, E. E.
Gill, Paul Leme and Owen A. Maloney. The
first annual meeting was held at the home of
O. A. Ballou, in the village of KawkawHn, on
the first Monday in April, 1868, at 10 o'clock
in the forenoon. O. A. Ballou, John Suther-
land and Dennis Stanton were the election in-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
spectors, and Alexander Beard was the first
supervisor from Kawkawlin. The township
is bounded on the east by Bangor township
and Saginaw Bay, on the north by Fraser town-
ship, on the west by Beaver township and on
tlie south by Monitor township.
Kaw-kaw-lin, as the Indians pronounced
it, is said to hax'c been one of the aborigines'
favorite hunting grounds, and well it might
have been. The old German settlers still say
that when the primeval forest was first seen
by ^^■hite men, it was blacker and denser than
the historical Black Forest of Europe. The
Indians called the river "O-gan-con-ning", or
"the place of the pike," for then as now the
streams of that vicinity were favorite haunts
of the pike.
One of the oklest trading posts between
the pale face trappers and traders and the
Chippewas was at the mouth of tlie Kawkawlin,
where O-at-ka summer resort is now situated,
and Neh-way-go, the dare-devil warrior of the
To-bi-co band of Indians, had his wigwam not
far from where the modern water-works plant
erected by ^Vest Bay City a few years ago is
located.
Reluctantly enough, the Chippewas sold
the 6.000 acres of their reservation along the
north bank of the Kawkawlin in the treaty of
1837, for it was an ideal haunt for game of all
kinds. The goVemment sold it ere long for
$1.25 per acre, and the purchasers realized for-
tunes from its wealth of pine and other timber.
From 1S42 to 1864 "Uncle" Harvey Wil-
liams kept the Indian trarlers' station at the
mouth of the Kawkawlin. and he was much
beloved by the red men. His wise counsel and
generous conduct did much to smooth tl:e way
for the first pioneers of Kawkawlin.
In the winter of 1844-45, Israel Catlin
built the first sawmill in the midst of this
virgin forest on the Kawkawlin, utilizing the
water power of the stream. For many years
after, great log drives were brought down this
river to be cut in the mammoth and modern
sawmills at Bay City.
During the height of the logging operations
along tiie Kawkawlin and its tributaries, the
depth of the water in that river each spring was
ahvays a question of vital importance to the
sawmill operators and employees. If the water
was not sufficient to float the huge log jams,
they would remain hung up al! season. Equally
vital was the question of snow for the many
logging camps during each winter, for without
snow it was a hard problem to get the logs to
the streams. In later years water sprinklers
were used to make icy roadways for the im-
mense loads of logs that were drawn from the
logging camps to the banks of the rivers.
In 1847 the first church, a humble mission
for the Indians, was built on the banks of the
Kawkawlin. The place is called Indiantown,
and is still one of the main settlements of the
natives in the county, but the numbers lia\-e
been slowly but surely diminishing. With the
stoicism ever characteristic of his proud race,
Poor Lo at the dawn of the 20th century hears
his deplorable lot in grim silence. The old
men of the tribe recall the days when all this
wealth of timber and prairie was all their own,
and the comparison of those wild and care-free
days with their hard lot at present cannot in-
spire satisfaction. The industrious and thrifty
pafe faces settled all about the remnant of the
red men, preach by their every-day lives an
eloquent sermon on the only means by which
to reach a higher plane of living, and how to
attain the comforts of this progressive age.
But apparently it is beyond the power of the
average aborigine to forsake the deadliest foe
of their race, and to take up "the white man's
Hosted by.
Google
AND REPRESEXTATIVE CITIZENS.
burden"! A very few have lifted themselves
above the latter day level of their race, while
most of them are now devout Christians.
Frederick A. Kaiser emigrated from Ger-
many ill 1849 and took up the work at the
Kawkawlin's first sawmill for the late James
Eraser. In 1862 he bored for salt, and during
the next 15 years built a number of sawmills
in that paradise of pine and hemlock. He was
the founder of the villages of Kawkawlin and
Pinconning. connected the two backwoods lum-
ber camps by railway and did much to develop
the natural resources of that section of the
county. He cleared considerable of the land
of its timber, and demonstrated that the valley
'of the Kawkawlin is one of the richest farming
districts of the State, and thereafter the town-
ship became rapidly settled. When the lumber
jack left, with his axe and saw, the farmer
followed with the plow and harrow, and pas-
toral wealth and beauty now grace fhe shores
•of the Kawkawlin.
The population of Kawkawlin township in
1880 was 1,118. In 1894 it had grown to
1.627, ^"<I to 1,964 in 1900. The real estate
valuation in 1882 was $298,463. There were
452 school children in 1883. and the chronicler
of those years notes with pardonable pride, that
there were 67 births in the township, includ-
ing "three pairs of twins"! On the other hand
the Grim Reaper gathered but 12 inhabitants
to the Great Beyond, the healthful climate stay-
mg his hand in most instances, until the burden
of many years enfeebled the pioneers. The
townspeople were busy building roads, drains
and bridges during those years and their task
IS still far from done. This very year of 1905
several new steel bri<lges are planned to span
the Kawkawlin and its tributaries, the stone
road system will be extended and repaired, and
new drains begun. The township spent $r,6oo
for school purposes in 1883, ami is slill keeping j
up and enlarging this good work. The officers
of the township for J905 are: Supervisor,
Peter Bressette ; clerk, Robert D. Hartley ;
treasurer, John Murphy; justice of the peace,
George Goulette; highway commissioner, Fred
D. Paige,
Merritt township, which is bounded on
the north by Portsmouth and Hampton town-
ships, on the east by Tuscola County, on the
south by Saginaw County and on the west by
Portsmouth township and Saginaw County,
was erected by the Board of Supervisors at a
session held July 8, 1871, upon the petition of
12 freeholders of Portsmouth township. On
June 8, 1871, 31 residents of the territory
affected asked for separation. When the super-
\-isors fixed the toundaries of the new township
as including "all of Township 13 north. Range
6 east, also Sections i, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13,
14 and 15, same Township, Range 5 east",
some of the residents of these nine sections on
range 5 east protested vigorously against the
separation. Their protest was filed on June 13,
1 87 1. Two weeks later 11 of the remonstra-
tors relented, and the separation and erection
of Merritt followed. The first election was
held at the home of Joesph Gerard on the Tus-
cola plank road. Gen. B. F. Partridge, Henry
Hess and Martin Powell were named as elec-
tion inspectors. Henry E. Shuler, a pioneer
resident of Merritt, was elected to represent
the new township on the Board of Supervisors.
Hundreds of acres of Merritt township
have been redeemed for cultivation by draining,
chiefly through the large Quanicassee ditch.
These lands are exceptionally fertile, and all
went well until Denmark and Gilford town-
ships of Tuscola County directed their drain-
age into the natural depression in the southeast
corner of Merritt, since which time the town-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
ship lias been involved in an almost intermin-
able legal tangle with their neighbors of the
next county. Bay County has taken a hand, by
voting some of the funds necessary to carry
on the legal battle. Up to date the victory
rests with Merritt township, which has secured
an injunction restraining the Tuscola County
people from flooding Merritt. The Tuscola
farmers are fighters, however, and the courts
are still considering the efforts of Tuscola to
dissolve the injunction.
Among the earliest settlers in Merritt were
Rev. Thomas Histed and wife, who came here
from Vassar with $3 in money, eight bushels
of potatoes and a little flour. After cutting an
opening through the woods for road purposes,
building a cabin and draining his land, he
created a fine farm. His crops were often de-
stroyed by spring freshets and heavy rain-
storms. He always found time from his farm
work to preach the Gospel to his neighbors,
who came many raiies through the woods to
hear the message of salvation. In 1854, Mar-
tin Powell was employed in the sawmills of
Bay City, and with his savings located 160
acres in Merritt township at one shilling per
acre I After clearing it and making it habitable,
he sold 30 acres for $1,450, and the rest is con-
stantly increasing in value, being worth to-day
about $100 per acre. Samuel M. Brown lo-
cated and moved on his farm in Merritt town-
ship in 1859. Ex-Supervisor B. Schabel re-
ceived 38 cents for 12 hours work in the Bay
City sawmills during 1857-58, when lumber
was down to $5 per thousand, and wisely
bought 160 acres of marsh lands, which by
dint of his industry are to-day ideal farm prop-
erty. Nicholas Thayer, Robert Whiteside,
William Treiber, John Ftgert, Frederick
Beyer, A. Lovejoy, DeWitt Burr, Joseph B.
Hazen and John M. Lefever were among the
first permanent settlers of the township.
The prosperous little farm community at
Munger station, on the Bay City Division of
the Michigan Central Railroad, is the trading
center for Merritt township, and Arn is another
thriving httle settlement on the same railroad
a few miles further south. Horace D. Blodg-
ett, one of Merritt's earliest settlers, is post-
master at Munger; C. A. Howell, for many
years supervisor from Merritt; Henry Horton,
for years representing the township on the Re-
publican County Committee; and F. R. Ten-
nant are among the best known and highly
esteemed residents of the township.
With the advent of the beet sugar and
chicory factories in Bay City, farm property
has advanced in value in Merritt township,
and some of the lianner crops in the county
are harvested by its intelligent and industrious
farmers. The township had but 26 farms in
1883, while to-day there are more than 200.
The school facilities are excellent, and each of
the leading denominations is represented by its
house of worship and its devoted flock of
parishioners.
The sinking of the What-Cheer coal mine
■in 1904 marks a new era for Merritt. The mine
has one of the finest coal veins yet uncovered
in Bay County, and all the surrounding terri-
tory has been covered hy coal leases, with indi-
cations of a number of other mines going down
in that vicinity in the near future. The farmers
of the county at first sold the coal leases out-
right, but experience has taught them that a
good royalty is more profitable, and this is now
their favorite course of action. The discovery
of coal on the east side of the river will enhance
farm values still more, and the hardy pioneers,
who dared to enter the wilderness to bring
order out of chaos and thriving farms from
malaria-breeding swamps, or their descendants,
are ncx' reaping the well-merited harvest. The
population of Merritt township was 1,217 ^"
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
1894. and 1,562 in 1900. The new railroad
planned to cross tlie "Thumb" of Michigan
from Bay City to Port Huron will pass Hun-
ger, and it is said that the coal mine people are
back of the enterprise, in order to get a direct
route to deep water, and from there to the East-
ern market.
Hunger township was named in honor of
Curtis and Algernon S. Munger, the veteran
merchants of Bay City, who early invested in
some choice farm property in Merritt township.
The township officials elected in 1905 are:
Supervisor, C. A. Howell ; clerk, Fred Beyer ;
treasurer, Adam J. Schabel; justice of the
peace, li. M. Rademacher ; highway
sioner, Frank Laclair,
Monitor township was created hy the Leg-
islature of 1869, including "Sections 30 and
31. Town 14 north. Range 5 east, and all
of Town 14 north, Range 4 east, except
Sections i and 2". The first election was held
at the home of Owen C. White, on the first
Monday in April, 1869. Owen C. White, Wil-
liam H. Needham and William Hemingway
were inspectors of election. William H. Need-
ham was the first supervisor. The officials of
Bangor township objected to the organization
of Monitor, claiming it was done for political
purposes, but since Bangor was then a very
large township, the petition was granted. Mon-
itor township is bounded on the north by Kaw-
kawlin and Bangor townships, on the east by
Bangor township and West Bay City, on the
south by Frenkenlnst township and on the
west by Williams township.
The first settlers in Monitor were descend-
ants and members of the German colony which
settled Frankenkist, and the township has many
of the characteristics of the older settlement.
J. Rittershofer, Henry Kraner, P. Graul,
Charles Baxman, G. Schweinsberg and John
Hunn were among the advance guard. Thomas
Kent and five sons, James Feiker, W. H. Need-
ham, Jeremiah Waite, Fred Shaw, William
Gaffney, Joseph Dell and T. C. Phillips were
among the earliest pioneers of Monitor. The
wilderness was unbroken from the banks of the
Klawkawlin to the Indian trail through Frank-
enlust. William Hemingway purchased 40
acres in 1858 in section 32. To reach his land
he had to go to Kawkawlin over the corduroy
road, up the Kawkawlin River in a dug-out
canoe to the South Branch, then over a mean-
dering Indian trail four miles south. After
erecting a log hut, his first work was the clear-
ing away of the trees and underbrush for a
roadway large enough to pass a team of oxen,
which roadway was used for many years after.
Mr. Needham always pronounced Monitor one
of the healthiest spots in Michigan, and as
proof pointed with pride to his 12 children —
six boys and six girls — all of whom attained
their maturity. Joseph Dell settled on his
"eighty" in 1859, cutting the trees, splitting
the rails and erecting his log house, with rough
oak flooring, and roofed with oak "shakes"!
Since then the township has been practically
denuded of timber, and some of tiie finest farms
in the county are within its borders. The Mid-
land stone road runs straight through the cen-
ter of the township, and just north of this fine
highway is the Midland Branch of the Michi-
gan Central Railroad, from which a number of ,
spurs run to the coal mines, offering excellent
shipping facilities to the farmers, Much of the
township was marsh and swamp when the first
pioneer swung his axe in the silent forest, but
many ditches and drains have reclaimed every
acre for cultivation, and the two beet sugar
factories on the West Side secure much of their
supply from Monitor. The village of Kaw-
kawlin is in Monitor township, and another
Hosted by
Google
146
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
thriving little settlement in the southwest por-
tion of Monitor ckisters about the Gemian
church and school erected in 1880. The town-
ship has four other scliools, all of which are
well attended. During its early years the town-
ship contained much railroad land exempt from
taxation, which made the tax burden rather
heavy for the pioneers. Henry Moeller, Sam-
uel Hardy, Bernard Carroll, William Gillet,
William Gaffney, and T. C. Phillips have done
much for the schools of the township.
T, C. Phillips was one of the earliest busi-
ness men in Bay City. In 1863 he served on
the enrolling- board of Bay County, this being
the 85th subdistrict of Michigan, together with
the late Judge Isaac Marston and R. P. Essex,
of Hampton. Through the solicitation of Mr.
Phillips at the War Department at Washing-
ton, Bay County's quota of men for the con-
scription was reduced 45 men, which meant
a saving of $15,000 to the county, while the un-
tiring efforts of the board to secure single and
non-resident men was another materia! advan-
tage locall}'. In 1870, Mr. Phillips was ap-
pointed postmaster at Bay City. In 1878 Pres-
ident Rutherford B. Hayes issued the now
famous civil service order, and Mr. Phillips
tendered his resignation in the following terse
letter: "I tender my resignation as postmaster
of Bay City, to take effect as soon as my suc-
cessor shall be appointed and qualified, for
these reasons : I am now a member of the Re-
publican State Central Committee, and chair-
man of the Bay County Republican Committee,
and your civil service order obliges me to
resign either the position of honor or profit.
I therefore resign the office of profit"! And he
forthwith retired to "Ne-bo-bish" Farm in
Monitor. \Vhat a contrast between those
sturdy pioneers in public affairs, and our own
modern day ideals, or lack of them!
In 1873 the equalized valuation of Monitor
township was $45,023, while in 1882 it had
increased to $274,220. The population in 1874
was 554; in 1880 it was 931 ; in 1894 it had
grown to 1,784; and in igoo, largely owing
to the influx of coal miners, it was 2,150. Tlie
officers of Monitor township in 1905 are:
Supervisor, Henry Moeller; clerk, Charles
Thurau; treasurer, John H. Popp; justice of
the peace, W. P. McGralh; highway commis-
sioner, Fred Schmidt.
Mount Forest township was erected by
the Board of Supervisors on January 14, 1890.
The following residents of Pinconning town-
ship petitioned for the separation: John T.
Lynch, Clarence Fairchild, Charles Miller,
Michael Paul, Lawrence, Joseph and George
Wasielewski, Hugh Stevenson, John Barie,
Fred Moore. George Collins, John Jankowiak
and George Capter. Supervisor George Barie,
of Pinconning approved of the petition, and
thus sections i to 36, township 17 north, range
3 east, were set apart as the new township of
Mount P'orest. Mount Forest township is
bounded by Gibson township on the north, by
Pinconning township on the east, by Garfield
township on the south and by Midland County
on the west.
The first election was held at the home of
Clarence Fairchild, and John T. Lynch, Clar-
ence Fairchild and Charles Miller were the
election inspectors. The following were the
first township officials: John T, Lynch, super-
visor; Cash Kelley, clerk; John L. Hudson,
treasurer ; Henry V. Lucas, school inspector.
Since Mount Forest is the youngest, so is
it also numerically the weakest, of the 14 town-
ships of Bay County. But its fine track of
hardwood timber has been opened up with
branch logging-railways from the Gladwin
Branch of the Michigan Central Railroad, and
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
the last large belt of primitive forest in Bay
is gradually falling before the advancing set-
tlers and pioneers. Fifteen years ago the log-
ging camps followed the rivers, where the
water furnished a somewhat erratic but cheap
transportation for the logs. In this 20th cen-
tury the "Captains of Industry" simpiy con-
struct spur tracks into the timber tracts, and
these are doing much to open np this virgin
section to settlement.
Many of the settlers are Polish emigrants,
rugged sons of toil, who know and appre-
ciate the difference between the tyranny
of darkest Russia, where every avenue
of progress is closed to them, and the
independence, enlightenment and opportu-
nity open to all the children of men. The
disastrous war which Russian autocracy is
waging against progressive Japan has driven
many emigrants to these shores within the last
year, and a good proportion have gone into
the wilds of Mount Forest to make their homes
and their fortunes.
The village of Mount Forest on the Glad-
win Branch is the trading center and post office
for Mount Forest township, and lies a little
west of where the Garfield stone road will cross
Mount Forest. The population of Mount For-
est township was 265 in 1894, and 350 in
1900. The next decade will find this more than
trebled. The present township officers are :
Supervisor, John Anderson; clerk, James Qulg-
ley; treasurer, James Bryce; justice of the
peace, William Pregor ; highway commis-
sioner, William Quigley, Jr.
PiNCONNiNG Township was created by
act of the Legislature, approved February 28,
1873. in conjunction with Deep River and
Standish townships, which with Arennc tlien
belonged to Bay County, but have since been
erected into separate county organization.
Originally Pinconning consisted of township
17 north, ranges 3, 4 and 5 east. The first town
meeting was held at the warehouse of Kaiser
& VanEtten, on the first Monday in April,
1873. E. B. Knight, Louis Pelkey and H.
Packard were the election inspectors, and
Joseph U. Meechin was the first supervisor
chosen at this election.
The Indians, who long made this part of
the Saginaw Bay region one of their main
fishing and hunting grounds, called the Pin-
conning River ■ "O-pin-nic-con-ing", meaning
"potato place," for wild potatoes grew abund-
antly in this neighborhood, and cultivation has
since made this the potato belt of the county.
The White Feather River in the northern part
of the township was also named by the Indians
in honor of one of the most famous Chippewa
chiefs of the last century, who took the cruel
"sun bath" on its shores. The large Indian
settlements at the mouth of both rivers are
gradually dwindling away, but an old log mis-
sion church is a vivid reminder at the mouth
of the Pinconning of the earliest efforts in
Michigan to Christianize the natives.
As early as 1850, Louis Chapell owned and
operated a small water-mill at the mouth of the
Pinconning, and in 1853 L. A, Pelkey began
fishing there. The entire township was cov-
ered with pine in those years, and the giants of
the forest soon attracted attention. In the earjy
"sixties" lumber operations began along both
rivers, and when Frederick A. Kaiser of Kaw-
kawlin entered the field, the township enjoyed
a genuine Ixiom. In 1871 a fierce and destruc-
tive forest fire swept over part of these woods,
leaving a wide trail of havoc and destruction
behind. In 1873 Kaiser & VanEtten laid out
the village of Pinconning, and the place has
prospered until 1905 it is the leading village
Hosted by
Google
148
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
outside of Essexville, which latter is really but
a suburb of Bay City.
In recent years the pine barrens have been
taken up by practical farmers, and the township
is rapidly taking its place as an agricultural
community among the older and earlier settled
townships. The hardwood timber is now quite
valuable and ere long the last vestige of the
great forest of Pinconning will have disap-
peared.
Mount Forest township was carved out of
Pinconning in 1890, so that at present Fin-
conning* is bounded on the north by Arenac
County, on the east by Saginaw Bay, on the
south l>y Fraser township and on the west by
Mount Forest township. Many of the inhabi-
tants, including a number of Indians, make a
living by catching the finny tribes in river and
bay, and many others still find work in the
surviving sawmills, stave and heading mills
• and shingle mills, which in a comparatively
small way are clearing up the remaining tim-
ber north of Bay City. The population of Pin-
conning township was 2,166 in 1894, and 2,104
in 1900. This apparent loss in numbers is
due to the decHne of the lumber industry, the
scattering of the Indians and the removal of
many settlers to the newly-opened townships
on the west and northwest. The pretty village
of Pinconning is the natural mart of the town-
ship and its neighbors of the west and north.
The Mackinaw Branch of the Michigan Cen-
tral Railroad has fine deix>t facilities at Pin-
conning, which is also the southern terminal of
-the Gladwin Branch of the Michigan Central ;
Woodville is the last station in Pinconning
township on the Gladwin Branch, and White
Feather on the Mackinaw Branch. The town-
ship has long been clamoring for stone road
connection with Bay City, and the splendid
stone road system of Bay County, one of the
finest in the United States, is gradually being
extended to Pinconning. This township is bet-
ter drained than some of its southern neighbors,
and has less trouble and expense to keep up
the drain system. Great improvements are an-
nually being made to the township roads. The
school system of the township is of a very high
order, the village offering excellent school
facilities, in addition to the little rural seats
of culture and learning. The township officials
for 1905 are: Supervisor, George Hartingh;
clerk, L. A. Pelkey; treasurer, William T.
;Morris; highway commissioner, Peter Codey.
Portsmouth. On March 25, 1859, the
Board of Supervisors of Bay County erected
the township of Portsmouth, and Appleton
Stevens was its first supervisor. Being the
oldest settlement, and lying somewhat higher
than the village of Bay City, there was for
some years a keen rivalry as to which of the
two settlements should be the county seat. The
trend of business, however, was to the north,
to get nearer to Saginaw Bay, where many of
the early settlers found profitable employment
in fishing and trapping, and eventually the
younger settlement forged to the front.
In 1855, William Daglish purchased a
large portion of the plat of Portsmouth village,
and had it surveyed and replatted by A. Alberts.
Later additions were made to the plat by Medor
Trombley and A. H. Ingraham. The settle-
ment prospered with the passing years, new in-
dustries springing up along the river front, and
an army of industrious mechanics and laborers,
many of them from Germany and Poland, sup-
plied the brawn and sinew for these manufact-
uring enterprises. In 1866, when the village
was still independent of Bay City, the equalized
valuation of Portsmouth was placed at $152,-
300, while in 1882, with the village consoli-
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
dated with Bay City, the vahiation was
$288.70^.
Bv act of the Legislature, approved April
IS. 1S71, "Sections 19 to 36, the same being
the south half of Township 13 north, Range 6
east'" were detached from Saginaw County and
added to Portsmouth township. The supervi-
sors now considered Portsmouth too bulky, so
on July 8. 1871, they erected the township of
Merritt, taking the territory largely from
Portsmouth, and against the protests of all the
settlers residing on "Sections i, 2, 3, 10, 11,
12, 13, 14 and 15, Town 13 north, Range
5 east." But these differences were duly ad-
justed, and at the July meeting the supervisors
allowed the tax levy for Portsmouth, including
the amount for building a new town hall.
In 1S73 the village of Portsmouth was
consolidated with Bay City. All the township
officials resided in the village, and their last
act was to vote the money for paying for the
town hall, and to deed the lot and building to
Bay City! The officers of the reconstructed
township sued the retiring treasurer for all the
moneys remaining in his possession, which they
secured, but the property remained with the
city.
On April I. 1873, the Legislature took the
remaining portions of two sections, added 13
sections from Merritt and nearly six from
I-Iampton, and created Portsmouth township as
now constituted. The reconstructed township
held its regular town election on April 5, 1873.
Oen. B. F. Partridge was chosen super\'isor,
which office he filled for more than 10 years
thereafter. Henry Hess was chosen town
clerk, and Nelson Merritt, town treasurer.
The township contains some of the richest
farms in tlie county, and has always been well
nianaged. The township officials have pro-
vided excellent drainage, good roads and three
school houses for educational and meeting pur-
poses. The business of the inhabitants is done
entirely in Bay City, which is easily reached
over two fine stone roads and the South End
electric car system. Its present officials are
as follows: Supervisor, William Wagner;
clerk, Fred M. Hubner; treasurer, Herman
Ruterbush; justice, Oscar F. Meiselbach; high-
way commissioner, William Alberts. The pop-
ulation of Portsmouth township was 1,222 in
1894 and 1,363 in 1900.
Williams township was erected by the
Midland County Board of Supervisors in 1855,
and originally comprised all of towns 14,
15, 16 north, range 3 east and all of Arenac
County. Charles Bradford was the first super-
visor. In 1857 Williams township became
part of Bay County, being with Hampton, the ,
only organized township in the new county,
George W. Smock was the first supervisor to
represent Williams on the Bay County board.
As the pioneers penetrated further into the
wilds to the north and created new homes and
new communities, they set up townships of
their own, until to-day Williams is exactly
six miles square, being bounded on the north
by Beaver township, on the west by Midland
County, on the south by Saginaw County, and
on the east by Monitor township.
The pioneers, who made Wiiliams one of
the oldest settlements, laid the foundation for
its prosperity as well as their own and their
descendants'. In the fall of 1854 a party of
land prospectors, including John Gaffney,
Charles Bradford. George W. Smock, William
Spofford and Charles Fitch were so well
pleased with the well-watered region now con-
stituting Williams township, that they forth-
with went to the public land office at Flint and
purchased the land upon which they soon after
settled. John Gaffney felled the first tree on
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
November i8, 1854. About that same year,
William W. Skelton, A. J. Wiltse and Amos
Culver located near what is now North Wil-
hams. In 1855 came Samuel Rowden, John
C. Rowden, David Jones, Josiah Perry, John
Plant, and they were soon followed by other
settlers who appreciated the many advantages
of WilHams township. Amos Culver and O.
N. C. White erected the first square log house,
with comb roof, and when Mrs. Culver and
family arrived in January, 1855, the roof was
only partially completed!
As we review the privations and the hard-
ships of our pioneers, we are apt to forget that
the women did as much practical work, dared
and suffered as much as any of the sterner sex.
Mrs. Charles Bradford came to Williams town-
ship in February, 1855. A cousin, Lyman
Brainerd, who also pitched his shack in this
wilderness, carried her daughter, only 18
months old, for seven miles through the wood
following the "blazed" trail cut by the pioneer
surveyor, C. C, C. ChiHson, on the line where
he predicted the Midland road would be built,
through mud, snow, ice and slush, to the log
hut of her husband! Roving Indians were as
common as roving packs of wolves, and both
equally to be feared when hungry, thirsty or
out of sorts. A blanket on a hard cot of oak
slabs was a luxury after the hard day's work
was over, while food and medicine had to be
brought seven weary miles over the "blazed"
trail from Bay City.
Amid such wild surroundings and under
such dismal circumstances, with only the rug-
ged husband and father for comfort and help,
there was born to Mrs. Amos Culver, in 1855,
the first white child to see the light of day in
Williams township. In 1856 the first school
was established at the home of Charles Brad-
ford; Mrs. Charles Fitch, wife of one of the
five original settlers, was the first teacher. The
first marriage in WiHiams was also performed
at the home of Charles Bradford, Otto Roeser,
justice, tying the nuptial knot for William
Hendrick and Mrs. Arvilla Stewart. Little
Miss Bradford, who was carried into the
wilderness when 18 months old, became the
township school teacher at the age of 17, and
for 14 consecutive years served Williams town-
ship in that capacity with credit to herself and
profit to the scholars. The Bradfords were
direct descendants of the illustrious William
Bradford, second Governor of Plymouth Col-
ony in Massachusetts and one of the Pilgrim
Fathers.
In 1866 the now thriving hamlet of Fisher-
vilie, named after the redoubtable Hon. Spen-
cer O. Fisher, Congressman, giibernatoral can-
didate and one of Bay County's most able and
prominent citizefis, was known as "Splcer's
Corners," where Hotchkiss & Mercer operated
a sawmill, which was cutting plank for the
Bay City and Midland plank road, and inci-
dentally did a grist-mill business on a small
scale.
A resident of Williams in 1866 enumerated
the Methodist Bible class at North Williams,
supplied with preaching every two weeks; a
Universalist class, with preaching every four
weeks; and a Sunday-school kept regularly,
with a good library in connection. In the
southern part of the township they also had a
Sunday-school class, with occasional preaching,
and altogether the institutions of religion and
ethics were not totally neglected in the wilds
of Williams.
The township grew more ambitious by
1868. The same resident, mentioned in the
foregoing paragraph, urged the need of a post
office, invited settlers to try Williams, where
wild lands with good soil and fine pine and
other timber could be bought for $5 per acre,
and lauded the plank road, then completed.
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
)J tx
C X
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
153
which ga\'e the settlement an easy road to mar-
ket, and doubled the value of the farms, as the
pioneers were not slow to notice. In 1S68,
Williams could boast one blacksmith shop, two
saloons, and a Good Templar lodge of 43
members. Two sawmills and one shingle mill
ivcre being operated in the midst of the great
forest.
By 186S Williams township proper had
over 300 inhabitants; in 18S0 the population
was 866: in 1894 it was 1,752, and in 1900 it
was 1,818. In 1868 the township polled 47
votes: in 1900, 301.
The soil is a rich loam, lying high enongh
for cultivation, and the pine stiimpage offered
good grazing for cattle. From the first the
soil has been easily tilled and very productive.
The okl plank road has been superseded by the
stone road which is as far superior to the rotten
old planks, as the original piank road was ahead
of the "blazed" trail. The Garfield stone road
crosses Williams township north and south,
with fine cross roads, so that tlie road problem
is well solved. The Midland Branch of the
Michigan Centra! Railroad crosses the very
lieart of Williams, and since coal exists be-
neath the entire township the industrial devel-
opment of that neighborhood will be both sub-
stantial and rapid. Four feeders of the South
Branch of the Kawkawlin River furnish the
water supply and drainage, aided by numerous
drains and ditches, all leading to the Kaw-
kawlin.
The Polish settlers of that vicinity have
built a fine house of worship at Fisherville,
while the churches at the pretty village of Au-
burn supply the several denominations. Wil-
liams has an excellent school system, and post
offices at Auburn and North Williams. Some
of the largest and richest farms in the State of
Michigan are situated in WiUiams township,
monuments to the industry, perseverance, and
intelligent cultivation of its pioneers and their
descendants. The town officers at present are :
Linus W. Oviatt, supervisor : George \V. Mat-
thews, derk; E. E. Rosenkrans, treasurer; A.
H. Buzzard, justice; August Constantine, high-
way commissioner.
Village of Essexville. — In 1849, Joseph
Hudson, a roving sailor, chanced to visit this
liarbor, and during a prospecting tour was
favorably impressed with the prospects of the
low-lying lands on the east bank of the Sagi-
naw- River and very near its moutli. Return-
ing to Connecticut to marry Fidelia D. Essex,
he told her brother. Ransom P. Essex, of the
promised land in the Northwest. In 1850 Mr.
Essex took up 80 acres of low .land and Mr.
Hudson 40 acres adjoining, on which the thriv-
ing village of Essexville is now situated. Until
1855 the two pioneers followed the fishing bus-
iness, but later took up farming.
In 1867, Mr. Essex set aside eight acres for
village lots, the tract being the "west half of the
northeast quarter of section 14, town 14
north, range 5 east." He called this embryo
village "Essex" but the early settlers attached
a "ville", and so the name has remained to this
day,— "Essexville". An addition was soon
laid out, to accommodate arriving settlers, and
the humble homestead of the Essex family is
to-day in the center of a hustling suburb of
Greater Bay City.
The village of Essexville was incorporated
by act of the Legislature in February, 1883.
The charter election resulted as follows : Pres-
'ident, J. R. Hall ; derk, William Felker ; treas-
urer, George Hall; assessor, Louis Felker;
highway commissioner, William Leighton;
constable, H. VanWert ; trustees,— Philip Dar-
gis, S. A. Hall, Joseph Hudson, Anthony John-
son, John Garber and John Widen.
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
Owing to the location of the village near the
mouth of the riveTj the land Ues low and re-
quired, first of all, much drainage, before roads
and fields became useful to the settlers. Wood-
side avenue, through the village and east to
the county line, was one of the county's earliest
and best stone roads, rejjlacing planks. Fine
cross roads run north and south from Wood-
side avenue to the Center avenue stone road.
The old horse car system came early to Essex-
viHe, furnishing easy though somewhat slow
communication with the business center of Bay
City some three miles away, as judged by the
standard of 1905, when modern electric cars
speed over, the same route every 20 minutes.
The first school house in Essexvilie was
built in 1870, Miss Corbin, teacher. In 1879 it
was destroyed by fire, and immediately replaced
by the commodious and well-arranged, two-
story brick school, which has ever since fur-
nished ample opportunity for the ambitious
children of the village. As might be expected,
the large and prosperous settlement of Hol-
land and Belgian farmers, largely increased by
immigration during 1873-75, soon erected their
own church and parochial school house, which
are to this day two of the prominent landmarks
and seats of learning and worship in Essex-
vilie. The tall spire of St. John's Catholic
Church is visible for miles around and on a
quiet Sabbath morning the sweet chimes of the
bells in the church belfry bid the community
to worship. Well may the German poet, Theo.
Koerner, sing;
Sweet day, so pure, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky.
Yon' chimes, so sweet, my soul's delight
Wing thoughts from earth to realms on high.
Essexvilie was for some years a field for
missionary effort by the churches of Bay City.
In 1870 the Methodist Episcopal Church estab-
lished a mission, and in 1872 Trinity Protest-
ant Episcopal Church established a mission and
later built a chapel. In 1879 Rev. J, B. Daw-
son, a Congregational missionary, organized
the now prosperous Congregational society,
with a house of worship at Essex and Langsiafif
streets, dedicated in 1883. The First Baptist
Church of Essexvillle, on Dunbar and Lang-
staff streets, has prospered in recent years.
Rev. W. P. Lovett in March, 1905, resigned
the pastorate, having accepted a call to Grand
Rapids, Michigan.
Holy Rosary Academy, a three-story pre-
paratory school adjoining St. John's Catholic
Church and School, was destroyed by fire on
March 10, 1904, and one of the Sisters of St.
Dominic, enfeebled by age and infirmities, died
two days later at Mercy Hospital, as a result of
jumping from the second story and exposure
in the bitter cold night. The Sisters lost all
their personal property, as did a number of
pupils from out of the city who slept there.
Owing to the lack of modern fire-fighting appa-
ratus, Essexvilie has lost thousands of dollars
worth of property and a number of industries
in recent years. Holy Rosary Academy is
being rebuilt in March, 1905, but on Lincoln
avenue, within the city limits, where fire pro-
tection has ever been ef?ecti\-e.
Essexvilie has from its infancy been the
home of a number of flourishing fraternal and
benevolent societies. Lighthouse Lodge, No.
235, I. O. O. F., was organized July i, 1874,
with nine charter members and has to-day a
large membership. This lodge and Elmira
Lodge. No. 102, Rebekahs, own the Odd Fel-
lows' Block on Woodside avenue in Essexvilie.
The Knights of the Modem Maccabees, Ladies
of the Modern Maccabees, Modern Woodmen
of America and Independait Order of Forest-
ers have thriving lodges in the village. The
Maccabees have their own hall on Woodside
avenue. The Hampton Band is the leading
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
musical organization of the village. In 1882
Essexville had a "Reform Club", which had its
own hall on Woodside avenue, S. W. Green
being president. Evidently the desired re-
forms were accomplished in time, for the "Re-
formers" as an organization have long since
passed from view. The work of enforcing law
and order and accomplishing reforms now
rests entirely with the minions of the law, —
Justice William Felker, the village marshal and
the sheriff's office, — and the law-abiding vil-
lagers cause them little trouble. Roving tramps
and inebriates cause most of the arrests.
Essexville has for years had the post office
of Hampton township. Although rural free
delivery has in recent years provided a more
speedy and modern mail service, still the post
office continues to do a prosperous business
for "Uncle Sam," under the able management
of Dr. E. F, Crummer.
The Bay City Boat Club four years ago
gave up its old club house in Essexville and
built a modern dub house a half mile nearer
the mouth of he river. It is situated near the
last bend of the Saginaw, commanding a fine
view of the bay and of the summer resorts to
the north and west, and the power and sailing
yacht regattas held during the summer are over
a course that is visible from the broad and
shady verandas of the chib house, and are
always enjoyed by the villagers of leisure.
The business section of the village stretches
for nearly a mile along Woodside avenue, and
is gradually expanding to meet the require-
ments of the increasing population, especially
in the rural sections tributary to Essexville.
In 1882 the village had i apiary, i blacksmith,
I boarding house, i shoemaker, i druggist, 3
grocers, 2 hotels, i ice dealer, 1 livery, i meat
market, i saloon and r wagon-maker. In 1905
we find all these places of business more than
doubled, the saloons showing the largest in-
crease in numbers. There are now se\era[
large general stores, a hardware, dry goods
and shoe store^ photographer, music teacher
and three practicing physicians.
Like other business centers of the valley,
the industries of the village have undergone
a complete change in the last 15 years. Car-
rier & Company built the first sawmill in 1867,
with a capacity of 8,000,000 feet of lumber
per year. The Rouse mill was built by J. M.
Rouse in 1870-71. In January, 187S, his sons,
— E. F. Rouse and William B. Rouse (the
latter now village president), — took cliarge of
the mil!, which then cut 12.000,000 feet of
lumber annually, built a salt-block in connec-
tion, producing 90 barrels per day, and oper-
ated it so long as the supply of logs held out.
The himber statistician of 1879 also counied
the McEwan mill as part of Essexville, and
while it has been within the limits of Bay City
its employees came largely from this village.
Then came the mill of J. R. Hall and the shin-
gle mill of S. A. Hall, and still later Boyce's
mammoth sawmill an<I salt-block brought new
hfe and business to Ihe bustling lumbering com-
munity. Then came the $2 tariff on Canadian
logs and with a single stroke of the pen at
Washington, the lumber industry of the west-
ern shore of Lake Huron and on Saginaw Bay
was totally destroyed. One by one Essexville's
sawmills closed down, were torn down, re-
moved or fell a prey to the fiery elements. Pen-
niman & Courval's shingle mill near the mouth
of the river is all that remains of this once
booming lumliering community.
In 1898 Essexville profited by the experi-
ments with sugar beets carried on for a term
of years by Hon. Nathan B. Bradley, C. B.
Chatfield, Rev. William Reuthert and other pio-
neers of that now flourishing farm and factor)^
Hosted by
Google
IS6
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
industry, the Michigan Sugar Factory being
built under the stimulus of a State bounty that
year. This was the first beet sugar factory in
Michigan; it was incorporated in 1897, capi-
talized at $200,000, and with these oi^cers:
Thomas Cranage, president; Hon. Nathan B.
Bratlley, vice-president; E. T. Carrington, sec-
retary-treasurer. In December, 1898, the Bay
City Sugar Company was incorporated with a
capita! of $600,000, being officered as follows :
W. L. Churchill, president; Capt. Benjamin
Boutell, vice-president; Eugene Fifield, secre-
tary-treasurer. By January i, 1900, this mam-
moth five-story sugar-house began its first beet-
slicing campaign. The question of refuse
molasses from these factories was solved a year
later when the Michigan Chemical Company
was organized by Pittsburg capital, and the
following summer the first high-proof spirits
were manufactured, the government taking
most of the output for use in its manufacture
of high-power explosives.
These, with the chicory factory on Borden
avenue, since burned down and consolidated
with the Center avenue factory, just south of
the corporate limits of the village, and a num-
ber of large fishing institutions, comprise the
present industries of the village. Manj' of the
villagers have turned their attention to culti-
vating sugar beets during the summer, finding
employment in the sugar and chemical factories
in fall and winter. The Boyce Coal Company
was organized in 1899, A. A. Boyce, president;
G. J. Boyce, secretary-treasurer, with offices on
Pine street. The erection of the Hecla cement
plant just across the river from Essexville,
with a capitalization of $5,000,000, furnished
employment to hundreds of villagers, and,
when the concern settles its internal troubles
in the courts, will prove a bonanza to Essex-
ville and its inhabitants. The Essexville coal
and wood yard built by William B. Rouse two
years ago, and now operated by Charles Gard-
ner, fills a long-felt want. The population of
Essexville was 1,639 in 1900.
The dividing line between Greater Bay City
and Essexville is about the center of Woodside
avenue, east of Atlantic street, and many of the
\'il]agcrs are looking forward to the time when
their community will form a ward of the great
city. The main objection is the bonded indebt-
edness of the city, while Essexville has not
one dollar of bonded debt. But this might be
arranged on a mutually satisfactory basis, and
the consoHdation would at once give Essexville
access to the municipal lighting plant,
the water-works, with the much needed
fire protection, the High School, for which the
villagers must now pay extra, permanent pave-
ments, improved drainage, and all the other
modern advantages of an up-to-date city.
That many of the villagers see this union of
village and city in the not very far future is
proven by the defeat of the proposition to bond
the village for $50,000 for a village water-
works plant, at the election on March 13, 1905.
Consolidation will give them this water service,
then why erect a separate plant? The dividing
line is slender, the social and business interests
closely interwoven, and ere long all the people
residing on both sides of the Saginaw River,
for five miles from its mouth, will comprise one
city of more than 50,000 inhabitants, and
Essexville is destined to be one of the busy
wards of the greater city.
The village election held on March 13,
1905, was one of the most spirited in the annals
of Essexville, and more remarkable because
only one candidate of the Democratic ticket
won out, after that party had ruled the desti-
nies of the village for years. Following was
the vote;
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
William B. Rouse, Rep 165
J, K. Cotter, Deni ri9
Rouse's majority, 46.
O. A. Lloyd, Rep I33
F. 0. Giiindon, Dem 149
Guincion's majority, 14.
TKErt SURER.
W. C. Rothermd, Rep 143
Jacob Vail Hamlin, Dcm 130
Rotliermel's majority, 13.
Wartiii Richards, Rep 154
William Felker, Dem 127
Richards' majority, 27.
TRUSTEES.
E. F, Criimmer, Rep 132
W, Portlance, Dem 130
Crummer's majority, 22.
Archie Deary, Rep 144
Charles Wise, Dem 133
Deary's majority, 11.
WiUiam Burgess, Rep ^ 154
Henry Hudson, Dem 123
Burgess' majority, 46,
Village of Kawkawlin. — One of the
prettiest and most enterpri.sing hamlets in Bay
County is situated on the banks of the placid
river, which gives it its romantic Indian name.
Tlie earliest settlers clustered about the quaint
little water-mill built by the late James Eraser,
and later operated by O. A. Ballou & Company,
Frederick A. Kaiser's steam-mi!i, and the ford
used by the Indians in their travels. In 1855
this village consisted of the two mills, five cot-
tages, two log- huts, several Indian wigwams,
and one hundred million mosquitoes to the
square mile. The pioneer Kaiser and his
sturdy German wife never had any altercation
at the dinner table, because they always had to
keep muffled, to prevent being devoured by
these winged demons of the swampy river bot-
tom! Thomas Munn, Edward McGuinnes,
Michael McGuinnes, Cromwell Barney, John
Sutherland, the late Dr. T. A. MacTavish,
Jans Jacobsen, Amos Wheeler, Calvin E. Be-
dell, Edwin M. Parsons, Carl Schmidt, George
A. SchuUz and John C. Westpinter, who came
in 1852, were among the home-builders of this
village in its pioneer days.
The feHow-citizens of genial "Tom" Munn
know that there could not have been many dull
moments in the village, while Tom was there,
and the pioneers tell many amusing stories of
pioneer life on the "raging" Kawkawlin. One
day in November, 1873, a lovesick and not
overly bright young fellow wandered into the
settlement, and before the week rolled around
had received the icy mitt from all the young
women of the town, to whom he proposed in
short order. A fun-!oving Scotchman thought
he saw a chance to relieve the mosquito season.
A beardless boy of feminine looks was togged
up, Mr. Masher duly introduced, and the weird
courtship duly started. A fellow named Smith
made some insulting remark to Mr. Masher's
"girl" one evening, and next morning a war-
rant was secured before a fake justice, a mock
trial was held, and Smith fined $15, to the de-
light of Mr. Masher. To settle matters he
proposed to marry, and before night the fake
justice had tied the knot. Then Smith bobbed
up to spoil the wedding ceremony by demand-
ing another trial, which was duly held next
morning and Smith acquitted. In the same
instant another fellow stepped forward to claim
his wife, now Mrs. Masher, and the "girl" was
promptly arrested for bigamy, to Mr. Newly-
wed's horror! But his horror became aggra-
vated when some wag tore off the "girl's" bon-
net and other toggery. Tableau ! Mr. Masher
was set adrift on the Kawkawlin and drifted
out of sight forever, but never out of mind in
the settlement !
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
The spirit of the community also found
expression in breezy rhymes. Here is a sample :
heard in Kawkawlin
it the ball park !
No fightiii' or brawli
And the only
'Tis here that the
And helps him, as Penn did, lo paddle life's bark!
Canadians in dozens, with "Old Country" cousins,
Are fleeing the maple leaf, thistle and rose;
And westwardly sally, to Kawkawlin valley,
To find richer homes where the prairie grass grows.
We have a fair r ver
Of all sorts tf fi=il es
While placidly rest g
Its current, tJ e w Id
bo t f 1 E er
th-itdvell tie sea;
or fearle l> t easting,
d k 1 va t ng for m
We turn o
To help
Each man
Despite
ut togcti er fa r
ny neighbor we tlu
lo the other is a s
ationality, color or
or foul weather,
ik is in need;
criptural brother,
creed !
In i86j the first school was opened in a
little frame building, and Miss Carrie Chelsea,
now Mrs. C. C. Faxon, of West Bay City,
was the first teacher. The venerable lady has
achieved in the 44 years since passed a fore-
most place for philanthropy, and earnest work
in the missionary and temperance field. The
post office was established in 1868 and D. Stan-
ton was the first postmaster. The Presby-
terians and Methodists held church services
about 1863, and 10 years later substantial
churcii edifices graced the thriving village.
Social Lodge, No. 148, I. O. O. F., was orga-
nized December 13, 1871, two members being
admitted by card, and seven by initiation. It
has grown continually since then, and with the
Pine Grove Lodge of Good Templars, shares
the honor of being the earliest fraternal and
benevolent organizations in the village. The
Knights of the Maccabees, Gleaners, Independ-
ent Order of Foresters, Modern Woodmen of
America and Masons have strong lodges in
the village. Many of the members live in the
surrounding country.
In 1862, O. A. Ballou, A. M. Switzer and
Dr. W. E. Vaughn, the latter still a resident of
Bay City, operated for a few years a chemical
plant for the manufacture of hemlock extract.
It was the predecessor of a number of large
chemical plants erected in Bay City since. Kaw-
kawlin has had several genuine earthquakes,
owing to the tendency of the H. H. Thomas
dynamite plant, just south of the village, to
create a terrific noise and a rocking of the uni-
verse, whenever it takes one of its periodical
flights into space and minute particles! Win-
dow glass for miles around is at a premium
on such occasions, and, more unfortunately still,
a number of lives have been lost by these terri-
ble explosions.
The village has suffered a number of times
owing to fierce fires raging through the remain-
ing forests and underbrush of the vicinify.
One of the most destructive fires occurred on
March 25, 1880, when the handsome home of
the oldest pioneer, Frederick A. Kaiser, was
destroyed by fire caused by defective flues in
the heating apparatus. Mr. Kaiser was in Bay
City on the eventful morning, and liis son and
hired men were at work, Aliout 10 o'clock
a son-in-law, living over a mile distant, looking
toward the Kaiser home, saw flames and smoke
pouring from the roof. Mounting a horse he
rode the animal under the whip the entire dis-
tance, the exertion killing the faithful beast.
Most of the furniture was saved but the house,
valued at $16,000, was totally destroyed.
Just sovith of the village, in a beautiful
grove of forest kings, on a little bluff overlook-
ing the river and valley, facing the fine stone
road, is "Riverside Farm," one of Bay County's
prettiest and most famous ranches. It is the
homestead of the Marsfon family, and was for
years the beloved retreat of the late Hon. Isaac
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
Marston, justice of the Supreme Court from
1875 to 1883, being chief justice in 1880 and
1881. He also filled, by appointment from
Governor Bagley, a vacancy that occurred in
the office of Attorney General of Michigan, this
being prior to his elevation to the bench.
"Riverside Farm" has for years had the dis-
tinction of being one of the model farms of the
entire country, and is far-famed for its large
henl of blooded cattle, mainly Jerseys. The
Judge has a worthy successor at "Riverside
Farm" in his son, Thomas Frank Mars-
ton, who served for years on the State
Board of Agriculture, being president of the
board during the administration of Governor
A. T. Bliss, and has lately heen reappointed to
this board by Governor Fred M. Warner.
Like Frankenlust on the southwest, Wil-
liams on the west and Portsmouth and Merritt
on the southeast of the county, Kawkawlin is
noted for its hospitality. The dust and smoke-
begrimed employees of factory and workshop
in Bay City know and have no greater recrea-
tion, than a drive over the fine roads, where
macadamized stone has replaced corduroy, mud
and finally plank toads, to the cozy, well-
stocked and hospitable homes of tlie villagers
and fanners of Kawkawlin.
PiNCONNiNG Village. — "Pinconning:
Change cars for Mount Forest, Bentley and
Gladwin." Such is the stentorian announce-
ment of the pleasant- faced conductor on the
"Mackinaw Flyer" of the Michigan Central, as
the train pulls into the pretty village on the
Pinconning River. We are 18 miles from Bay
City. The trunk line to the Straits of Mackinac
runs due north, the Gladwyn Branch almost
due west to Mount Forest, and then northwest-
ward to the county seat of Gladwin County.
As the townships to the north of Bay City are
being settled, the importance of Pinconning as
a trading center naturally increases.
The village dates from 1872, when Fred-
erick A. Kaiser and George H. Van Etten built
and operated the first sawmill there. They built
a unique railroad of 3 by 5 maple rails for 18
miles into a timber belt that gave 140,000,000
feet of lumber. They platted 100 acres on
both sides of the railway; the streets running
north and south were named : Waters, Warren,
Kaiser, Manitou and Van Etten, while those
running east and west were numbered from one
to six. With the later additions, these are the
streets of the village to-day. A large general
store was started by the firm, and a post office
established. Pinconning township now has
rural free delivery advantages, but the post
office is still in much demand. George Barie is
the popular postmaster of Pinconning.
With the falling of the last pine tree in
that lumbering section, the palmy days of the
village ended for a time. The mills were
wiped out by fire or torn down and remo\-ed
nearer their timber supply. But the settlers
followed the lumber jack, and ere long Pin-
conning took a new and permanent lease of
life, so that in 1887 it was incorporated and
reincorporated in 189 1. In the census of 1900
it had 729 inhabitants.
The business section of the village has been
repeatedly wiped out by fire, but, as often
Pinconning rose from the ashes and always
with more pretentious hotels, stores and homes.
The fine brick school was destroyed by fire in
1904, and in 1905 an even more modern and
handsome brick and stone school has replaced
it. The Maccabee Hall is one of the conspicu-
ous two-story structures, and furnishes ample
auditorium space for the public meetings and
entertainments of the village. The first church
was the Indian mission at the mouth of the
Pinconning River. In 1884 the Methodist
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
Episcopal and the Presbyterian Church were
built, and almost every denomination is repre-
sented in this httle hamlet. Women's clubs and
social organizations assist in furnishing diver-
sion and enlightenment for the progressive vil-
lagers.
Practically every line of retail trade is rep-
resented in the village, the stores are well-
stocked and well-kept, and the enterprising
merchants know the value of paint in keeping
things looking bright and new on the outside,
and clean within. Two hotels and several tav-
erns provide for the comfort and good cheer
of transient visitors and industrious villagers.
The fraternities are well represented in Pin-
conning, there being lodges of Masons, Odd
Fellows, Maccabees and Modern Woodmen.
Edward Jennings, proprietor of the shin-
gle, heading and stave mill, the only survivor
of the palmy days of himbering here, has held
about all the positions of trust and responsibil-
ity in Pinconning village and township. In
1904 he was village president. On March 13,
1905. the following union ticket was elected
without opposition: President, A. Grimshaw,
hardware merchant ; clerk, H. C. Mansfield,
grocer; treasurer, W. A. McDonald, grocer;
assessor, George Deremer, musician and ton-
sorial artist; trustees,— Alex. Lenhoff (cloth-
ing merchant), George Hessling (harness-
maker.) and Edward Jennings (lumberman).
Auburn. — About 10 miles west of Bay
City, exactly midway to Midland, on the splen-
did Midland stone road, is one of Michigan's
prettiest country hamlets. Well-kept stores and
comfortable homes, inviting taverns and busy
shops, cozy schools and dignified houses of
worship, are clustered here, providing many
of the diversions and ethics of life, and all its
modern-day necessities. In the farming com-
munity about the village, the stump-puller has
long since given way to the up-to-date sowing
and reaping machines. In 1883 there were two
churches (Methodist Episcopal and Catholic),
the Auburn House (a fine brick hotel owned
by W. P. Root) , the fine store of Ira E. Swart,
a blacksmith shop and two saloons. The pio-
neer, Ira E. Swart, joined the great majority
eight years ago. The place has known many
changes in the two decades intervening between
1883 and the present time.
The Methodist Episcopal Church of 25
years ago is still a landmark in Auburn, but the
little Catholic Church has been replaced by
St. Joseph's Church, a brick structure. 40 by
65 feet, and modern in every respect, at a cost
of $10,000. The town hall is located in the
heart of the village, furnishing an ample meet-
ing place for the residents of Williams town-
ship. Just across the way is the office and cozy
home of the veteran physician of the village.
Dr. John P. Snyder, and Smith's drug store
fills a long-felt want in the community. John
Nuffer's cheese factory and general store, and
the elevator and general store of C. A. Kern
are among Auburn's substantial business insti-
tutions. August Constantine presides at the
Auburn Hotel and James Green at the Bay
City Hotel. The merry music of hammer and
anvil is heard from early morning until late
each day, where George Clark and the
Hemingway Brothers operate their respective
smithies. Interspersed with these busy institu-
tions are the comfortable and well-kept homes
of the villagers.
Here, too, the townspeople of Bay City
find a breathing place, a source of rest and
recreation after the day's work or the week's
work is done. Sleigh-ride parties in winter,
bicycling, coaching and auto parties during
summer find Auburn a jolly good place to visit.
The village folk enjoy these visits, and practice
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
fraternity and benevolence within their own
little community. We find here the Auburn
Post, G. A. R., a reminder that Williams town-
ship furnished rather more than its quota of
men when our country needed them most, and
active lodges of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, Modem Woodmen of America, Inde-
pendent Order of Foresters, Gleaners, and lead-
ing "Farmers Club" of the county. Verily these
worthy villagers know the town-meeting, love
its associations, and profit by the lessons of
progress and charity there espoused, worthy
descendants of the idyllic New England vil-
lage, whose memory Auburn brings vividly
to mind. And verily here too we find :
LnJ
p ad 8 he n
ee
h
guy ands
The
h a n gh y man
he
W h
la ge a d vv hand
And he
n use es of b an
a
A. e
o g a band
Wei.
w ko f
night,
\ou
a h s bel o vs
Yo a
a h m sw ng h
hay sledge.
\V h
m u ed bea and
ow
Lk a
ex on r ng ng he
g bell,
W hen the even ng
w
—Longfeltow.
"IcEBURG, U, S. A." — This is the famous
fishing village, located from three to 30 miles
north of Bay City, which appears each winter
as if by magic, on the icy surface of Saginaw
Bay. Just as soon as the ice on the bay is thick
enough to sustain the weight, commercial fish-
ermen, and men from every walk of life who
happen to be out of employment, rig up their
shanties on sleds, each shanty being provided
with a stove for a heating, and a, cot for sleep-
ing purposes, and a box to hold provisions.
Hundreds of these fishing shanties are moved
out on the ice, their location depending upon
the feeding grounds or runway of the finny
tribes, and for from three to four months the
fishermen are busy spearing fish. Fish buyers
drive out each day and buy the catch. This
picturesque and transient community has been
named "Iceburg, U. S. A." The season of
1904-05 brought out some 350 men, and while
the catches for December and January were
light, February and March proved bonanzas.
Expert spear fishermen made from $5 to $10
per day. The ice for January, February and
March, 1905, was three feet thick.
Hosted by
Google
CHAPTER VII.
NATURAL RESOURCES AND ADVANTAGES OF BAY COUNTY.
Climate^ Easy Water Communication Provided by the Rivers and Saginaw Bay
— A Paradise of Fish and Game— Rich Mineral and Agricultural Resources —
Pine and Hardwood Timber — Extensive Underlying Deposits of Salt and Coal
— Rich Soil and Fruitful Farms — "Garden Spot of Michigan."
Bay County is situated at the head of Sagi-
naw Bay. and has a shore Hne of about 30
miles. It has an area of 437 square miles, and
is probably the only county in the State without
a single natural elevation. No figure of speech
is used in applying the word "valley" to this
region. The watersheds where the head waters
of the Saginaw have their origin are many
hundreds of feet higher than the river valley in
Bay County. The altitude of the counties to the
south, where the Flint and Shiawassee rivers,
tributaries of the Saginaw, have their begin-
ning, is between six and seven hundred feet
above that of Bay County. A similar condition
in greater or less degree, exists as to the coun-
ties west of Bay. Bay County is thus protected
in no small degree from the severe wind-storms
which sometimes sweep across the State, While
the winters are long and cold, the variations
in temperature are not extreme, and the climate
is much milder in winter than that of many
portions of the State lying farther south. The
summers are usually hot, owing to the county's
peculiar location; the modifying infiuence of
Saginaw Bay and the Great Lakes cause a late
autumn and all crops have ample time to come
to maturity before the fall frosts. The low
mortality statistics show that the climate is
exceptionally salubrious.
Besides numberless smaller streams and
creeks, four large rivers, — the Saganing, Pin-
conning, Kawkaw Hn and Saginaw, — flow
through Bay County. The last named river
is formed by the Tittabawassee, Cass, Flint
and Shiawassee rivers, and has a total length
of 18 miles, being the largest river within the
State. It enters the southern part of the county
between Frankenlust and Portsmouth town-
ships, flows north through Greater Bay City
and between Bangor and Hampton townships,
emptying into Saginaw Bay three miles north
of Bay City. The season for navigation usu-
ally runs from the ist of April to about De-
cember lOth. The ice has been known to go
out of the Saginaw River as early as March
17th, and in the season of 1857-58 the ice was
at no time thick enough to hinder the passage
of tug lx>ats between Bay City and Saginaw.
The ice on river and bay during the winter of
1904-05 was from 18 to 28 inches thick. In
the early days a sand-bar stretched across the
mouth of the Saginaw River and seriously
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
163
obstructed navigation. This has been dredgefl
away by the Federal government and now ves-
sels of the deepest draft can enter the harbor
and land their cargoes at any dock along Bay
City's seven miles of water front.
Tiiere are few sections of this country of
equal area which have such wealth and variety
of natural resources. Long before the first
wJiite man penetrated this wilderness, the abor-
iginal Indian tribes waged many a war for the
possession of its primeval forests abounding
with wild game and its rivers teeming with
fish. While the larger game has been mostly
killed off, or has sought refuge Jn retreats less
accessible to man, there still remains sufficient
small game to afford the man with a gun the
pleasure he is seeking. The rivers of the county
and the waters of Saginaw Bay continue to
furnish immense quantities of edible fish, thus
sustaining an industry in which hundreds of
men are employed and thousands of dollars are
invested. It is in winter that the fishing busi-
ness reaches its greatest activity. At that sea-
son, hundreds of commercial fishermen and
Morkingmen out of employment go out on the
ice in the bay, erect imts and live for several
months luring the finny tribe from the clear
blue waters. The fishing grounds along the
bay and river are generally owned by the firms
engaged in the business, their riparian rights
extending to the center of the stream. Along
these grounds nets are set, and lifted daily if
necessary. It is not unusual to draw up from
one to three tons of fish at a lift. New York
City is the great mart for Bay County's fish
output.
No doubt the early adventurers were at-
tracted hither by the trade in furs; but among
the pioneers of this section were those wdio
recognized the almost limitless wealth to be cut
from the boundless tracts of pine timljer. There
now remains but one tract of this virgin growth
of pine, and that is being manufactured into
hmiber as rapidly as modern methods and ma-
chinery can do so. However, large tracts of
hardwood timber, including the different varie-
ties of oak and ash, elm, maple, beech, tama-
rack and other valuable woods are still stand-
ing. There is a constant and increasing de-
mand for hardwood lumber to be used as in-
terior finish and in the manufacture of cabinet-
work; and while, of course, the lumber indus-
try will never again be the mainstay of the
county's industries, it will contribute largely to
the wealth and prosperity of this section for
many years to come. All the remaining saw-
mills have timber supply and contracts for from
15 to 25 years.
Until i860 lumbering and fishing were al-
most the oniy industries. In that year the
attention of capitalists and the community in
general was called to the existence of vast res-
ervoirs of salt in this section, and as an experi-
ment a salt-well was put down in Bay City.
This venture proved successful, and from that
time on, with the encouragement of a small
State bounty, the production of salt increased
rapidly. The salt-blocks were usually operated
in connection with sawmills, because in this
way the exhaust steam, which up to this time
had been wasted, could be profitably utilized,
and steam could be generated from the refuse
of the mills. Under the Saginaw Valley, at a
depth ranging from 600 to 1,000 feet, lies a
vast salt basin. The immense deposit of rock
salt from which the brine used in our salt
works must come has not yet l>een touched.
Many attempts have been made to drill down
to it, but after going to great depths, drill after
drill lias been broken, and up to this time all
such ventures ha\'e been abandoned on account
of the financial loss sustained. The brine from
our salt-wells stands 96 and 98 by the salino-
mcter, and is freer from troublesome impurities
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
— "bitter waters," the operatives call them —
than the brine of most other localities. While
we all realize the importance of salt, not many
are aware that soda is largely made from it.
There are also many by-products of the manu-
facture of salt and soda which have consider-
able value as articles of commerce, such as
bromine, wliich is mvich used in photography
and other arts and in pharmacy ; chloride of
magnesium, which is also used in pharmacy;
and chloride of calcium, used in the manufact-
ure of artificia! stone. With the decline of the
lumber industry, the manufacture of salt also
fell off to some extent, but many hundreds of
thousands of barrels are manufactured each
year, the North American Chemical Company
alone producing about i,000 barrels per day.
The discovery of coal in Bay County does
not date beyond the memory of the oldest in-
habitant, but it goes back many years. With
the sinking of the first salt-weHs came the dis-
covery of the presence of coal; but in those
days the matter was not considered worthy of
particular attention. The drills would always
pass through what the workmen were pleased
to term the black mud or shale, but it was not
supposed that coal existed underneath the val-
ley, and no effort was made to mine it. In
more recent years came reports from the north-
ern part of the county (now included within the
boundaries of Arenac County) that coa! had
been found while a well was being put down.
A company soon went to work on the land
where the discovery was made, and the news
was sent broadcast that a good vein had been
found. Then the company went to pieces, and
that was the end of the Rifle River coal boom.
It is scarcely 1 1 years since workmen, sinking
a well in Monitor township, ran their drill
through a vein of fine quality. The news of
this discovery reached the ears of Frank and
Alexander Zagelmeyer, who organized the
Monitor Coal Company, the first company of
the kind in the county. Subsequent investiga-
tion has shown that the entire county is one
vast bed of pure bituminous coal of the finest
quality, the veins varying from 34 inches to
seven or eight feet in thickness. The problem
of cheap fuel has been solved, for the Bay
County product can be placed right at the
doors of factories in the city, in the matter of
freight alone, at nearly a dollar a ton less than
Ohio coal, which heretofore has had a monop-
oly of the trade in this county. With miles of
deep-water navigation, excellent railroad facili-
ties, and fuel right at our doors, the future of
Bay City as a manufacturing center is assured,
for these inducements can be oiTered to manu-
facturers by no other city in the State. Other
valuable minerals which are found in paying
quantities are gypsum, and shales and clays
well suited to the manufacture of Portland
cement. Many varieties of brick clay have also
been found in operating the coal mine shafts
and are l^eing worked at a profit.
For many years after the settlement of the
county, scarcely any attention was paid to agri-
culture. The clearing of farms began in the
early "seventies" and it may truly be said that
this industry even now is onJy in the early
stages of its development. Probably three-
fourths of the men who originally cleared up
Bay County farms worked at one time in the
fishing industry, in the sawmills or in the salt-
blocks. They were thrifty and frugal, invest-
in their savings in land, which they cleared
in the winter season. The money received
from the sale of the timber paid for the land,
which is now worth in many cases from $50
to 5200 per acre. It was necessary to drain a
large part of the county before the land could
be used for agricultural purposes. Thousands of
acres of rich river bottom and swamp lands have
i>een reclaimed by dredging and dyking. This
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
165
work, which is still going on, is not difficult,
as use is made of the many streams which trav-
erse all parts of the county. In the southern
and western portions of the county a rich black
loam with a clay subsoil is found, while in the
northern townships the soil is more sandy in
character. Anything can be grown here that
can be grown in other localities, and many
crops flourish here that cannot be grown else-
where. All fruits, with the possible exception
of peaches, do as well here as anywhere in
Michigan, and there is no better wheat, corn
and hay land in the State. At first the
farmers gave their attention more particularly
to the growing of grains and hay, but in more
recent years much of the land has been devoted
to market gardening, sugar beets, chicory and
fruit growing. The raising of stock is fast be-
coming an important branch of farming here,
the expense of raising cattle being less than in
many localities. In the summer season the
meadows, pastures and wild lands produce the
best of feed for stock, and in the fall and win-
ter, beet pulp, which is an excellent feed for
cattle, sheep and hogs, is given freely by the
sugar factories to the farmers who will haul it
away. The products of Bay County farms are
sent to agricultural fairs far and wide, always
winning prizes and premiums, and the "Gar-
den Sixit of Michigan," as it has been called,
is conceded to be the banner agricultural
county of the State.
Hosted by
Google
CHAPTER VIII.
GREATER BAY CITY.- 1865— 1905.
Our Motto; "United We Stand, Divided IVc fall!"
Remarkable Evolution of the Bay Cities from Booming Frontier Lumber Communi-
ties TO Hives of Varied Industries — The Rise and Decline of the Lumber and
Salt Industries— Municipal Improvements — Public Buildings and Business
Blocks— The Revival of the LumberIndustry — ^The Center of America's Beet
Sugar Industry — Chemical Factories, Chicory Mills and Varied Industries —
Discovery of Coal — Iron and Steel Industries— Mammoth Ship-Building Plants
AND Dry Docks — Fisn and Game— TheFight for Consolidation — The First Offi-
cers OF Greater Bay City — The Charter.
H apply thy sun, emerging, yet may shine,
Tliee to irradiate with meridian ray;
Honrs splendid as the past may still be thine
And bless thy fntitrc as thy former day.
-Byron.
The year 1905 will ever mark a memorable
epoch in the annals of the thriving communi-
ties situated on the banks of Michigan's might-
iest inland stream, who, in this year of
grace ha\'e joined together that which man
should never have kept asunder! In April,
1865, Bay City began its corporate existence
as one of Michigan's most promising cities, and
just 40 years later West Bay City, the enter-
prising sister community on the west bank of
the Saginaw, unites its energies and destinies
with the older community, creating by this
happy union a flourishing city of approximate-
ly 45,000 people. Drawn hither by the splen-
did advantages for commerce and industry
offered by the Saginaw River for seven miles
inland from Saginaw Bay, these early pioneers
and town builders yet allowed that very same
river to nominally divide them, for separate
corporations have existed during all these years
on opposite sides of the river.
During this very month of March, 1905,
the Journal of Geography, while discussing the
war between Russia and Japan, and the event-
ual boundaries dividing the disputed empire of
Manchuria, has this to say about rivers as a
dividing line: "The Amur River, running
through a broad and fertile valley, nominally
divides the lowland politically into two parts
— Russian Siberia on the north and Manchuria
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
167
on the soutli. History proves that such a di-
visxiii carries the suggestion of extreme weak-
ness. ^Modern civihzation has found out, that
KIVERS ARE THE DIAMETERS OF COMMUNITIESj
ANi> NOT THEIR CIRCUMFERENCE! That trade,
and with it all the rest of modern life, gravi-
taie.s toward the rivers, and there mingles, and
therehy unifies the life of the country on hoth
sides! It will be as difficult to keep the people
on opposite sides of the river Amur divided, as
it was to keep the river Rhine German on
one side, and French on the other ! Navigahle
ri\ers, while good barriers in time of war, are
fatal to continued separation in time of peace!"
If that is true of a mere boundary line,
it comes home with even more force when ap-
plieil to sister communities, who like Brooklyn
and New York City, or like the two Bay
Cities, are bound together by the closest ties of
social intercourse, business relations and mu-
tual interests. Time and experience is there-
f(ire bound to wipe out these imaginary di\'id-
ing lines, and unite for collective effort and
joint advancement all the people Hving on the
same great waterway for identical reasons.
The most progressive and far-sighted citi-
zens of both communities had for 30 years rec-
ognized the advisability of uniting these cor-
porate interests, but local pride, the ultra-con-
servative obstructionists, who exist in every
coninuinity and who ofttimes wield a restrain-
ing influence for good, who in this instance
were perhaps misguided, yet perfectly honest
and sincere in their opposition, together with
minor personal interests, served to keep us
asunder for 25 years, and nearly encompassed
tlie turning back the wheels of progress for an-
other 20 or 30 years, through the "railroaded"
repeal act of the Legislature in January, 1905,
upsetting all that had been accomplished with
wisdom and patience in the joint action of the
two Bay Cities through the Legislature of
1903.
But the rising generation of young men,
with progressive ideas, with no ties to a vener-
able but obsolete past, rallied to the support of
the stalwart leaders of the consolidation move-
ment of other years, and through the keen busi-
ness judgment, wise counsel and decisive action
of Michigan's beloved chief executive. Governor
Fred M. Warner, tliey snatched victory for
Bay City's union from the very jaws of ignom-
inous defeat.
And so in April, 1905, by the election of its
first officials, the charter of the new and greater
city becomes operative! A new metropolis has
been added to the list of great cities in the
commonwealth of Michigan, and Bay City,
West Side, and Bay City, East Side, become
one good, strong and united community, to
take that high place in the sisterhood of our
country's great cities, to which these people
have long been entitled by force of numbers,
industry and natural advantages. Just as 40
years ago, the incorporation of Bay City, East
Side, as a city gave new impetus to the busi-
ness and social interests of that pioneer com-
munity, so in this year o£ grace, 1905, these
united Bay Cities must and will take on new
vitality, new ambition, new energy and rise
to that high plane of progressiveness and pros-
perity, which in view of the city's splendid lo-
cation, imbounded natural resources and intel-
ligence of its people must be all its own, if we
but do and dare, and pull together with a will !
But let us pause a moment, to see how this
community of half a hundred thousand, with
other thousands still without the corporate lim-
its of Greater Bay City, came and grew and
prospered. Turn back the pages of time, 50
years. Where stands to-day the really magnifi-
cent City Hall, fit to be the capital of a kingdom.
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
there stood in 1855 the crude wigwam or bark
hunting-lodge of Nau-qua-chic-a-me, the chief-
tain of the Chippewas. A spring ckar as crystal
welled up beneath a shady nook, and meandered
westward to the great river, which rolled be-
neath the shadows of the pines northward into
an equally mighty bay. The wise men of his
tribe were wont to assemble on the very spot
for counsel, where 50 years later will assemble
the coimcilmen of the Greater Bay City. Little
did the red men dream what changes the nfext
half century would bring forth. And almost as
difficult is it for us to mentally turn back the
wheels of time and call to mind that primitive
hunting lodge, with its sage warriors and coun-
cilmen of the aborigines. Nau-qua-chic-a-me
in 1854 was more than three score and ten. and
a warrior :
As monumental bronze, unchanged his look,
A soul that pity touched but never shook;
Trained from his tree-rocked cradle to his bier,
The fierce extremes of good and ill to brook.
Impassive — fearing but the shame of fear —
A stoic of the woods — a man without a tear,
—Irving.
In the earliest sketch of Bay City, compiled
under authority of the Common Council of Bay
City in 1875-76, by Alderman George W.
Hotchkiss, Nau-qua-chic-a-me is given the fore-
most place among the Indians met by the pio-
neers of Bay City. "He was well and favor-
ably known to all the white settlers of the val-
ley. His honesty and friendship were proven
in numberless instances." His band of Indians
usually camped amid the pretty grove on the
west side of the river, a veritable paradise for
the natives. But the sage chief is said to have
preferred the solitude of his lone hunting-lodge
on the spot, where oddly enough, in the years to
come, the business of a great community was to
be transacted. Whenever the chieftain had im-
portant matters to bring before his leading war-
riors, he would assemble them near the "deer-
lick," where busy squaws and romping youths
would not disturb their deliberations. Daniel
A. Marshall, ex-aklernian and city accountant
for years, came here in i860, and among his
many interesting reminiscences, his recollection
of this old chieftan, as be would troop into the
young settlement with two or more squaws at
his heels, and a jolly "Bu-shuu" greeting for
all he met, is a refreshing recital of pioneer
days.
About 1855 the growing community
reached southward along the river front, and
the "deer-lick" no longer offered solitude, and
wilh silent regret the Indians retreated farther
into the wilderness, appearing periodically at
the little government pay-station on the banks
of the river, where the Detroit & Mackinac
Railway bridge now spans the tleep waters, and
visiting the stores of the pale faces for the com-
modities which even their fathers never knew.
Poor Lo ! The first and last dollar of his
government pay invariably went for fire-water,
and when on such rampages, the wild, discord-
ant shrieks and war-whoops would make the
night hideous in the settlement. Brawls with
fatal results occasionally followed these de-
bauches, and the pioneers always breathed eas-
ier when the red men vanished again in the vast
forests to the w-est and north of Bay City. The
tavern and store-keepers invariably held most
of the government cash by the time Poor Lo
was ready to retreat, and hence the red men
were not unwelcome guests. Nor did they
often molest unoffending pale faces. Their
brawls were usually with their own race, or
with equally untamed bushmen of the frontier
type. Often the pioneer mother in the wilder-
ness of the valley would be startled by the silent
approach of moccasined feet, but we know of
no single instance, where the lonely wife or
children were injured or even molested by these
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
1-69
roaming warriors. The oldest settler tells ns,
that the Indians were consumed with curiosity
about the life and deeds of the pale faces. They
would stop at the log; hut in the primitive for-
est clearing, to watch the little pale faces play,
to inspect the cooking of the housewife and to
partake of the viands that w ere so new^ and in-
viting to him, but all this as a rule unobtrus-
ively. The early historian of Bay City ap-
proved the kindliest sentiments about the In-
dians, "who held their course, silent, solitary
and undaunted through the boundless bosom
of the wilderness." His hunting expeditions
vied in distance and danger with the pilgrimage
of the knights errant, traversing vast forests
e:qiosed to the hazards of lonely sickness, fero-
cious beasts, lurking enemies and privations.
In a frail bark canoe the Indians darted over
the Great Lakes and the rushing rivers, ever re-
treating before advancing civilization, but here
stiH. with a lofty contempt of death, and a
fortitude strengthened by their accunudating
afflictions, The Chippewa could face death,
but he could not face the buzzing of the saw-
mill and with the other frightened denizens of
the forest he left these scenes forever.
The mighty river the red children of the
forest loved proved their undoing here, years
before the other sections of the State in the
same latitude became thickly settled. The
Saginaw River furnished an easy means of
reaching this wealth of forest and prairie, and
an equally ready highway to the markets of the
world. It is therefore small wonder, that in
the primitive and pre-historic periods, no less
than in the colonial period, it drew the human
race to its shores. The stream, which Long-
fellow has immortalized in "Evangeline," dur-
ing its entire tortuous course cannot lay claim
to natural charms or much pastoral beauty. Its
waters are rather murky, the result of sweep-
uig the rich alluvial lowlands on its journey to
the great bay. The current is not swift, except
during spring freshets or after prolonged rain-
fall in the valley. The earliest pioneers found
it more beautiful, when stately pines and tang-
led vines framed its low banks, and a carpet of
sweet and beautiful wild flowers extended to
the water's edge. The ridge along its west
bank was particularly attractive, with its rich
covering of green, and with luxurious wild
flowers running riot beneath the wide-spread-
ing branches of the scattered monarchs of the
forest. The tepees of the Indians were then
the only signs of human habitation on that side
of the river, while often the antlered tribes of
the forest trooped dow^n to the water's edge in
the more secluded spots, and packs of wolves
romped along the shore within sight of the
early East Side settlers. Then as now, it was
indeed a "Silent River:"
"River ! tlnat in silence windest
Through the meadows, bright and free,
Till at length thy rest thou fmde.it ,
In the bosom of the sea !
Thou hast taught me, Silent River!
Many a lesson, deep and long;
Thou hast been a generous giver;
I can give thee hut a song.
Where yon shadowy woodlands hide thee,
And thy waters disappear,
Friends I iove have dweh heside thee,
And have made thy margin dear.
'Tis for this, thou Silent River!
That my spirit leans to thee;
Thou hast been a generous giver,
Take this idle song from me.
—Longfellow.
With the advance of the very forces at-
tracted by this navigable river, its shores be-
came even more prosaic. The earliest known
clearing was made by the German frontiers-
man, Jacob Graveroth, who came West for the
Astors, in quest of furs and trade with the In-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
dians, about 1825. He married a daughter of
Kish-kau-ko, a Chippewa chief of the band that
then made this valley their rendezvous. The
Trombleys found him Jiving with the Indians
when they first visited the site of Bay City,
and many amusing stories are told of his droll
■wit and good humor. He was well liked by the
Indians and did a thriving business as their
trader and interpreter. The next clearings
were made by the Trombleys and the farm
instructors the government sent to the Chippe-
was, in the hope of teaching these huntsmen
and warriors the arts of peace.
But the valley remained practically silent
and unknown to the outside world, until four
master minds caine and saw and appreciated
its wealth of resources. Judge Albert Miller
from his frontier home at Saginaw City, James
Fraser from his fine farm on the Tittabawassee,
Hon. James G. Birney, of Kentucky, and Dr.
Daniel Hughes Fitzlmgh from New York
State, were without a doubt the first to see and
take advantage of the deep-water harbor, and
the value of the timber lands, where stands to-
day the metropolis of Northern Michigan.
Foremost among the four stands the late
James Fraser, "the man on horseback," the
most energetic figure in the early annals of Bay
City. He it was who personally inspected every
foot of the valley lands, ceded to the govern-
ment by the Indians in the treaty of 1837,
Over Indian trails and trackless wastes without
a guide, save for the stars of heaven, he blazed
a way as he rode through the primeval forest,
or skirted the shores of river and bay in frail
bark canoe, determined to know the exact lay
of this virgin land. He was a familiar sight
to the roving Indians, who admired his restless
energy and indomitable pluck. They called him
"Little Wizard" and in after years had reason
to know that the appellation was well merited.
He could not wait for the long drawn out coun-
cils of government officials and Indians about
the sale of their last remaining reservation in
the valley, but took what he found ready.
The John Riley Reserve of 640 acres, given
by the government to Stephen V. R. Riley for
his assistance in securing the first treaty of
1819 from the reluctant Indians, was the only
available site for a city near the mouth of the
placid Saginaw River. For its purchase Mr.
Fraser organized the Saginaw Bay Company.
John Riley would not sell without the consent
of bis aged father, then postmaster of Schenec-
tady, New York, and this old frontiersman
with hair whitened by the snows of more than
70 winters brought about at Detroit the sale of
what is now t!ie heart of Bay City, for the then
enormous sum of $30,000. The company, led
by Mr. Fraser, at once laid out the plat of the
new toxvn, constructed a warehouse, planned a
hotel and actually started it, and a dock was
built for the vessels, which the projectors felt
certain woidd soon be doing business in the set-
tlement they called Lower Saginaw. But with
President Jackson's order, requiring specie
payment for all government lands, the financial
panic of 1837-38 swept the promoters of this
new town from the height of prosperity to utter
ruin. Their fondest hopes were destined to be
more than realized, but it was not for them to
reap, where they had tilled so well.
James Fraser alone managed to tide over
the disastrous years, and he alone was destined
in the years to follow, to profit by his own fore-
sight and keen business judgment. Daring
those years he was ubiquitous. He seems en-
tirely insensible to fatigue, hunger or cold.
When the land office w'as still in Detroit, it
was a common thing for him to ride to Detroit,
a distance of more than too miles, in one day
and often without even changing horses. Even
this terrible ride did not finish his clay's work
on some decisive occasions. Finding some
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
message or some word from Lower Saginaw or
the Tittabawassee, upon his arrival at his home
in tlie settlement above the bar, be ivonlcl at
once mount another borse, and plunge again
into the wilderness, defying the storms of Na-
ture no less than the terror of savage beasts or
lurking Indians. His force of will and sagacity
always brought liim safe through all dangers,
though like St. Paul of old he could recite in
the eventide of his busy life the many
instances when he passed dose to the
dark valley of death. Death by drown-
ing, by falling trees, by snake bites, by
his horse stumbling over an obstacle in
the inky darkness of the dense woods, by the
breaking of a frail bridge over a deep gully,
and a hundred similar dangers, encompassed
him, but be always escaped with hardly a
scratch. One of the pioneers of those early
days recalled meeting Fraser early one morning
on the trail over the Cass, riding his horse at
speed, knee deep, through the mud, a handker-
chief taking the place of a hat, which had been
lost in his mad ride through the woods in the
darkness of the night, covered with mud, his
face scratched by the branches of obstructing
trees, yet greeting cheerily those he met. In
March, 1850, Mr. Fraser learned that his eld-
est son was very sick at Detroit. Mounting
his favorite horse "FairPlay," a mount worthy
of its master, there began a wild race with
death. The trails and roads were in their very
worst condition, yet borse and rider plunged
along, mile after mile. When "Fair Play"
was about exhausted, he changed his mount,
and in a little less than nine hours Mr. Fraser
was at the bedside of his dying son.
Just at Joseph Trombley and Michael Daily
were the walking marvels of Michigan in their
day, just so James Fraser was the premier
horseman. With the land office at Detroit, or
later at Flint, as a goal, and a choice parcel of
land at stake, there was none who would dare
to compete with James Fraser for the prize.
At Cass Crossing there lived for years a soli-
tary settler. Often in the dead of night he
wonid hear a horse and rider go thundering by
and cross the bridge at top speed, and in the
morning he would tell travelers that "James
Fraser passed last night."
Horse and rider have long since Jialted at
the end of life's journey. The wilderness
through which they journeyed by day and by
night is no more. The trails they followed
have become the highways of commerce, where
the iron horse and the electric spark have been
harnessed to serve humanity. The solitary
cabins they passed in the stillness of the night
have grown to be large cities, alive with indus-
try and enjoying the comforts of a civili;!ation
for which pioneers like James Fraser blazed
the way.
In 1834 the second of the trio who really
called the first community into being. Dr. Dan-
iel Flughes Fitzluigh, came into the valley to
buy the land which he wisely calculated would
soon be the El Dorado of the Northwest, He
joined forces with Mr. Fraser, and while not a
permanent resident here still contributed much
to the early development of the settlement and
future Bay City. His son, Charles C. Fitz-
hugh, came in 1841 to look after the large
landed interests of his father, and in this year
of grace, 1905, is still a resident of the city
which he has seen grow from the hinnblest be-
ginnings to a hive of varied industries with
nigh unto half a hundred thousand souls.
Judge Albert Miller lived for some years at
Saginaw City, but be realized the difficulty of
moving heavy-laden vessels over the Carroll-
ton sand-bar, and therefore concluded that the
harbor city woidd have to be built nearer the
mouth of the river. His judgment has been
amply verified by subsequent events. He bought
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
a large tract of land from the Trombleys in
July, 1836, and at once laid out and platted the
village of Portsmouth, now the south side of
Greater Bay City. He built and operated the
first sawmill, securing the machinery at an enor-
mous cost of time and money. It proved to be
the corner-stone of the industry, which for 30
years was tlie mainstay and wealth producer for
the people of Bay City. He taught the first
school here in 1835, was judge of probate of
this county from 1835 until 1844, and repre-
sented this county in the Legislature, 1847-51.
He continued in the lumber and real estate busi-
ness to the end. He was one of the promoters
of the first salt-well, and took an active part in
securing the first railway for Bay City.
The fourth and most illustrious of the pro-
jectors and creators of Bay City can.ie some-
what later than his business associates, but
Hon. James G. Birney had behind him such a
distinguished career, that the mere fact of his
removing to this wilderness in search of soli-
tude and to start life anew attracted attention.
From the day in 1841 when with Dr. Fitzhugh
and James I'"raser he visited Bay City for the
first time, this far-off nook of the universe be-
came a familiar spot to the outside world, Mr,
Birney was a scion of one of Kentucky's most
illustrious families. Bom at Danville, he was
surrounded by all the comfort and luxury of
the paternal plantation. Educated at Prince-
ton College from which he graduated in 1810,
the world looked bright indeed to the young
lawyer, then on the threshold of his noble ca-
reer. He began the practice of the Jaw at Dan-
ville, was elected Representative to the Legis-
lature of Kentucky, and later removed to
Huntsville, Alabama, where a broader field
opened for his professional career. In 1828 he
was presidential elector of the Whig party for
Alabama. At this time he owned a cotton plan-
tation with a large number of slaves. He was
a devout Presbyterian, and the agitation against
slavery impressed htm keenly. He was soon at
the parting of the ways. He must chose be-
tween his principles and his fortune, and he
bravely sacrificed everything for the cause of
liberty and equality. To preacli emancipation
was not enough. He must practice what he
preached. So he gave each of his slaves deeds
of manumission, gave up his plantation and be-
gan the battle for the down-trodden black race.
Unlaunted by the sneers and insults of his rela-
tives, friends and neighbors, in great personal
danger, he carried on his good work. Cursed
at home, he was eulogized the world over for
his fearless self-sacrifice. Dr. Cox wrote at
the time : "A Birney has shaken the continent
by putting down his foot! His fame will be
envied before his arguments are answered, or
their force forgotten !
A poor old slave, infirm and lame ;
Great scars deformed his face !
On his forehead he bore the brand of shame,
And the rags that hid his mangled frame
Were the livery of disgrace I
Ent alas! What holy angel
Brings the slave this glad evangel?
And what earthquake's arm of might
Breaks his dnngcou gates at night?
'Twas a "Birney !"
His father died in 1839, leaving a large es-
tate in land, money and slaves. Judge Birney
requested his sister to compute all the slaves at
their market value as part of his half share.
This done, he iminediateiy emancipated all of
them. In 1840 he was at London, England, be-
ing vice-president of the World's Liberty Con-
vention, and that same year he was nominated
for the presidency by the Liberty party, receiv-
ing 7,000 votes that were counted, and other
thousands that were ignored by the powers that
The liberation of his slaves, and the loss of
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
his estates, together witli his other large ex-
penses in his fight against a great but popular
wrong, had greatly reduced his fortune. Hence
he listened willingly enough to Dr. Fitzhugh's
invitation to "come West," invest what he had
left at the month of the Saginaw River, and
rest np. So in 1841 James G. Birney brought
his family to the wilds of Michigan. The
Webster House in S.iginaw City had been idle
since the panic swept the country in 1837, and
here tlie Birneys started life anew, until their
quaint little cottage could be made habitable at
Bay City. On July 4, 1842, Judge Birney was
the orator of the little settlement. He said he
could never celebrate "Independence Day"
properly, until the four million slaves of the
South had been released from bondage ! For
15 years thereafter he wrote and preached the
gospel of human liberty a!id equality. He was
again nominated for the presidency in 1844,
receiving 62,300 votes, and in 1845 received
3,023 votes fur Governor of Michigan.
When the last summons reached him on
No\'ember 23, 1857, at Eagleswood, New Jer-
sey, the good cause seemed as far ott as ever.
In a few years, however, his countrymen by
the blood of thousands of heroes purchased the
freedom of the slaves, and brought victory for
the good cause. Foremost among the great
leaders of that movement will ever stand the
name of one of the founders of Bay City, im-
perishable as the human liberty for which he
dared all : James G. Birney. And one of his
greatest attributes was this : "He spake evil
of no man !" His only sin was this, that he was
a generation in advance of his day. Much of
the early development of this community was
brought about under his leadership of this
great and good man. He shared with the other
settlers all the dangers and privations of their
frontier life. He hewed down the timber for
the rail fence that kqit his fine herd of blooded
cattle from wandering into the vast forest be-
yond. The fine dairies of today owe much to
this importation of blooded stock by Mr. Bir-
ney. As trustee of the reorganized Saginaw
Bay Company, together with James h'raser and
Dr. Fitzhugh, he planned and worked for the
development of the natural resources of Bay
City, and to attract settlers. Here his wishes
were partly realized, when in 1855 ill health
compelled him to give up the rigors of pioneer
life for the balmy airs of the Atlantic.
It will require no great flight of imagina-
tion to understand what it meant for James G.
Bimey to leave behind him all the comforts of
life, to begin life anew in the malaria and mos-
quito breeding lowlands of Bay City during
those early years. There was nothing in the
settlement to attract him, save solitude, work
and future prospects.
With his coming a new spark of life ani-
mated Bay City, or Lower Saginaw as it was
still called. The McCormicks came and oper-
ated the Miller mill in the South End ; Judge
Campbell conducted the Globe Hotel ; Captain
Marsac and Captain Wilson made their homes
here, and slowly but surely the population in-
creased, and the wilderness vanished before the
pioneer's axe. During the winter of 1850,
Judge Miller, C. L. Russell and Capt. Lyman
Crowl erected a much more modern and capa-
cious mill in the South End, with houses for
their employees, and a small building for church
and school purposes. The first school house
was built in 1844 on First street and Washing-
ton avenue, in which Mr. Birney held religious
services for the handful of neighbors. In 1S47,
James Eraser, Hopkins and Pomeroy built a
sawmill, J. B. and B. B. Hart went extensively
into the fish business and Henry W. Sage in-
spected the valley for which in later years he
was destined to do so much.
By 1848 both the villages of Portsmouth
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
and Lower Saginaw had assumed definite pro-
portions. Among the South End pioneers we
find the Trombleys, Miller, McCormick, Mar-
sac, Wilson, Braddock, Stevens, Daglish,
Southworth, Beckwith, Wilmot, Watrous and
Ira Kinney, the last named stiU living on the
old homestead on Cass avenue. O. A. Marsac,
city recorder for 12 years, O. A. Watrous and
H. N. Watrous are sons of those pioneers.
Curtis Munger and Ed. Park opened a store in
1848, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Carney opened the
boarding house for the Fraser mill, while Dr.
Daniel Hughes Fitzhugli, Alexander McICay
and family and J, W. Putnam erected cozy
homes. Among the other permanent arrivals
were Clark iloulthrop, Thomas Whitney, John
Drake, S. Drake, and George Carpenter, whose
descendants still honor the community their
fathers helped to establish.
In 1850-51 another group of enterprising
pioneers was added by the arrival of William
John and Alexander McEwan, who built and
operated a sawmill; Henry Raymond, James
Watson and Charles E. Jennison came and en-
terel the mercantile business, Mr. Jennison is
the only survivor, and the business he estab-
lished 55 years ago is being continued to this
day by his sons, only on a much larger scale.
Dr. George E. Smith was the first permanent
medical practitioner here, while James Fox
opened the first law office. Jonathan S. Bar-
clay was then building the Wolverton House,
which was the post office, theater, town hall and
ballroom combined for the little settlement for
many years.
The tug "Lathrop," owned and sailed by
Capt. Benjamin Pierce, was the forerunner of
that vast fleet that in after years handled the
immense log rafts and Kimber barges that com-
pletely covered the great river. Capt. Darius
Cole also became interested in river navigation,
and soon crafts of all descriptions were fulfill-
ing the fondest expectations of the projectors
of this community at the mouth of the ri\-er.
Ere James G. Birney bade farewell to the
settlement he helped to create, he witnessed the
erection of the Catholic Church on Washington
avenue, between Second and Third streets, in
1 851; the Fay mill, William Peters' mill, H.
M. Bradley's mill, in 1852 ; the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, on Washington ai-emie. between
Seventh and Eighth streets, in 1S55. All these
buildings and industries brought mechanics and
laboring men, and the village was growing
apace. In 1854 the first ship was built here by
George Carpenter and J. A. Weed, a fishing
schooner named "Java."
In 1855 Tom Dodge built a hotel on Third
and Saginaw streets, which tlien as now was a
favorite resort for the lumber jacks and <iock
wallopers. The buildings here and on Wash-
ington avenue were in a little swamp, and dur-
ing spring freshets could only he reached by
boat. The young folks in the settlement held
dances at Dodge's hotel, with a usual scarcity
of girls, but the old settlers tell us gleefully
that even a blanketed Indian \vould be pressed
into service on such jolly occasions.
In 1856, Hon. James Birney came to take
the place of his distinguished father in the wilds
of Michigan, and he immediately agitated
changing the name of the village. Accordingly
he drew up a bill w^hich was passed by the
State Legislature in February, 1857, providing
"That the name of the village of Lower Sagi-
naw, in the township of Hampton, be, and the
same is, hereby changed to Bay City." James
Fraser and Charles B. Cottrell came in 1856
to reside here permanently. In 1857 the glory
of the tallow candle vanished before the kero-
sene oil lamps, first exhibited as a curiosity to
the villagers at Cottreil's store on Water and
Second streets! About this time "Deacon" J,
H. Little tried his luck in this lumber town,
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
later going into the grocery business. In the
year of grace 1905 he bobs up serenely as a
supervisor from the 13th Ward of Greater Bay
City! In 1852 an epidemic of cholera swept
over the valtey, Thomas Rogers, first black-
smitli, justice and mail carrier of this settle-
ment, being among the first victims. His wife,
daughter of Dr. Wilcox, of Watertown, Nevj
York, had studied medicine in her youth, and
for many years was the only medical adviser in
the village. During this epidemic she did he-
roic work, being among the sick and dying at
all hours of the clay and night. She is one of
the heroic figures m the pages of our pioneer
history.
During these years Hon. James Birney
bonght considerable property in Bay City,
which he added to his father's former estate,
and share in Lhe original Saginaw Bay Com-
pany. He was for years the leading spirit in
matters oi education, public improvemaits,
and the promotion of the community's welfare.
He was for yars the most prominent citizen
of Bay City, serving his constituency in the
State Senate, 1S58-59 ; was lieutenant-Gov-
ernor, 1860-61; circuit judge, 1861-65; Uni-
ted States commissioner for the Centennial at
Philadelphia in 1876, and later United States
Minister to the Netherlands, 1876-81. He es-
tablished the Chronicle as a weekly in 1871,
and in 1873 as a daily. His eldest son, named
after his illustrious grandfatlier, James G. Bir-
ney, served with distinction through the Civil
War, as caplnin of the Seventh Michigan In-
fantry, and died while serving with the regular
army in 1S69. Just as the grandsire planned
and piantLd the first rugged settlement, jnst so
his son planned and worked for the rapidiy
growing young city. He, more than any other
perhaps assisted in securing the first railroad,
the State roads and the public libraries. He
was a firm believer in booming the city, and
never lost an opportunity to praise its superb
qualities as a place for business, health and rec-
reation. His example can be followed with
profit by generations yet to come.
With the organization of Bay County in
1857, and its entry into the official world upon
the decision of the Supreme Court in May,
1858, the village of Bay City assumed new dig-
nity, a.'id the county-seat residents felt the im-
petus of new vitality. The projectors of die
Httle community provided land for the county
buildings, for parks and for churches. The
site for the Court House and Jail, with the ad-
joining parks, proved a particularly happy se-
lection. But the first county officials met in a
building owned by James Eraser, located on
tiie river bank at the foot of Fourth avenue,
until 1868, when the present Court House was
built at a cost of $40,000, The little wooden
Jail on Sixth street, between Water and Sagi-
naw streets, was wiped out in the great lire of
1863, and was replaced by another wooden
building on Se\-enth and Monroe streets, which
was used until 1870, when the present commo-
dious County Jai! and sheriff's residence was
erected. This building is a two-story structure,
of white brick, with iron-lined Jail, the ceils of
boiler iron being two stories high in the center
of the main room, with large corridors between
the gratings and the outer wall. The upper
story has apartments for female prisoners an.d
fraudulent debtors. The whole structure is fur-
nished with all modern appliances assuring the
health and comfort of the prisoners. The Jail
building also cost originally $40,000.
In this year of grace 1905 the Court House
hardly suffices for the protection of the county
records and the housing of the county officials.
Thousands of dollars have been spent on the
building in past years, and again within the last
year for a new heating apparatus and other
renovations. The county at the time it was
Hosted by
Google
176
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
built had about 15,000 inhabitants; in 1905,
with an influx of farmers and settlers, it has
nearly 70,000, and an effort is again being made
to secure a more modern Court House. Twice
before, the proposition to bond the county to
replace this landmark of pioneer days has been
decisively voted down by the citizens, but each
time with less opiwsition, and the time is not
far distant when Bay County will have to se-
cure a larger and more modem Court House.
In its day it was the model adopted by many of
the younger surrounding counties.
While speaking of the county's public build-
ings and comparative growth, a review of the
last State tax statistics will be opportune. The
valuation estimated by the State Board of Tax
commissioners was $26,077,673 ; the valuation
by the Board of Supervisors was $23,312,308.
The valuation as equalized by the Board of
Ecjualization, $32,000,000; the aggregate of
State tax paid, $54,139.91, the percentage ac-
cording to equalization being .02027. The as-
sessed \aluation of Bay County, then mainly
the city of Bay City, at the time the Old Court
House was built was $1,166,475, The assessed
valuation in 1871 was $2,725,600, amount of
tax, $3,141; assessed valuation in 1881, $11,-
000,000, amount of tax, $25,394.10. These
figures carry with them a comparison of the
growth of city and county values as the forest
has been gradualiy replaced by farms, villages
and an enterprising united city.
The availability of Bay City as a manufac-
turing and shipping point was first appreciated
by the men in the lumber industry. The vast
forest on both sides of the river, the 12 miles
of river front with the deep-water channel, and
the cheap and convenient means of securing a
seemingly inexhaustible log supply and equally
easy and cheap access to the markets of the
world, brought into life the greatest lumbering
community the world had ever seen. In 1859,
when Bay City began its corporate existence as
a village, there were but half a dozen sawmills,
but from tliat time fortli they sprang up all
along the river front, as well as on adjacent
streams. The fishing industry furnished em-
ployment to many men and furnished a good
share of the exports from tills frontier village.
Then came the discovery of the vast salt basin,
and the success of these salt-wells can be under-
stood when we note that in 1865 the salt pro-
duction of Bay City alone amounted to 259,061
barrels. That same year the sawmills cut 154,-
727,945 feet of lumber. The rapid develop-
ment of these kindred industries brought with
them a growth of wealth and population during
the next 15 years, almost unprecedented in the
annals of our country.
The city of Bay City was chartered in 1865,
and the days of the pioneer were done. From
that eventful year, when peace again came to
bless our land, and thousands of the veteran
soldiers took up government lands here and
elsewhere, or entered into the promising mer-
cantile field, this community not only turned
over a new leaf in its municipal history but also
began to mutliply its industries and population
at a rate that attracted the attention of the
world. From that time the records of the com-
munity are no longer the personal reminiscen-
ces of the hardy pioneers, but rather the record
of collective effort, mammoth business enter-
prises, and advancement in every line. Bay
City had become almost at a bound a
booming frontier lumber town ! The open-
ing of the Flint & Pere Marquette
Railroad to Detroit in 1867, marks an-
other epoch in the city's growth and develop-
ment. In 1868 the village of Wenona across
the river, now the West Side of the united city,
came to the front through the building of the
Jack son- Chicago branch of the Michigan Cen-
tral, and in 1871 the Bay City-Detroit Branch
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
TRAIN OF log:
-.S LOADED FOR BAY CITY SALT BLOCK OF THE KERN MANUFACTURING
LUMBER YARD OF E. B. FOSS & COMPANY,
On ihe River Front, Bay City, E. S.
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
of the Michigan Central opened up new fields
of trade and commerce to the growhig com-
munities.
It will be interesting here to recall that Bay
City had Sio people in i860; 3,359 in 1865;
7,064 hi 1870; 1^,676 in 1874 and 17,003 in
1876. In 1880, through the national census,
the city was heralded far and wide as having a
greater percentage of increase in the decade
1870 to 1880 than any other city in the country,
and but two at all approached the ratio. The
next JO years showed a healthy growth, but as
every available site along the river front was
taken up by sawmills and lumber yards, and as
the supply of logs was giving out under the
buzz of countless saws, there was no longer
room for the rapid multiplication of miils and
population that had marked the preceding 10
years. Bay City, East Side, had 27,839 people
in 1890, an increase of 7,146 during that de-
cade, being an increase of 34.5 per cent. Dur-
ing the first four years of the next decade the
city continued its steady growth, the State
census of 1894 showing a population of 30,042.
Then came the fatal blunder at Washington,
by which Congress raised the import duty on
Canadian lumber to $2 from $1. The log
supply which during those years had been grad-
ually receding further north, and since 1890
was largely coming from the Georgian Bay
region in Canada, was at once shut off by the
retaliatory measures of the Canadian govern-
ment, and with one stroke of the pen the flour-
ishing luniber industry of Bay City and the west
shore of Lake Huron was doomed. Hence we
find that the Federal census of 1900 shows a
loss for Bay City, as compared to the State
census of 1894, being only 27,628, a loss of
0,8 per cent. These figures indicate the growth,
boom and decline of the lumber industry, which
laid the foundation of the city.
Equally instructive are the assessment val-
ues of these several periods : The valuation in
i860 was $530,589; in 1865, $663,000; in
1870, $1,166,475; in 1874, $1,700,250; in
i88o, $7,722,310; in 1882, $9,084,436. This
is the high mark reached during, the days of the
lumber and salt booms. During this year of
1882 there were shipped from this port 582,-
147,000 feet of lumber, 112,281,000 shingles,
23,000,000 lath, 440,000 barrels of salt, besides
staves, hoops, shooks, railroad ties, cedar posts,
pickets, barrels and 7,853,032 feet of pine and
oak timber! The growth of the lumber in-
dustry to these magnificent dimensions is illus-
trated in the comparative figures of lumber ex-
perts. In 1863 there were shipped 25,730,889
feet of lumber; in 1868, 217,165,340; and 252,-
862,785 feet were exported in 1870. While
these figures are from the customs office on the
East Side, they include the shipments from the
West Side as well, and a review of the share
taken in developing this city by the "fair bride"
of 1905 will be in order.
The proud citizens of the new city of Bay
City in 1865 could not see much with which to
consolidate on the west bank of the ri\'er. To
the north was the village of Banks, now in the
12th Ward, with sawmills, salt-blocks, and fish
houses; then came a long stretch of primeval
forest, where stand today the industries and
homes of the 13th Ward; then another strag-
gling village just building up around the mam-
moth new Sage sawmill, now the 14th Ward;
again two miles of wooded ridge, now the 15th
Ward ; and then the hamlet of Salzburg, now
the 1 6th Ward, with its still independent neigh-
bor, Portsmouth, now the Seventh Ward, on
the east bank of the river.
Each of these four villages had aspirations
and municipal governments of its own, and
watched with jealous eye the growth and am-
bitious of their little neighboring communities.
Joseph Trombley's 2,000 acres at Banks in-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
eluded tile village which contained Whitney's
mill, Moore, Smith & Company's mill, George
Lord's mill, each having salt works in connec-
tion, while Eeckwith & Sinclair and Leng &
Bradfield operated large salt-blocks. Crosth-
waite's shipyard began the industry there, that
since has grown to mammoth proportions on
the West Side. John Weed also built boats in
Banks for the lake trade. Two taverns, four
cooper shops, one general store and several fish
houses are enumerated as the business places
of Banks in 1865. W. F. Benson opened the
first post office in 1864, serving a village popu-
lation of 511, beside a few scattered farmers.
Wenona, today the heart of the West Side, did
not become settled until the Henry W. Sage
sawmill, originally known as the Sage & Mc-
Graw mill, was erected. The village plat of
116 acres cost that firm $21,000, and its excel-
lent location at once brought it into prominence.
John Hayes, then superintended the only
scow available for moving horses, cattle and
wagons across the river, and his good wife
dealt out beverages to thirsty travelers at their
home on the west bank of the river. Mrs.
Hayes was a typical tavern-keeper of those
early days. Dan Marshall, the pioneer and
present city accountant, recounts gleefully how
Mrs. Hayes would personally and drastically
chastise travelers who were poor pay, "ruling
the roost" with an iron hand. This lone tavern
did a booming business during 1864-65 when
Wenona was just coming to life, and then had
to give way before more modern and preten-
tious hotels. ,
The west bank of the river was more
swampy and low than the east bank, and this
probably accounts for the earlier settlement of
the less attractive east shore, back from the
river. This was due to the gradual change of
the course of the river, which did its best, year
after year, to straighten out its tortuous course.
Hence the Sage mill was built almost entirely
on spiles driven into the murky river bottom,
and the great lumberyard was laid out on a
swamp that was entirely filled in with refuse
from the mill and city. In 1905 it is no uncom-
mon sight to see poor people going over the
surface, picking up the chips and slabs dried by
the passing years, yet never rotted.
Few communities in this country have
grown more rapidly than did the village of
Wenona, started in 1864. By 1865 the county
began the building of the plank road west to
Midland, while the State extended the State
road on the west bank from Saginaw to Wen-
ona, and opened a road north through the gov-
ernment's swamp lands, since drained and cul-
tivated. The Third street bridge was built in
1865, for foot passengers. A post office and
telegraph ofiEice were established in Wenona,
and the Presbyterian Church built. The Sage
store and other business places sprang up over
night, and the population multiplied rapidly,
Wenona was incorporated in 1867. An old
painting of this frontier village shows Indians
in gaudy paint and picturesque wigwams in the
foreground, and all the bustle and enterprise of
a booming lumber town in the background. The
steamer "Emerald" and schooner "Tuscola" are
loading lumber and other supplies at a primitive
dock. The same kind of a scene would suffice to
call to mind Salzburg, the village two miles
further down the ri\'er. Wenona records for
1867 the cutting of a canal from the west chan-
nel through the Middle Ground to the river,
which west channel has since been entirely filled
in, save for the wharves between the lumber
docks with their deep-water channels. A
shingle-mill, salt-block and sawmill for cutting
ship timber were erected that year on the Sage
property.
Dr. Isaac E. Randall came from Saratoga,
New York, the first medical practitioner of the
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
West Side, who in 1905 is one of the foremost
physicians of Michigan, beloved and respected
by the community in which lie has practiced for
more than half a century. With George A.
Allen. James A. McKnight, E. T. Carrington,
David G. Arnold, Lafayette Roundsville, H. H.
Aplin and a few others, he shares the honor of
being one of the incorporators of Wenona, later
West Bay City, and living to see the one great
and united city become chartered in April, 1905.
To few mortals it is given to celebrate such an
anniversary.
The world-famous Sage mil! cut 22,601,-
051 feet of lumber during 1867, and commem-
orated the close of the season's work with a
banquet for the hundreds of employees at the
Bunnell House. Among the improvements by
the Sage company in 1868 was the erection of a
two-story business block, 30 by 80 feet ; a ware-
house, 24 by 60 feet; a two-story boarding
house, 30 by 80 feet ; a two-story brick office,
20 Idv 60 feet ; a tenement house, 400 by 24
feet, two stories high, divided into 25 suites,
eacli with its o\vn back yard and wood-shed;
and 23 houses of various sizes for the use of
the employees. It was estimated the company
had invested over one million dollars in the vil-
lage within three years after its operations were
begun in Wenona.
The main event of 1868 was the completion
of the passenger station for tlie Michigan Cen-
tral Railroad, to-day the road's freight station
on River street. It is 200 by 40 feet, roofed
with slate, was built by George Campbell and
cost 510,500. Slate roofing was quite popular
at that time, chiefly because of the fires which
periodically swept over these lumbering towns.
The first train schedule is interesting read-
ing in 1905. In 1868 trains for Jackson and
Chicago left at 9 A. M. and 2 40 P. M., with
an accommodation train at 8 P. M. for Sag-
inaw. Trains arrived at 8 130 A. M., and 1 150
and 7 P. M. These were booming times on the
West Side!
Faxon's Hall, was the only public meeting
place, and the Methodists held service there. A
new brick school, 60 by 30 feet, with wings ro
by 30 feet, all two stories high, accommodating
360 scholars, was built on the Midland plank
road at a cost of $10,700. Supt. A. L. Cum-
ming openeil the school January 27tii \\ith 180
scholars. Miss Stocking taught the interme-
diate department, and Miss Lester, the primary
class. The Irwin House at the bridge approach,
and the Bunnell House, just completed, were
the town taverns. The planing mill of D. G,
Arnold & Company, two stories high, 44 by
82 feet in dimensions, was the second large in-
dustry in Wenona, beginning operations in
1865. By 18G8 the village claimed nearly 1,000
inhabitants and built over 1,000 feet of side-
walks. There were no vacant houses and lots
50 by 100 feet, on Midland street, sold for from
$150 to $2,000. New industries rallied around
Wenona, bringing more people, and new busi-
ness houses.
While the last of the three villages to begin
life on the West Side, Wenona soon surpassed
its suburban villages and in 1877 absorbed
Banks and Salzburg, and became the sister
city of West Bay City, and in April of this
year of grace, 1905, becomes Bay City, West
Side.
In 1865 when Bay City began its municipal
existence as a city, the hamlet of Salzburg oc-
cupied a prominent place on the landscape to
the southwest. That elevated and wooded loca-
tion was a favorite spot for the Indian camp-
fires, and the first white settler was Benjamin
Cushway, sent here by the government as black-
smith for the natives. Finding nothing doing in
the agricultural line, he turned trader and inter-
preter, and for years did a thriving business
among the red men and early pioneers. In
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
1842, Capt. Solomon S. Stone and wife came
by canoe from Detroit, and settled in a wig-
wam on the deserted Indian field just west of
the approach to the present Lafayette avenue
bridge. For three years be tilled this field, with
much better success than the Indians, and by
catching and selling nuiskrat and beaver skins
accumulated enough money to buy Stone Isl-
and, where he lived until his death in 1883,
Dr. Daniel Hughes Fitzhugh in 1837 se-
lected the site of Salzburg as a very promising
location for future settlement, and bought large
tracts of land along the river front. His judg-
ment was soon verified, and by 1865 the hamlet
was alive with industries. In 1862, Dr. Fitz-
hugh platted part of his land from the Lafayette
avenue bridge north to the section line, and
since the main industry was the manufacture
of salt at that time, he named the village Salz-
bnrg, in honor of the many German settlers,
and after the great salt-mine city in Austria.
Dr. Fitzhugh built the first salt-block in 1862,
while similar industries were located by the Hu-
ron Company, Johnson & Walsh and Hill &
Son. Laderach Brothers started their hoop and
stave mill in 1861. Stone's mill was built in
1865, and in 1866 cut 2,500,000 feet of lum-
ber. Jacob Laderach and M. A. and A. H.
Root operated shingle-mills. M. A. Root i^
still an honored resident of the East Side. John
Arnold & Company, and the Huron Company
operated sawmills.
In 1868 the property of the Huron Com-
pany was secured by John W. Babcock, one of
the most interesting figures in our pioneer an-
nals. Born in New York in 1831, his family
came to Washtenaw, Michigan, in 1835. In
1 85 1 he determined to try his fortune in the
wilderness, and with nothing but a compass
for his guide started for Bay City. He camped
out alone in the dense forest three nights out of
five ; the other two were spent with settlers in
lone cabins he chanced to pass. He camped one
night with Indians upon the site of future Salz-
burg, and concluded that it was a good place
to live. But for the time being there was noth-
ing there for him to do. He helped to clear a
number of farms in that \icinity, for the late
James Fraser, and assisteil in clearing the way
for Center avenue. He took the contract for
buikling a portion of the Tuscola plank road
in 1858, built the Bay City, AuSable and Dun-
can State road, 155 miles, 1861-65 ^""^ drove
the first team from the north to Bay City. The
larger portion of his pay consisted of 72,000
acres of government land, of \\hich he held a
portion and sold the scrip for the remainder.
In 1867 he built the military wagon road from
Fort Floward in Wisconsin to Fort Wilkins,
in the Upper Peninsula, over 178 miles, receiv-
ing three sections of land per mile, a total of
348,060 acres. During all this time his home
was in Salzburg. In 1868 he determined to
purchase the sawmill, salt-block, boarding
house and tenement houses of the Huron Com-
pany, valued at over $100,000, He gave 33,-
600 acres of bis Wisconsin government land
for this fine property, and traded the remainder
for improved farm and other property. Al-
though the hard work of this pioneer in the
wilderness allowed him but little time for
school, he was typical of that sterling race of
self-made business men, equal to every emer-
gency, and rising to every occasion. Where to-
day young men rely on a college education for
a guide through life, these rugged settlers could
rely only on their own resources, energj- and
diligence.
By 1868 there were more additions to the
kettle salt-blocks of Salzburg ; Charles C. Fitz-
hugh, Tallman & Parmalee, Fisk & Clark and
the Chicago Company were added to the ham-
let's enterprises. The post office was estab-
lished in 1868, stores multiplied, and George
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
183
Kolb, Sr., who came here in 1854, opened the
first brewery, which since has grown to large
proportions.
In 1875 Wenona made an unsuccessful at-
tempt to extend her boundaries so as to include
Salzburg, but not until 1877 did the hamlet be-
come part of the new city of West Bay City.
To this day the region lying south of the section
line, including all of the i6th Ward of Greater
Bay City, is popularly known and marked on
railroad maps as "Salzburg." Frederick Ne-J-
nian, for more than 24 years justice of the
peace of the West Side, was born in Salzburg
in 1857, and is one of the few living residents
who have seen this thriving suburb grow from
a few salt-wells and farms to its present pros-
perous and populous condition.
Thus we find the West Side finally united.
Banks has expanded to the south, Salzburg
has reached out to the north, and Wenona has
reached out in both directions, until the homes
and lives of the three villages have become so
interwoven that there was really no longer any
dividing line and the Legislature of 1877 mad^
one community on the west bank of the river.
The same forces were at work during all
these years on the East Side, and by 1873 there
was really no longer a dividing line between
Bay City and Portsmouth, and by act of the
Legislature the village of Portsmouth, now the
Sixth and Seventh wards of Bay City, ceased
its corporate existence, and became an integral
part of the busy city, then extending almost
from the mouth of the river for five miles
south along the river bank.
The extension of the Michigan Central
Railroad, due north from Bay City to the
Straits of Mackinac, opened new fields of trade
and commerce, and made the two Bay Cities a
most important railroad center. As early as
1880 the Chamber of Commerce made an ef-
fort to bring the mineral wealth of the Upper
Peninsula to Bay City, for the forge and smel-
ter. Had the copper and iron interests known
the unlimited coal supply lying only 150 feet
below the surface, there is no doubt but that
the natural advantages for these great indus-
tries would have been complete, and that Bay
City would have become the "Pittsburg of the
Northwest." But strangely enough all the bor-
ing for salt-wells went obliviously through
these veins of coal, and no one took the trouble
to bore especially for coal, and hence the ore
from the Upper Peninsula passed down Lake
Huron, past its natural harbor on Saginaw Bay,
to Ohio and Pennsylvania ports, where coal
was plenty. Bay City was too busy sawing
lumber and making salt, to bother about other
and more permanent industries. How many
times since then, the older business men have
regretted the opportunities thus missed. How
much better it would have been for Bay City,
East and West Side, if some of the lumber here
produce<l had been turned into the manu-
factured article, thus giving us the varied in-
terests, which later were so sadly missed. Even
so the Bay Cities were just cresting the tidal
wave of the lumber boom when these first con-
solidations gave them rank with the good cities
of the State and country.
West Bay City's business center was on
Midland and Linn streets, the Sage, Babo, Ap-
lin, Allard, Campbell, Moots and Bank blocks
giving the young city a substantial trade mark.
South of the Sage mill were the railroad docks,
then came the large shipyard owned and oper-
ated, then as now, by Capt. James Da\idson.
North of the Sage mill was the Ballentine ship-
yard, the gyijsum factory of Smith, Bullard &
Company (whose gypsum supply came from
Alabaster, Michigan), and the Litchfield saw-
mill.
A little idea of the increasing importance of
the West Side as a business center may be
Hosted by
Google
j84
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
gained by two leaves from the West Side post
office receipts. When Henry H. Alpiii became
postmaster of Wenona in i86g, there were 38
mail boxes; by 1883 there were 1,089, ^"'J t^'^
annual receipts had increased from $800 to
nearly $g,ooo.
Churches and schools multiplied rapidly to
meet the constantly increasing demand, and the
flimsy buildings of the frontier settlement were
gradually replaced by more substantial and im-
posing structures.
Chief among the new buildings of 1883
was the Sage Library, built and equipped by
Henry W. Sage, who made much of his im-
mense fortune in the "Big Mill" on the West
Side. Aside from a few public parks, this is
the only large public benefaction ever left either
of the Bay Cities, and cost something like
$50,000. Many fortunes were made here, but
this library alone remains to show, that at least
one of the rich lumbermen cared something for
posterity, and desired to be honored and re-
membered amid the scenes of his business suc-
cess and life's work. This lack of public spirit
on the part of the men and families who ac-
cumulated millions of dollars, when they
sheared the valley of its timber supply, has for
years been keenly felt and deplored by these
communities. Would that the Bay Cities had
found among their pioneer lumbermen more
public spirit and more loyalty to the towns!
Would that among that long list of millionaire
lumbermen whose fortunes were made through
the superior advantages of the Bay Cities, there
had been at least one more Henry W. Sage.
After the consolidation of the West Side
villages in 1877, things moved swiftly for the
public good. In 1882 the Holly water-works
plant was begun, and operated until 1902, when
the new and modern pumping station was erect-
ed on the beautiful and historic shores of the
Kawkawlin, with the intake pipe extending
well into the clear water of the bay off Tobico.
By that fine engineering feat the West Side
has solved its own water supply problem for
many years to come, and the East Side may now
profit by the foresight and good judgment of
the West Side. That new station is planned to
supply a population of 75,000.
In 1869 the fire steamer "Defiance" was pur-
chased, with S. A. Phimmer as chief, and a
company of volunteers. This proved unsatis-
factory, so a paid department was organized,
and after the union of the three villages each
ward was given one hose company, the three,
with the steamer, comprising the department
over there until 1905. John Charters was the
first city fire chief, and Lafayette Roundsville,
the first engineer.
West Bay City had 3,000 people in 1877,
and by 1883 had increased to over 8,000. The
Federal census of i8go showed a population
of 12,981, and that of 1900 marked a slight in-
crease, despite the fact that the West Side suf-
fered, along with the entire valley, from the
closing down of many sawmills, by giving the
West Side 13,119 people. The new city laid
many miles of cedar block pavement, estab-
lished an electric light plant, began an excel-
lent sewer system, and laid thousands of feet
of sidewalks. The long stretch of river front
makes the building of roads and sidewalks an
expensive detail of municipal affairs, for there
is still much vacant property within the wide
reaches of the corporate limits. The heavy
bonded indebtedness of the West Side in 1904
is largely due to this fact, and it nearly caused
the defeat of consolidation, for the East Side is
better situated in this respect and hence has less
indebtedness.
By the union of Portsmouth in 1873, the
East Side became one solid and substantial city.
In 1865 when the city was first organized, the
limits were the Saginaw River on the west and
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
nortii, Madison avenue on the east and Colum-
bus avenue on the south. By 1873 these hmits
had expanded to reach from Cass avenue on the
south to EssexviUe on the north, and from the
ri\'er to Trumbull street on the east.
The bulk of the business was still being
done along Water street on the river front, but
in the last 10 years a gradual change has come
o\'er the city. Center and Washington avenues
are becoming the most popular locations for
the retail trade, while Water street is becoming
the wholesale and distributing center of Greater
Bay City. No street in the country is better
situated for manufacturing institutions or
warehouses than Water street. Just 300 feet
west is the deep-water channel of the river,
which in the wholesale district is lined with
warehouses and docks.
In 1864 the Bay City Council had granted
a street car francliise to a syndicate of Milan,
Ohio, capitalists. In February, 1865, the first
board of directors of the Bay City & Ports-
mouth Street Railway Company was elected as
follows : James Eraser, Nathan B. Bradley,
William McEwan, Myron Butman and George
Campbell, During 1865 William McEwan
superintended the construction of the track
along Water street from Third to 35th street,
on which horse cars began running in Novem-
ber, 1865. In 1874 a new syndicate took over
the street car system and extended the track to
McGraw's mammoth mill 011 the south and to
EssexviUe on the north. A light T-rail was
laid, over which railroad cars could be moved,
and the foundation laid for the splendid belt
line system which now circles down the river
front and around the entire city a belt of steel
that provides fine factory sites, ready means of
transportation, and an easy interchange of traf-
fic and cars between the several roads entering
Bay City. At first the street cars used these
tracks in the daytime, while the switching was
done by the railroads at night.
When electricity replaced the horses, the
lines of track were much changed. From the
"Y" at EssexviUe the trolley line follows
Woodside avenue to Sherman, to First, to
Washington, to Columbus, to Garfield, to La-
fayette, to Cass, to Harrison, a distance of five
miles, and touching .from north to south the
principal business streets. A loop is made
around the business district, on Water from
Third to Center, to Washington, to Third, and
west across the Third street bridge to the heart
of the West Side. The Center avenue line ex-
tends from Water east to the city limits, where
another "Y" furnishes an easy mode of using
the double tracks, which are laid on Center and
Washington avenues on the East Side, and on
Midland and Henry, on the West Side. An-
other branch line extends on Columbus avenue
from Garfield to the Tuscola stone road. The
West Side lines run from Midland south, down
Center street to the State road in Salzburg,
north on Henry to South Union, to Washing-
ton, to Banks, and Wenona Beach, six miles
from the Court House. The street car service
is excellent, the equipment is modern and well-
handled in every respect, and really years in ad-
vance of other features of municipal conven-
ience. The interurban electric line to Saginaw
and Detroit enters the city over a fine bridge
south of the North American Chemical Com-
pany's plant, and carries freight as well as pas-
sengers. An immense power house was erected
in 1903 on Water street near loth streets,
which will meet ai! electric power requirements
for years to come for both lines.
When the street car system gave up the
Water street tracks, they were used exclusively
for handling freight, and a number of the saw-
mills on that belt line depend entirely upon
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
their log; supply by rail. This is due to the fact,
that the logging camps are now so far in the
interior, that it is cheaper to build branch rail-
roads into the heart of the hardwood timber belt
to the north, than to transport the logs to rivers
to be rafted down to Lake Huron and thence
to the Saginaw River, Hence the railroad traf-
fic has increased annually, while the river traffic
has fallen off.
This belt line passed the big McGraw mill
at the foot of 40th street, then the largest mill
in the world ! The official chronicler of the
centennial year, 1876, tells us that the mill had
cut more than 800,000 feet of lumber in a single
day, and that the average cut per day was
worth $11,000 at the prevailing prices of lum-
ber, and the big Sage mill on the West Side,
with recent additions, was then but little behind
this record. By 1876 the local log supply had
been exhausted, and logs were being rafted
from the Tittabawassee and Cass rivers to the
soutli, and from the streams on Saginaw Bay
to the north.
The city was well supplied with boiler and
machine shops to supply the needs of the busy
mills. The East Side then had 77 manufactur-
ing establishments, employing nearly $5,000,-
000 in capital, while the rest of the county had
35 other manufacturing plants, with a capital
of nearly $2,000,000. On the East Side were
28 sawmills, w^ith 34 circular and 21 gang
saws. The lumber manufactured in 1876 was
worth over $4,000,000, while the lath and
shingle shipments were worth over $150,000,
Then there were 2j salt-wells, producing an-
nually about 400,000 barrels of salt, at $1.40
per barrel ; 27 plaoing-miils ; three wood-work-
ing establishments ; the Michigan Pipe Com-
pany's plant ; the Bay City woodenware works,
which has since expanded, and is in 1905 the
largest and best equipped in the world ; five
machine shops, including the Industrial Works,
which has steadily grown to its present size;
and two grist-mills.
The chronicler with the eyes of a seer pre-
dicted the building of a railroad north, skirting
Lake Huron, since verified by the completion
of the Detroit & Mackinac Railroad as far as
Cheboygan in 1904, and still reaching north.
His prediction of a road east to the "Thumb"
of Michigan is to be verified in 1905 by the
building of the Bay City & Port Huron Kail-
way, via Caro and Cass City.
The farms adjacent to Bay City were stead-
ily increasing in numbers and resources, al-
though the agricultural interests of our subur-
ban townships were still in their infancy 30
years ago.
The business blocks and public buildings
in 1876 were far and away ahead of those of
other and less progressive cities of the country.
The four-story Westover Opera House Block
then contained the State Bank, Bancroft &
Company's dry goods store and many offices.
The theater was pronounced at that time one of
the most commodious and modern in Michigan.
Fire wiped it out some years later, and a larger
and handsomer' office building, the Phoenix
Block, has risen from the ashes. The old opera
house was replaced by a new theater, on Sixth
street and Washington avenue. In 1903 the in-
terior of Wood's Opera House was gutted, in
one of the fiercest conflagrations that ever vis-
ited this city. Eugene Zaremba was killed by
falling brick. Within a few months this loss
was straightened out with the insurance com-
panies, and the Washington Theater has arisen
in its place, more beautiful and artistic than be-
fore.
The Arlington on the West Side, the mas-
sive four-story Eraser, the three-story Forest
City, the Campbell, the three-story Astor and
the three-story Rouech on the East Side were
then, as now, popular and up-to-date hotels.
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
187
with many smaller hostelries 111 both cities. The
New Republic House, built since then, de-
stroyed by fire in 1901, has been entirely re-
built, and a large addition in 1904 makes it
one of the largest and most modern hotels in
the State, while the Oriental on Jefferson ave-
nue, built in 1904, is a pretty and unique addi-
tion to the city's public buildings and hostelries.
The oid Welverton and Globe hotels are still
standing. The city had many substantial busi-
ness blocks 20 years ago, of which the follow-
ing are still standing in 1905: The Cranage
Bank, Cottrell, Hine, Munger, Union, Watson,
Averell, McCormick, McEwan, Jennison, Bir-
ney, and two Shearer Park blocks. Among the
notable additions to these business blocks in re-
cent years are the Crapo, Ridotto, Hawley,
Rosenbury, Norrington, Baumgarten, Beck,
Commercial, Central, Concordia, Eddy, Elks',
Fay, Griswold, Harmon & Vernor, Hurley,
McDermott, Maxwell, Moran, Kaiser, New
Griswold, New McEwan, Obey Pacaud,
Plumsteel, Root, Simon, Stewart, Taylor,
Tierney, Van Emster, Warren, Washing-
ton, Heumann and New Hurley Blocks.
The fact that none of these many blocks
are lying idle indicates the business act-
ivity of the East Side. Some of the older
blocks, in locations somewhat off the modern
trend of business affairs in the city, are in use
simply for the lack of better and more desir-
able locations and more modern buildings.
Cottage Hall on Madison avenue. Trades
Council Hall on Water street, Moran Hall on
Harrison street, and the Bay Theater Hall (on
the West Side) are more recent additions to
the public buildings of Greater Bay City. The
Elks' Hall, facing Center Avenue Park on the
southwest, and the magnificent new home of
the Bay City Club fronting the same park on
the northwest, are the two most noteworthy ad-
ditions to the city's architecture and, social life
in 1904. The Bcrtch Block on Washington
avenue and the Gustin, Cook & Buckley Block,
at the foot of Washington avenue, are the last
and very substantial additions to the city's per-
manent buildings.
The business directory of Bay City for
1885, just 20 years ago, is as enthusiastic about
the prospects and progress of this city, as the
earlier local chronicler. Some of the blocks
here enumerated were built during this year,
and in addition many smaller business places
and many handsome residences. It was esti-
mated that nearly $400,000 was spent for sucli
improvements during that year. The assessed
valuation was $7,722,310, which was probably
not much more than half of the real value. In
that year the 32 mills in both cities cut over five
million feet of lumber, together with 52 million
shingles, and 13,399 car-loads of salt were
shipped during one year. The Pere Marquette
handled nearly 79 million pounds of exports,
and nearly 36 million pounds of imports; the
Michigan Central shipped over 76 million
pounds of exports, and almost 32 million
pounds of imports. Since that time the latter
road has made Bay City the center of its mam-
moth business north of Detroit. A beautiful
passenger depot graces the terminal at the foot
of Jackson street, w^ith an immense freight de-
pot at the foot of First street. On the West
Side are miles of side-tracks in the freight
yards, with a large, modern roundhouse, and
pretty passenger station just below the Wash-
ington viaduct, the latter built jointly by the
West Side and the railroad company.
In 1885 there were seven wards on the East
Side, each having two aldermen. The city re-
corder drew $1,300, with $1,000 bonds; the
city treasurer, $1,400, with $150,000 bonds for
the city, $6o,ooo bonds for the School Board,
and $50,000 bonds for the county; the comp-
troller, $1,400, with $10,000 bonds. The alder-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
men appointed the city attorney, with $600 sal-
ary per annum; city surveyor, $3.75 per day;
street commissioner, $2.50 per day, and poor
director, $425 per annum. The Board of
Education looked after the schools, then
as now the Board of Water Works
looked after the city's water supply and
the Police Department was managed by
the mayor and four police commissioners,
with Nathaniel N. Murphy, as chief. This
veteran in 1905 manages the police force of the
united cities with the office of superintendent.
The Fire Department was managed by a Coun-
cil committee, with Robert J. Campbell as chief
engineer, with hose companies in the First,
Second, Fourth and Seventh wards and the
hook and ladder truck in the Fourth Ward, the
center of the city. There were 35 tire-alarm
boxes. But one disastrous fire has in all these
20 years gotten beyond their control, the ter-
rible South End fire of 1893, which wiped out
all the mills, stores and homes from the river to
Jennison, and from 28th to 32nd streets. Judge
Sanford M. Green presided over the Circuit
Court. The immense local salt output required
three salt inspectors; WilHam R. McCormick,
the esteemed pioneer ; Charles H. Malone and
W. R. Wands, the last named still living on the
East Side. The city had three banks, — the Bay
City, First National and Second National
banks. The Bay City Bank (incorporated
July 19, 1871, with $100,000 capital, had
George Lewis as its president. George H.
Young, the cashier in 1885, is the present presi-
dent of this bank, with capital increased to
$50,000. The First National Bank, incor-
porated in 1864, capital and surplus in 1885,
$200,000, had these officers: James Shearer,
president ; Hon. Nathan B. Bradley, vice-presi-
dent; B. E. Warren, cashier; F. P. Browne,
assistant cashier. In 1905 we find Mr, Browne
still cashier of this institution, Charles A. Eddy
is president and F. T. Norris vice-president.
The Second National Bank (incorporated in
May, 1864, had capital and surplus amounting
to $140,000 in 1885; the following were the
officers, WiUiara Westover, president; A.
Chesbrough, vice-president ; Orrin Bump, cash-
ier; and Martin M, Andrews, assistant cash-
ier. Mr. Bump became president when the
bank was reorganized as the Old Second Na-
tional Bank, and so continued until ill health
compelled him to retire in .1903. Mr. Andrews
is the present cashier; James E. Davidson,
president ; and Frank T. Woodworth, vice-
president. The Commercial Bank with a cap-
ital of $100,000 has been organized since then,
as has the Bay County Savings Bank with a
capital of $50,000. John Mnihoiland, cashier.
A ferry line connected Banks, Bay City and
Salzburg, the "Hattie Brown," "Hubbard"
and "H. C. Hull" taking care of the passengers.
The electric cars have long since replaced the
river craft. There were steamer lines running
regularly to Saginaw, to Oscoda and Alpena,
Caseville and Sebewaing, Detroit and Buf-
falo, Toledo and Cleveland. A dozen har-
bor tugs handled tlie logs and tow
barges in the river. The railroads and
changing fortunes of the cities have long
since driven most of these river and lake
craft to more congenial ports. Telegraph and
telephone companies came early to this thriving
lumber town, and in 1905 Bay City has two
excellent telephone systems, reaching every part
of the State and country, and two telegraph
companies, with similar connections, all over
the globe.
About 1885 the government was made to
see the importance of Bay City as a port of
entry, and through Hon. Spencer O. Fisher,
ably assisted by Hon. H. H. Apiin, the hand-
some and commodious Federal Building was
secured on Washington avenue, the square in-
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
eluding Fourth avenue and Adams and Third
streets. Here is the post office, interna! revenue
office, customs office, and office and court room
of the United States District Court for Eastern
Michigan.
Bay City has long enjoyed several pretty
public breathing places. Carroll Park, on the
eastern city limits, with its casino and primeval
forest kings, with modern landscape gardening,
is a beautiful place for recreation and a quiet
hour. Less pretentious but equally shady are
Madison Park, Washington Park, Central Park
and Broadway Park, while the Oak Grove on
the East Side, Wenona, Oa-at-ka and Reserva-
tion beaches on the West Side are ideal resorts
and camping grounds on Saginaw Bay. Wen-
ona Beach is the "Coney Island of the Lakes."
An immense casino, with continuous vaudeville
performances all season, with boating, bathing,
dancing, and all the other attractions that go to
cheer the heated term of summer, are here with-
in the reach of every one, the car fare for the
round trip of 12 miles being but 15 cents. It
is the delight of the people who cannot afford
the time or expense of visiting more expensive,
even if not more attractive, summer resorts on
distant shores.
Six public schools, and the High School,
togetlier with a number of good parochial
schools, furnished the educational facilities of
Bay City 20 years ago. The old High School
is today the Farragut School, and the increas-
ing population has made necessary the hand-
some Washington School of the nth Ward,
the equally attractive Lincoln school of the
Eighth Ward, and the Woodside School, a
frame building destroyed by fire in March,
1905- The new High School, on Madison ave-
nue and nth and Jefferson streets, was expect-
ed to answer all purposes for many decades.
But despite many additions this building is
again crowded to the limit, and with the ad-
mission of the West Side scholars a new build-
ing will be at once imperative.
The city's first cemetery was located on
what are now Columbus avenue and Saginaw
street, which in 1845 was away out in the wil-
derness. Potter's field was on nth street and
Washington avenue, and excavations in both
these vicinities to this day bring to light many
skeletons of early pioneers, whose last resting
places had become obliterated in the ruthless
course of events. Since then the West Side has
created a beautiful city of the dead in the Oak
Ridge Cemetery on State street and the Kaw-
kavvlin stone road; the East Side, in the Pine
Ridge, Eickemeyer and St. Patrick's cemeter-
ies. The latest addition is the Elm Lawn Cem-
etery, planned and laid out by local capitalists
on Columbus avenue, from Park to Livingstone
avenues. Its shady nooks, well-kept lawns, and
artistic landscape gardening, with a massive
stone entrance arch, and office, with a large
stone vault for public use, ivy grown and on a
centra! elevation, with a number of costly pri-
vate mausoleums and vaults and many artistic
monuments, combine to make Elm Lawn one
of the most beautiful, as well as most extensive
and modern of tlie last resting places for our
beloved departed.
In 1904 the East Side had expanded to 11
wards, the West Side to six wards. On the
East Side the management of municipal affairs
had been consigned by the Council largely
to municipal boards appointed by the
akiermen. The public lighting plant was
in charge of tlie Board of Electric Control. The
water-works system was in charge of the Board
of Water Works. In 1872 the people voted to
issue bonds to the amount of $327,000, for es-
tablishing the Holly water-works system, and
the only fault the citizens have to find with that
action was the lack of provision to pay off the
indebtedness so incurred. In 1905 the city still
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
continues to pay the very high rate of interest
in vogue 30 years ago, and it is estimated that
the original cost of the plant has been largely
paid by the city in interest on the debt, without
reducing that indebtedness itself. The intake
pipe was placed near Oak Grove, but was not
extended far enough into the bay, so that with
the gradually receding waters of the lakes, the
supply of late years has suffered, much river
water being pumped to make up the deficiency.
The consolidated cities will have to solve the
East Side water problem at no distant day, and
it is hoped the large and modern water-works
plant on the Kawkawlin, owned and operated
by the West Side, can be made to supply both
sides of the river. The old system on the East
Side was built under the supervision of Andrew
Walton, William Westover, William Smalley,
H. M. Bradley, Andrew Miller, Thomas H.
McGraw and Thomas Cranage, the last named
being still in active business on the East Side.
The first secretary of the board, E. L. Dunbar,
has an enviable record for public service, for in
1905 he is still the efficient head of this depart-
ment, which has during the last ^;^ years laid
many miles of water mains, only recently re-
placing the worn-out wooden pipes with iron
mains and has ever given ample fire protection
to the city and a cheap water supply to private
and commercial consumers. Bay City's water
system has been a model for many cities in the
country, and one of the best managed of our
city departments. The city's sewer system has
been excellent from the first, the slope back
from the river being just sufficient to provide
the necessary drop, and the ample water supply
and swift running current of the river have
done good service. The sidewalks of plank
are in 1905 giving way to permanent cement
walks, which cost but little more than the now
costly lumber, are much more durable and will
save the city thousands of dollars in losses
through damage cases arising from defective
wooden sidewalks.
When Bay City and Bay County were in the
midst of an unlimited log and lumber supply,
the roadways were covered with planks or cedar
blocks, even the central country roads being
covered with thousands of feet of plank, that
at going prices in 1905 would represent a very
large municipal fortune. In recent years both
sides of the river have supplanted the cedar
blocks with paving bricks, asphalt and bitum-
inous macadam road surfaces, on permanent
crushed stone and cement foundations. While
somewhat more costly in the first instance, they
assure the city permanent and modern road-
ways for all time.
The increasing cost of lumber has made
brick and cement the preferred materials for
modern residences and business places, and
many such buildings are in course of erection
in 1905. Holy Rosary Academy on Lincoln
avenue, the parochial residences of St. Boniface
and St. James churches, and the new Pere Mar-
quette Station, finished in 1904, are samples of
this new style of architecture.
Bay City has undergone many changes in
its 40 years of municipal existence, not the least
being the gradual disappearance of the small,
crude shacks, that housed the early pioneers,
and were the result of the city's mushroom
growth during the boom of the lumber indus-
try. Slowly hut surely these flimsy structures
have given way to more modern and more sub-
stantial business places, factories and homes, so
that the sons of early Bay City, who wandered
from their native heath, can but wonder at the
changes for the better in evidence on every
hand, when they come back to the city of their
birth and youth.
The new St. Boniface Church, the magnifi-
cent new St. Stanislaus Church, the present First
Presbyterian Church, the New Trinity Protest-
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
ant Episcopal Churcli, and the First Methodist
EpiscopaJ, Broadway Baptist, Patterson Me-
morial, Salem Evangelical, Zion Evangelical,
Immannel German Lutheran, Central Method-
ist Episcopal, Trinity German Lutheran, Fre-
mont Methodist Episcopal and South Baptist
churches on the East Side, and the First Bap-
tist. First Methodist Episcopal, Westminster
Preshvterian, Notre Dame, St. Mary's German
Lutheran, and the Tabernacle on the West Side
are among the modern houses of worship, that
have v.ithin the last 3o years replaced their
primitive predecessors.
No less advantageous to the chy is the com-
parison of the original public school buildings
\vith the present roomy, handsome and substan-
tial structures, where the youth of the city are
being taught by a most competent staff of
teachers. The old wooden school on Adams
street is today a carriage factory, while the
handsome Dolsen School has taken its place on
Sherman street and Fourth avenue. The little
school on First and Washington, the first in the
city, has been replaced with the modern Sher-
man School on Woodside avenue and Sherman
street. Farragut School has lately been remod-
eled. The Garfield School on Eraser and 22nd
streets has received a large addition, making it
one of the most modern and commodious in the
city. An addition will this very summer have
to be built to the Fremont School, which took
the place of a wooden structure destroyed by
the great fire. On the West Side, St. Mary's
Parochial School is a late addition. The Kolb
School is a new and large brick structure, and
another new school has just been completed on
Center and Thomas streets.
The East Side Fire Department Headquar-
ters on Washington avenue are being remodeled
in 1905: The Chemical No. i, and one hose
company are stationed here, while an even more
pretentious brick hose iiouse on Washington
and Columbus avenues contains the ladder
truck and one hose company. Other modern
fire-fightiug models are the Fifth Ward Hose
House on Lafayette avenue, and the nth Ward
Hose House on Johnson street, where a combi-
nation chemical and hose cart is housed. The
First and Seventh ward companies also have
roomy and well-equipped homes. The West
Side Fire Department is not so well housed,
and its three companies have a vast territory
to cover, but both departments have an excel-
lent record for efficiency.
In the palmy days of the lumber industry
the danger of disastrous fires was very great
and, on innumerable occasions, prompt and he-
roic work by the fire laddies has saved millions
of dollars worth of property. As more sub-
stantial structures replace the old flimsy build-
ings, which were mere food for fire, the chances
for injury at the hands of the fire demon are
being lessened, and the Fire Department of Bay
City, East Side, as now constituted will meet
ail requirements for many years to come. The
alarm system is the very latest and has proven
absolutely rapid and reliable. The fire-fighting
apparatus is the very latest obtainable, and un-
der the veteran fire chief, Thomas K. Harding,
who for more than 20 years has been at the
head of this department, after serving before
that in subordinate capacities, the fire demon
finds his master on every occasion, when he ap-
plies his flaming torch. The loss from fire
during the year 1904 was trival, compared to
that of earlier years.
Equally marked has been the change in the
population and police comparisons. In the pio-
neer days the frontier ruffians and intoxicated
Indians were the dread of the peace-loving set-
tlers. As the red men became less numerous,
a rough and ready class of seafaring sailors
joined forces with the adventurous lumber
jacks. Circuit Judge Shepard only recently re-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
called the fact, that less than 30 years ago it was
a risky thing to visit the Third street bridge or
the Water street resort district, unarmed and
unattended! Murders, assauUs, hold-ups and
free for all fights were the rule, rather than the
exception! The Good Templars did their best
to overcome these evils by a concerted campaign
against the rum evil of those days, but quite in-
effectually. C. C. Chilsoii was one of their
most earnest leaders, and more than once he
was assaulted by saloon rowdies, and on at
least one occasion was shot at and nearly killed
by a drunken ruffian, who thought to avenge
Chilson's anti-saloon work. The \yriter was a
newsboy in 1883-85, and he well recalls the
riotous life among the lumbermen even at that
late day. Prize tights wer.e t!ie daily attraction
at some of the Third street resorts. Gaudy
women catered to the thirsty in other resorts,
or sang and danced on rough board stages,
while below them on rough board floors, cov-
ered thick with sawdust to absorb the tobacco
juice and on occasion the blood of the brawlers,
a mixed array of rough men and equally coarse
women caroused and careened. Going down
Third street on any afternoon, evening, night or
early morning, one could hear the shrill music
of the fiddle or bag-pipe, tlie melodeon and ac-
cordion, while spiked feet danced in such uni-
son as their maudlin drunk owners couM com-
mand on the floor cleared for the time being of
chairs and crude benches, such as comprised the
typical music hall or saloon furniture. To the
credit of those tough and rough lumber jacks I
want to say, that although they could easily
tell by my broken English my foreign birth,
they seldom spoke harshly to me, and then usu-
ally liquor had mastered their fin^r sensibilities.
Not once during those years of the sailor and
the frontiersman, do I recall being molested in
my calling as newsboy. Certainly not one of
those coarse hands ever was raised to strike the
busy newsboy. On the other hand I often se-
cured some large coin for the Evening Press,
with the curt admonition, "never mind the
change," and however crude or coarse may have
been their revels, there went home from them a
little lad, happy because of their generous
hearts, and because their generosity was sure
to make other hearts lighter ! With the passing
of the lumber industry these lumber jacks have
gone across the border to Canada, where Bay
City lumbermen in the year 1905 find them just
as hardy, and industrious, but also just as riot-
ous and boisterous as they were in their palmy
days in Bay City. During those early years the
life of the policeman was ever in danger, and
more than one fell at the post of duty, while
others were maimed and injured while trying
to maintain peace and order in the tough dis-
trict.
Other and better days have come for our
trusty officers of the law. In the ranks today
are some of the veterans of those trying; times.
Supt. Nathaniel N. Murphy, Capt. Mathew
Ryan, Sergt. George A. Hemstreet ; Samuel E.
Catlin, William E. Toles, John W. Mulholland,
George Traub, Joseph Ratcliff, patrohnen ; Ex-
Capt. William Simmons, Henry Houck, con-
stable and Ex-Capt. Andrew D. Wyman, now
special officer on the Detroit & Mackinac Rail-
way, were on the department during the years
of transition, and the oldest among them took
part in many of the stirring dramas enacted in
the tenderloin district of the lumber town. The
force to-day has a national reputation for effi-
ciency and many crooks of national notoriety
have wandered thus far but no farther ! Tramps
and wandering pilferers shun this city like the
plague, and the main duties of the policemen
are now directed into more peaceful but none
the less useful channels. The truant officer,
health officer, tax collector, and the various
city departments find their readiest assistants
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
among the bltie-coated guardians of the peace.
This department, too, has reached a stage of
development and efficiency that will require no
addition in numbers or expense for many years
to come.
Just as 20 and 30 and even 40 years ago,
the citizens of these communities prided them-
selves upon the efficiency of their several muni-
cipal departments, in their varying stages of
progress and development, so in this later year,
1905. we have every reason to feel proud of our
departments of learning and culture, of public
water and lighting service, o£ the transporta-
tion, telephone and telegraph service, of the
public health and judicial departments, of our
fire fighters and peace guardians ! It has been
said time without number, and as often demon-
strated by facts and figures, that no community
of equal size in this or any other country is
more healthy, more peaceful, or has more of
the comforts and conveniences of municipal
life, than these very same twin communities,
united forever by the vote of their people in
1903, and by the joint election on April 3, 1905,
made the fourth city of Michigan, Greater Bay
City. Time and space forbid following the tide
of events in the expanding metropolis of North-
ern Michigan; a fleeting review brought up to
date must suffice.
In 1890 the lumber and salt industries of
Bay City, were at the zenith of tlieir develop-
ment. The cities prospered and grew, and the
rural districts were rapidly being settled. The
market gardeners found no trouble in disposing
of all they could raise, and money seemed
plenty. But dark clouds loomed up on the hori-
zon. The tariff tinkering at Washington, fol-
lowing some fickle work at the polls of the
\'Oters, who apparently «-avered for a time on
both the tariff and the money questions, caused
one of those periodical and yet almost inex-
plicable financial depressions or panics, such as
had passed twice over the destinies of Bay
County, leaving manufacturers and merchants
bankrupt and many happy homes on the verge
of ruin. At the very time that hundreds of
residents of Bay County enjoyed the feast of
arts, of science and culture, at the Columbian
Exposition at Chicago, this new peril began to
sweep the country from ocean to ocean, and this
booming lumber community was not long in
feeling the effects. There was little or no de-
mand for the finished product and at the same
time the log supply was becoming more and
more distant, and hence more expensive.
Just as this depression in the business af-
fairs of our country gave way to a general re-
vival, and the lumber industry on the shores of
the Saginaw River and Lake Huron was look-
ing forward to better things, the wiseacres at
Washington dealt the industry its death blow,
by passing the bill making the duty on lumber
from Canada $2, or just twice what the exjicri-
enced lumbermen insisted it should be. Retalia-
tion was both speedy and fatal. The Canadian
log supply was cut off by a prohibitory export
duty on boom sticks and logs. One after an-
other, the great mills along the river shut down,
most of them never to open again. The Eddy
mills were dismantled and the valuable machin-
ery removed to Canada. The Georgian Bay re-
gion was the Mecca for Michigan's lumbermen.
There they bought up every available tract of
timber and erected tlie mills that were driven
from their native land by the misguided w-is-
doni of Congress.
Lumbermen in other portions of the coun-
try amassed fortimes by the results of the very
same law that killed the lumber industry in
Eastern Michigan. This fact has led many of
the sufferers to attribute the $2 tariff to sinister
motives, and their own ruin to the greed of
other sections of the country. The Michigan
lumbermen insist that the lumber industry in
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
other sections of the country could have been
benefitted, without sacrificing the mills and the
entire industry along the Canadian border. But
regrets and vituperation alike were vain.
The lumber industry under the new con-
ditions was driven across the border to Canada,
and the salt industry coidd not be continued
with profit without this auxiliary. The salt-
blocks had used the exhaust steam from the
sawmill engines, and the waste wood and saw-
dust provided a cheap fuel for the operation of
the engines in the salt-wells. Only a few of
these salt-wells continued to operate after the
sawmills shut dow^n, more especially since the
price of salt steadily declined for some years.
The idle sawmills were easy prey for the fire
demon. In most of these mill fires the depart-
ment could do no more than save surrounding
property. One by one the old hives of industry
were wiped out. Tlie mammoth McGraw mill
was one of the first to go up in smoke. The
Sage mill on tlie West Side is one of the few
that has stood idle during all these years, and
whose empty framework yet remains, a silent
reminder of the days when Pine was King in
tlie valley.
Verily a wonderful change has come over
Bay City in the past lo years. The one fixed
idea of all the valley lumbermen, in the days
when the forests of pine extended to our very
doors, was to cut them down, and exchange
them in the markets of the world as quickly as
possible for what they would bring. Fortunes
were quickly made by those lucky enough to
own vast tracts of this wealth of pine forest,
bought from the government for a song. Not
until these forests were denuded of pine, and
pine barrens miles in extent marked the destruc-
tive trail of the axe and saw, did any one stop
to think that there might be even larger profits
in the finer manipulation of this timber, and that
there might possibly be some use for the other
and neglected timber, such as oak, maple, hem-
lock, cedar, tamarack, beech, birch, white and
black ash, elm and bass, of which there were
still untouched tracts in this vicinity and to the
north. The cutting off summarily of our pine
log supply called attention to these remaining
possibilities, and the sawmills that are still
standing equipped along our river front, are all
kept busy cutting up logs, that in former years
were entirely ignored by the old-time lumber-
men.
This business in hardwood lumber has been
gradually picking up, and the revival recalls the
palmy days of long ago. This very year the
Detroit mill, at the foot of Sherman street, has
started cutting a log supply that will keep that
modern mill running for 15 years. Frank
Buell, formerly of Gaylord, and F. Wyllie of
Saginaw, are the operators and owners of the
mill and the log supply. The J. J. Flood mill
is cutting mahogany timber from South Africa
for piano manufacturing purposes, and has
been kept busy with hardwood timber for some
years. The Campbell-Brown Lumber Com-
pany, Kneeland-Bigelow Company, F. T.
Woodworth & Company, Mershon, Schutte,
Parker & Company, Samuel G. M. Gates (one
of the oldest mill-owners still in the business),
Kern Manufacturing Company, Edward C.
Hargrave, Hitchcock Lumber Company, Eddy
Brothers & Company, and E. B. Foss & Com-
pany are still operating logging camps, saw-
mills and huge lumber-yards, the last named on
our river front.
That the lesson of other years has not been
entirely lost on our lumber interests is proven
by the large number of manufacturing insti-
tutions that work up the raw lumber, instead of
shipping it to distant points for manufacture.
The firm of W. D. Young & Company, on the
West Side, has a world-wide reputation for the
quality of its finished product, has a mammoth
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
plant for the manufacture of maple flooring
and is constantly expanding. It fvirnished the
lumber for the decks of the last "American
Cup" defender, the yacht "Reliance" whicli
speaks volumes for the firm's position in that
line of business. Its latest addition is a wood
alcohol plant, which uses up the sawdust and
other waste material of the plant. Courval &
Company in Essexville, E, J. Vance Box Com-
pany, the Foss mill, Matthew Lament, W. H.
Nickless, Sheldon, Kainni & Company, B. H.
Briscoe & Company, Bindner Box Company,
Fred G, Eddy, Bay City Box Company, Lewis
Manufacturing Company on the East Side and
Handy Brothers, Beutel Cooperage & Wooden-
ware Company, Russell Brothers, and Bradley,
Miller & Company, on the West Side, with
Bousfield & Company's world-famous wooden-
ware works on the site of the old McGraw mill
in the South End, are ail employing large
crews, and producing a finished lumber prod-
uct that gives the manufacturer the profit that
formerly went to middlemen in other localities.
So in 1905 we find that the lumber industry
is actually showing a marked revival. But for
10 years after the log supply was cut off, things
looked gloomy indeed for the cities. In those
10 years Bay City has made a complete change
of front, and this united city is today a living
example of the never-say-die spirit of American
communities ! From being a mere lumber and
salt producing center, it has become in six short
years the hub of the beet sugar business east of
the Rocky Mountains, and we have within our
borders to-day as varied and stable industries
as any city of its size in the country.
Instead of leaving the dismantled lumber
town, the people looked about them for new
avenues of trade and industry. C. B. Chat-
field, Hon. Nathan B. Bradley, and others be-
gan some systematic experiments with sugar
beets, while Alexander Zagelmeyer and others
investigated the vein of bituminous coal long
known to have existed in this neighborhood.
Persistent boring showed that the vein under-
lies the entire county, at a depth of from 150 to
300 feet, varying in thickness from four to
seven feet, and of excellent quality. This
solved the fuel question, and the opening of
many mines brought an influx of coal miners
who took the place of the sawyers and lumber
jacks wiio had gone to Canada with the saw-
mills.
Tile farmers proved that both sugar beets
and chicory roots could be raised here profit-
ably, the moist climate, with its mild and late
fail, being ideal for the maturing of these crops.
A State bounty in 1898 assisted to bring the
Michigan Sugar Company's plant to comple-
tion for operation that fall, with a three-months
supply of beets, and excellent results followed.
This pioneer sugar factory of Michigan was
followed the very next year by the still larger
Bay City Sugar factory, and the West Bay
City and German -American sugar factories fol-
lowed the next year. Other factories were
erected in different parts of the State, and the
State bounty was at once withdrawn as its fur-
ther application would have bankrupted the
State treasury. Since then, millions of pounds
of the finest granulated sugar have been pro-
duced annually, giving the Michigan farmer
another excellent crop for rotation, and mak-
ing all his other farm crops more valuable, as
the thousands of acres put into sugar beets re-
move just that many acres from the market
competition in other staple farm products. The
beet pulp, leaves and toppings make good cat-
tle feed, and at the very time when green fod-
der cannot be secured in this latitude. All the
mills in Michigan run to their capacity could
only supply the home demand for sugar, hence
these factories are assured a certain market for
their output. Since the American Sugar Refin-
Hosted by
Google
196
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
ing Company, better known as the Havemeyer
Sugar Trust, has acquired an interest in two
of the local factories and also in others through-
out the State, all competition, which for a time
threatened to bring on a ruinous rate war, has
been practically removed.
Nothing short of the same suicidal tariff
tinkering, that killed the lumber industry, can
now cripple this infant beet sugar industry in
Michigan, which promises to expand, until it
will supply our entire home consumption. The
ill-advised Cuban reciprocity treaty proved
weli-nigh fatal to this new farm and factory in-
dustry. Not a single new sugar factory has
been built in Michigan since Cuba's cane sugar
producers have been favored at the expense of
the American farmers, manufacturers and la-
borers ! The trust interests alone saved thost
factories already in operation, by keeping the
price of sugar at a point where it can be pro-
duced by American labor and home-grown
sugar beets, at a small profit to the costly sugar
miiis. Hardly had this crisis been passed, when
the native farmer encountered a poor season,
owing to adverse weather conditions, and in
1903 and 1904 none of the Michigan factories
bad as many beets as they needed for a normal
campaign. The last year proved very favor-
able for growing beets, the percentage of sugar
contaits being high, and the weight satisfac-
tory. This is expected to stimulate more exten-
sive beet cultivation, and all the factories in
March, 1905, reported more acreage than they
had at the same period the year before.
Several factories were operated at a loss last
fall, because they did not secure enough beets
for a profitable campaign. In those localities
the warning has gone forth, that if the farmers
do not rally to the support of the factories and
each one raise at least as many beets as he can
handle successfully himself, thus giving the
factories beets enough for at least a three-
months slicing campaign, some of these factor-
ies will be dismantled and the machinery re-
moved to Colorado, where the farmers are an."c-
ious to have more factories. Michigan offers
some advantages over Colorado, in being
nearer a ready market and in having plenty of
water and cheap fuel close at hand. The farmer
is learning how to handle the sugar beet crop,
and many of the costly losses of the first years
of experiment have been overcome. It will be
a sorry day when the Michigan farmer loses
this infant and promising industry. Farm lands
have increased in value, mortgages have been
wiped out, and new life and new vitality
brouglit to the rural districts by the shower of
ready cash paid out each fall for the beets by
the sugar factories. The price was intended to
stimulate extra efforts for high-grade beets, by
paying $4.50 per ton of beets, averaging 12
per cent, in sugar contents, and i2j^ cents for
each additional per cent, of sugar in the beets.
In 1905 the farmer is offered his choice of $5
per ton, flat rate, or the former sliding scale.
This ought to bring an enormous increase in
the beet supply, as one of the main objections
of the farmers and beet growers has been on
the assumption of incorrect sugar valuations by
the factory taremen and chemists. No other
crop raised by farmers the world over specifies
from year to year exactly the price to be paid,
long months in advance of the harvest. Sugar
beets do. The Michigan farmer should not
take any one year as a criterion of the crop,
but should try the crop for a term of years and
strike an average, the same as he would with
wheat, potatoes, or any other farm crop, all of
which have fat seasons and lean seasons.
The beet sugar industry in Bay County has
furnished work for thousands of men, women
and children in the beet fields in spring and
summer, while many hundreds more have found
work in the sugar factories during the late fall
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
aitd early winter when employment for com-
mon iatwr is always scarce.
The Michigan Chemical Company manu-
factures high-proof spirits from the refuse mo-
lasses of the beet sugar factories. For the first
two years it was a hard problem for the factor-
ies to dispose of this refuse, for the State game
and fish warden stopped its drainage into the
river, claiming it killed the fish. Since this
mammoth distillery has begun operations, with
its train of about sixty tank railroad cars, each
holding 7,000 gallons of molasses, which they
gather directly from the sugar factories, the
problem has been solved.
The beet sugar industry is a money-maker
for railroads, for thousands of tons of beets
are brought long distances, and more could be
secured in that manner if railroad facilities
would permit it. This very year a new rail-
road to the "Thumb" is planned to carry sugar
beets to local factories, and local coal to the
lake ports for export.
The coal industry is constantly being aug-
mented by the sinking of new shafts, provid-
ing cheap fuel to the railroads, and volumin-
ous freight to the manufacturing centers of the
East and West. Coal miners from Ohio, Illi-
nois, Pennsylvania and Indiana are flocking
here, where they find living and working con-
ditions more favorable. Quaint little mining
communities have sprung up around the coal
mines, and new sources of supply created for
our business interests.
With chief fuel and deep-water transpor-
tation and ample railroad facilities, new and
varied manufacturing institutions are rapidly
filling up the gaps along the desirable river
front left by the removal of the sawmills and
lumber piles. The lumber jacks have given
way to sugar beet experts, coal miners, ship-
builders, iron workers, wood workers and
skilled labor of every variety.
Marl has been discovered a few miles north
of here, and the "Million Dollar Plant" of the
Hccla Cement Conipany now occupies one of
the most desirable river front sites on the west
bank, just south of the bay. This institution
built its own railroad to the marl beds and coal
mines, which it will operate jointly. Great
tlocks are planned for vessels of the deepest
draught to handle their cement and coal out-
put. Litigation between the stockholders has
tied up the plant for some time, but the legal
tangles are gradually being straightened out,
and the mammoth plant will resume operations
on an even larger scale, acording to the plans
of the large stockholders. Its present capacity
is 4,000 barrels of high-grade cement daily.
The equipment of the plant is excellent, elec-
tricity being made to do much of the manual
labor.
The manufacturing plant known as the In-
dustrial Works has for nearly 40 years been
one of Bay City's mainstays. It has grown
from a humble beginning, in 1868, to be one
of the largest establishments of its kind in the
world. The railroad wrecking cranes which
the Industrial Works builds are its own special-
ties. That they are unsurpassed is proven by
the fact that they are known and used wher-
ever the iron horse or electrical spark serve
the world's commerce and industries. Their
display at the World's Fair at St. Louis in 1904
attracted international attention. Orders for
these cranes have come only recently from far-
off Japan, and from the Siberian Railway,
where the exigencies of the Russo-Japanese
War make their use very essential.
Bousfield & Company's woodenware works
is the largest pail and tub factory in the world.
The Hanson-Ward Veneer Company is one of
the latest and largest manufacturing plants in
the South End.
The West Bay City Ship Building Com-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
pany's shipyard is one of the roomiest and
most modern plants on the Great Lakes. For
30 years this plant has launched some of the
best boats on the inland seas. Year after year
the plant has been improved, and in 1905 it is
building tliree of the largest craft afloat on
fresh water in the world. The steamer "Syl-
vania" of the Tomlinson- Davidson fleet,
launched with appropriate ceremonies in
March, 1905, and christened by Marion David-
son Young, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. F. P.
Young, the youngest miss ever accorded that
honor on the Great Lakes, is the largest freight
steamer yet floated on fresh water, being 524
feet over all, 54 feet beam, with 30 vertical
hopper hatches, and triple expansion engines.
Two sister ships are now in construction, a
force of about 1,000 men doing the work, with
a pay-roll of $8,000 weekly.
The James Davidson shipyard has hereto-
fore built wooden vessels exclusively, but with
the new modern dry dock just completed, a
new field is opened for this pioneer ship-build-
er. He began life as a deck-boy, and became
in turn sailor, captain, owner and ship-builder,
and is to-day the best known mariner on the
Lakes. He still owns a large fleet of steamers
and barges, and his colors are conspicuous at
all lake ports.
Fine salt wells and cheap coal brought the
North American Chemical Company's plant
to Bay City, where the buildings cover 10 acres
south of the city limits. The company pro-
duces chemicals of high quality and ships large
quantities of fine table salt, as well as coal from
its mines. Most of these products are now be-
ing shipped by water, and the river is again
showing signs of returning commercial activ-
ity. A new device for loading salt, with a ca-
pacity of !00 tons per hour, is being installed
by this company, and new additions are con-
stantly being made to the plant itself. It is
owned and operated by the United Alkali Com-
pany, of Liverpool, England, and represents an
investment of $1,000,000 of foreign capital.
The Smalley motor works is one of the
latest and most substantial additions to the
North End industries, and the number of
skilled machine hands is being constantly in-
creased. The Michigan Pipe Company and
National Cycle Manufacturing Company have
for years taken a foremost place in their lines
of business, and have done much to advertise
the city. The "National" bicycle is known and
appreciated the world over. M. Garland's
machine shops, Bay City iron works, Walworth
&. Nelville Manufacturing Company's cross-arm
factory. Excelsior foundry. Marine iron works.
Bay City knitting mills, Mackinnon Manufac-
turing Company, Smalley Brothers Company,
Bromfield & Colvin's grist-mifl, Hine & Chat-
field's immense flour and grist-mill and grain
elevator, Beutel canning factory, Beutel Coop-
erage & Woodenware Works, the Stiver-Ma-
ther Company {brick, plaster and cement).
National Boiler Works, shade roller plant, Bel-
gian chicory mills, with plants both on the East
and West Side, Bay City Plow Works, Bay
City Yacht Works, Standard Hoop Company,
Bay City Stone Company, West Side brick-
yard, Goldie hoop factory, Bay City Dredging
Company, Saginaw Bay Towing Company,
Wadworth & Nelville Manufacturing Company
(w-ood turners), are leaders in their respective
fields of endeavor, and suggest the number
and extent of the diversified industries that
followed the decline of the lumber industry.
A score of box factories give employment to
a large force of men and boys, and annually
cut up large quantities of the local mills' out-
put. In former years this lumber went East
to be cut up for box shocks.
A huge fleet of fishing tugs and schooners
reaps annually a rich harvest of the finny tribes
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
from the river and the bay. Farther north are
the fishing gronnds for lake trout, wliite fish,
lake herring, sturgeon, and other choice deni-
zens of the deep, while the Saginaw river teems
with pickerel, bass and perch. The State game
an<l rish laws are rigidly enforced, in order to
preserve so vital an industry, and the State
plants millions of these fish in the lakes each
year. The fishing industry is growing annually,
as new markets are opened in the far East. The
rivers north of here afford rare sport in an-
gling for brook trout, grayling and river bass.
The shores of the river and bay are stil! the fa-
vorite breetling grounds of wild ducks and
geese, and in the rural districts quail, part-
ridge, sni]>e and grouse afford sport for the
hunter. Rabbits and similar aiiall game
abound, but deer and larger game are now rare-
ly found in Bay County, although but recently
an Indian was arrested at Pinconning and
fined for running down a deer with <!ogs, the
antlered victim finally leaping into an inclos-
ure where lie fell an easy prey to the pot-hunter.
In winter hundreds of idle workingmen and
fishermen find profitable sport spearing fish
through the ice in Saginaw Bay. Their collec-
tion of little shanties on sleds forms annually
one of the most unique communities on the
American continent. The fishermen have
named its shifting scenes "Iceburg, U. S. A.";
from January to March, 1905, it contained
about 700 spearmen.
In 1905 we find the transition from a crude
frontier himber town to a modern business and
manufacturing center quite complete. The
community by dint of pluck, perseverance and
industry has tided over the critical period in
its municipal existence, and with the united
energies of both sides of the great river will
soon mount another ti{!al wave of prosperity
and enterprise, which will carry us farther and
higher than ever before. The scarcity of
homes suitable for the mechanic and laborer
describes, better than pages of facts and figures,
the steady revival and progress of the Bay
Cities, commercialiy and industrially.
The natural position of Bay City at the
head of navigation on the Saginaw River is
one of great advantage. A glance at the map
of Michigan will show that Saginaw Bay cuts
into Lower Michigan until it reaches a point
far in toward its geographical center. Bay
City is by many miles the farthest inland har-
bor from the general outline of the State, of
any point reached by deep-water navigation.
This favorable position gives us a large extent
of tributary territory, east, north and west. As
the pine barrens to the north are cleared and
the settlements thicken, the importance of Bay
City as a trading center will increase. In this
very month of April, 1905, the Bay City
Board of Trade is negotiating for a big pas-
.senger and freight steatner for the long neg-
lected shore route between here and Detroit,
with every prospect of success. The West
Side will be made to realize the truth of the
proverb, that "In Union There is Strength,"
for another large chemical company, the Faulk-
ner Chemical Company, has accepted the site
offered by the Board of Trade, with a condi-
tional bonus, and the plant is to go to the West
Side, where it will grace the river front. So
the dawn of Greater Bay City will be ushered
in by the advent of significant events in our
business annals. The tide has turned ! Prog-
ress and enterprise will again come to their
own, and permanent industries take the place
of the lumber and salt industries, which cre-
ated Bay City. The farming country ajl about
is rapidly becoming productive, and "all roads
A\'D good roads iIead to Bay City!"
Our location has ever been a fortunate one.
The wide sweep of the bay prevents gathering
storms from doing damage here. Cyclones,
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
hurricanes or floods are unknown in our an-
nals of the past 70 years! Our climate is sa-
lubrious, our winters crisp and long but equa-
ble, while the summers are cool and made de-
lightful by the lake breezes, even during the
most heated periods. Verily Nature has done
much for this \'a]iey. Let us rise to a full
realization of all these unbounded natural ad-
vantages and future opportunities!
Much of this new vitality, enterprise and
faith in the future of these once divided and
weak communities, is based on the culmina-
tion of long years of endeavor for the union
of the sister cities. From 1877, when the
three villages across the river from Bay City
joined forces and became West Bay City, until
the actual consolidation consummated in April,
1905, the progressive and far-seeing forces of
both communities sought to bring about the
united action which augured so well for both
sides of the river. For nearly 30 years the
benefits of such a union have been acknowledged
on both sides of the river, but at every critical
juncture little differences would arise, — mu-
nicipal indebtedness, the vexed question of tax-
ation and personal considerations, — to keep
alive the imaginary dividing line in the river.
On June 21, 1887, the Legislature passed
an act to unite Bay City, West Bay City and
the village of Essexville, the union to take place
in 1891, and provisions were made for a char-
ter committee, representing all three corpora-
tions, which was to draft the consolidation
charter, and submit it to the Legislature of
1889 for action. The politicians managed to
secure an election on the proposition, and to the
disappointment of all public-spirited citizens
the voters on the East Side defeated the propo-
sition by a narrow margin, while the West
Side voted largely against the union.
The matter was in abeyance for a few
years, and then the advocates of Greater Bay
City again moved to follow the example of the
u])-river towns. Saginaw, which had long been
below Bay City, East Side, in population, con-
summated a union with Saginaw Citj, three
miles down the river, thus regaining over night
the coveted position of being the third city of
Michigan, and relegating Bay City to the rear !
There, as here, consolidation brought out new
activities, and any one can readily see that the
older but less fortuntaely situated city above the
Carrollton sand-bar lias gained much in pres-
tige and material progress by consolidation.
With a population of more than 40,000, it took
at once a place among the large cities of the
country, while her peers to the north were
hopelessly divided, and lost sight of among the
nudtitude of mediocre country towns in the
roster of our country's municipalities! The
success of the union of our old commercial and
industrial rivals, though separated by several
miles, gave new impetus to the movement in
the Bay Cities, which from the first have had
their business centers exactly on opposite sides
of the inland harbor. They succeeded in se-
curing another referendum vote on consoli-
dation in April, 1903, and until the day of the
election, all the forces, pro and con, threshed
over again all the arguments of other years
and less opportune occasions. But the success-
ful merger of large municipalities like Brook-
lyn and New York, the absorption by Chicago
of suburbs for miles around, on the presump-
tion that population and rank in the world's
great cities counted for much, and the undeni-
able success of consolidation for the much less
favorably situated cities of Saginaw, proved
more convincing arguments than any thereto-
fore advanced by the progressists.
A joint committee of business men from
both sides of the river took up the defense of
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
consolidation, and on the eve of the election
issued the following address to the citizens of
both sides of the river:
"I. Consohdation will give us at once a
population of 45,000, and therefore accord us
a prestige as a city we do not now possess. II.
It will give us a municipal credit that all grow-
ing cities need, and enable our bonds to be nego-
tiated upon a market now denied to us. III. It
will lessen the expenses of administering public
affairs and reduce taxation, on the principle,
that larger cities can be run proportionately
cheaper and more efficiently than smaller ones.
IV. The united city will be the county seat, and
united will have less taxation and more mflu-
ence in the affairs of our county. V. It will
enhance the value of real estate. VI. It will
lessen the cost of running the city government,
inasmuch as it will reduce the number of heads
of departments. VII. It will tend to draw to
us manufacturing industries and give better
A\ ages and more constant employment to labor.
It is well known that parties seeking location
for investments in industrial pursuits always
inquire first of all about the tax rate, which in
Bay City in 1902 was as follows: Valuation:
$11,447,534.00, rate of taxation for city,
school, and highway purposes, $17,13 per
$1,000 valuation; in West Bay City, the valti-
ation was $3,321,540.00, tax rate $29.51 per
$1,000 valuation! These figures are an argu-
ment for themselves! VIII. The river front-
age on the East Side is quite generally occu-
pied, but the West Side still offers many ad-
vantageous sites, which cannot be availed of
because of the high rate of taxation. IX. In-
dustries and factories that employ labor are the
foundation of municipal prosperity, and with-
out them our cities cannot grow. Therefore
every effort should be made by citizens on both
sides of the river to bring industries employ-
ing labor to us. At present all new industries
locate outside our city limits. X. The loca-
tion of the cities on either side of the river,
their present corporate limits, their fixed posi-
tion in the business centers, the ownership and
location of the bridges across the river, the
direct interests of a great number of citizens
in both cities, and the indirect but mutual in-
terests of all, the existing conditions relative
to quasi public corporations, public buildings
and public utilities, the dependence of both
cities upon the same service for its future
growth, fit them for consolidation upon the
fair and equitable plan provided for by the
act of the Legislature. Consolidation is as-
sured, the only question being when it shall
take place, and the sooner that question is final-
ly settled the beter! Every interest of each
city can be cared for without any detriment to
the other, and the present properties of each
can be used for the mutual ad\'antage of both.
The public schools can be increased in efficiency
at a decrease in cost of maintenance. The
fixed charges in both cities can and should be
decreased, and we may add must be decreased.
No city can hope to grow or beconie the
fixed abode of a prosperous and contented peo-
ple until the question of whether it is cheaper
to own an ordinary home or pay rent is settled
in favor of the ownership of the home."
This address was signed by A. McDonell
(deceased February, 1905), Charles W. Han-
dy, A. E. Bousfield, G. H. Schindehette, Alex-
ander Zagelmeyer and Frank H. Molir, — three
from each side of the river. This was adopted
and approved by the joint committee of busi-
ness men held March 23, 1903, and the follow-
ing attached their signatures : Hon. Spencer
O. Fisher, H. S. Lewis, Lee E. Joslyn. S. R.
Birchard, S. P. Flynn, H. H. Norrington,
Mayor John Walsh, Dr. Isaac E. Randall,
Robert Beutel, Henry Benson, C. S. Ruttle,
J. W. Coles, John McGonigle and John J.
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
Flood, all of the West Side; and John C. Hew-
itt, F. J. Trombley, James E. Davidson,
Charles A. Eddy, Ed. Kroencke, Walter D.
Young, George D. Jackson, J. il. Milier,
Thomas W. Moore, Charles R. Weils, A. E.
Bousfield, Mayor William Cunningham, H.
G. Wendtland, H. M. Gillett, Gen. C. R. Haw-
ley, George W. Ames and Judge Hamilton M.
Weight, ail of the East Side.
This address was supplemented by the
West Side business interests, who were all
along misrepresented by the opposition :
"We, the undersigned property owners and
taxpayers of West Bay City, desire hereby to
inform the public that we are heartily in favor
of the consolidation of the Bay Cities. We
think our prestige will be very much increased
by having one large and united city, greater
nimibers and added influence. We believe that
the rate of taxation will be reduced and in every
way the interests of this city, as well as of our
neighbor city, will be benefited by the union.
We think a large city will attract more busi-
ness enterprise to it, and more population and
that our prosperity will improve, and our prop-
erty will be rendered more valuable and busi-
ness will be better."
This was signed by Thomas Walsh, George
L. Mosher, Sage Land & Improvement Com-
pany, Henry W. Weber, H, H. Norrington,
August J. Bothe, George Behmlander, Charles
A. Babo, Kolb Brothers, Bradley, Miller & Co.,
James Davidson, Spencer O. Fisher, Goldie
Manufacturing Company, Handy Brothers,
Handy Coal Mining Company, John M. Kel-
ton, Fisher Land Company, Lumbennan's
State Bank, W. D. Young & Company, Frank
H. Mohr and Beutel & Company, altogether
the largest employers of labor and capital on
the West Side.
Yet no concerted effort was made by those
favoring the union at the polls, while those op-
posed had workers at all the voting places. The
result was awaited with intense interest. The
arguments contained in the public appeal con-
tained matters of vita! interest to all the people.
Great was the enthusiasm on the East Side
when it was found that the vote was practically
unanimous in favor of consolidation, the major-
ity exceeding 2,000 out of a total of less than
5,000 votes cast! On the West Side the first
returns again showed an adverse vote of 255,
but later an error was discovered in the Fourth
Ward of West Bay City, where the election
board had simply transposed the figures, giv-
ing the majf^rity of 126 in favor of the union
to the "nayes," and this was corrected in the
official canvass of the votes by the Council.
Similar errors were claimed to exist in other
wards, and the consolidationists insisted that
they had actually received a majority of the
votes. So close was the vote, and so disap-
pointing was the showing made by the "antis,"
that by mutual consent the joint charter com-
mittee, provided for in Representative John
Washer's consolidation bill, was duly appointed
from each side of the river, including the re-
spective mayors and comptrollers, several al-
dermen and three business men, both sides be-
ing equally represented. After many sessions
they approved an<l submitted the consolidated
city's charter; it was duly passed by the Legis-
lature without any further protest, and the citi-
zens breathed easier. They now felt certain
that the long sought for union of mutual inter-
ests would be completed along those lines in
April, 1905, and a stone of obstruction removed
from the path of both cities.
State Senator Heine and Representative
J, E. Brockuay were both placed on record be-
fore the election of 1904, and both claimed un-
equivocally to favor the consummation of the
union. In January the first mutterings of a
storm were heard, and rumors began drifting
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
about the two cities that the tax figures suh-
luitted by the West Side two years before, bad
as they were, <Iid not represent the actual
state of affairs. Taxpayers on the East Side
were frightened by the clanger, real or imag-
inary, of having to share the tax burden of
the West Side, and some of the most ardent
consohdationists were by these representations
(h^iven to opiiose the union at the last moment.
Choosing the psychological time when Sen-
ator Heine was at home ill with the smallpox,
Ktpresentative Brockway on January 24th in-
troduced a bill REPEALING the consolidation
act. ami at once rushed it through the Legisla-
lure! It was not referred to committee, in
urdcr that the people might be heard on its
merits, but he had it given immediate effect.
The people at home were stunned by the
suddenness of the blow ; but when they realized
diat ail the work- of 15 years was again to be
undone, and the dial of progress turned back
for another 10 or 15 years, and solely at the
behest of personal interests, the public-spirited
citizens at once rallied in defense of the long
cherished union.
Indignation meetings were held. Straw
\'otes and long petitions asking for the repeal,
secured under miappreheiision of facts, were
spiu^ned. The business men almost without
exception signed petitions to Governor Warner
asking him to veto the "railroaded" repeal
act, and Senator Heine promised to give the
people a chance to be heard in the Upper
House. But the very next day Senator Do-
herty, claiming instructions to that effect from
Heine, also rushed the repeal act through the
Senate, and nothing but the Governor's veto
could then save consolidation !
To the end of having the act vetoed, the
Board of Trade, led by President Walter D.
Young, Homer E. Buck and others, and the
West Side business men, led by Hon. Spencer
O. I'isher, E. T. Carrington, Frank Handy
and others, at once petitioned Governor AVar-
ner to be heard before he signed the bill.
The "antis" insisted that he sign it, basing
their claims on a snap election called by the
City Councils, whose members on both sides
were almost a unit against consolidation, held
January lo, 1905. The electors were not asked
to vote again on the question of consolidation,
yes or no, but rather on the union on the basis
of the charter as passed by the Legislature of
1903. The opposition figured that the West
Side would want that agreement kept, and tliey
were right, for the election, if such it could
be called, was reported to have resulted in
1 ,264 votes for the charter as it stood, to only
6 against it! On the East Side some hard
work \\-as done to secure an exactly opposite
vote on the grounds of the West Side's iwor
financial condition, and this too w'orked, al-
though not as well as the "antis" had antici-
pated, the vote being 397 in favor of keeping
the agreement and charter, to 1,006 in favor
of amending the cltarter, and creating separate
taxing districts. Not one single vote was
CAST against consolid.'vtion itself!
Meetings were held in the Eraser House
and in the Opera House protesting against the
repeal act, and Governor Warner set February
1 6th for the day of hearing both sides to the
controversy. The business men's committee
favoring the union went down the night before,
while the "antis" chartered a train, to which
admission \\as by card, and wearing badges
asking for the \'eto, they marched up to the
Capitol at 10 next morning. The consohda-
tionists had Hon. John C. Weadock and James
E. Duffy present their case, together with a \'ast
array of facts and figures, while the "antis"
were represented by Hon. Nathan B. Bradley,
who favored separate taxing districts, but
wanted consolidation. Mayor C. J. Barnett of
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
the West Side, and City Attorney S. G. Hough-
ton of the West Side, and H. M. GiHett, at-
torney for several large manufacturing; insti-
tutions, who also wanted separate taxing dis-
tricts. The Representative Hall was well
filled by Bay Cityans, and the hour was one
ripe with possibilities to Bay City, East and
West Side.
Go\'ernor Warner took the matter under
advisement, and that same afternoon vetoed
the repeal act ! His message was as follows :
"The act which is sought to be repealed by
this bill was passed at the session of the Legis-
lature of 1903, and provided for the consoh-
dation of the cities of Bay City and West Bay
City into one municipality. It is this act of
the Legislature which the bill, which I am now
returning without my approval, seeks to re-
peal. After giving every opportunity for a
hearing of both sides, those who are advocat-
ing, and those who are opposing this bill, I am
CONVINCED THAT A VERY LARGE MAJORITY OF
THE PEOPLE or EACH OF TUE CITIES F.WOR A
CONSOLIDATION, THE ONLY DIFFERENCE SEEMS
TO BE WHETHER THE ACT PASSED SHOULD
STAND AS IT IS, OR THE WORK OF CONSOLIDA-
TION BEGIN ANEW. Such being the case, I be-
lieve TH.\T THE BEST INTERESTS OF ALL WILL
BE CONSERVED BY LETTING THE PRESENT ACT
OF CONSOLIDATION STAND, AND REMEDY ANY
DEFECTS IN ITS OPERATION BY FUTURE LEGIS-
LATION. Such minor details of practical oper-
ation might better be left to this or a succeed-
ing Legislature, rather than that the great busi-
ness interests of the two cities should suffer
from any future contention as to the main point
at issue — the consolidation of the two
CITIES UNDER ONE MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
I believe that by the uniting of the energies of
the two cities into one municipality, a better and
more economical government will result, and
I have no doubt that the future will prove
THE CORRECTNESS OF THIS VIEW." So far tllC
sturdy farmer and business man, now at the
head of the great state of Michigan. It was
his first veto, and is pregnant with possibilities.
The veto settled the matter, once and for
all. The two Bay City delegations came home
on the same train and fraternized as though
nothing had happened to divide them but a few
short hours before. At home they Here met by
the citizens with the 33rd Regiment Band, and
escorted to tlie Fraser House, where a great
crowd of happy townspeople had assembled to
honor the occasion. Hon. Spencer O. Fisher,
President Walter D. Young of the Board of
Trade, Homer E. Buck, Frank Hand}', A. H.
Gansser, Dr. William Bishop, Alexander Zagel-
meyer, F. C. Merrill, and W. H. Gustin of the
several committees who went to Lansing to
intercede with Governor Warner to allow con-
solidation to be consummated, were lifted on
the shoulders of the enthusiastic throng and in
brief addresses voiced their conviction, that it
was all for the best future interests of both
sides of the river and that it presaged new life
and progress for Greater Bay City, and its
45,000 people! This was the song the con-
solidationists sang on that memorable evening:
Jly cily 'tis of thee, Greater Bny City!
Of thee we sing.
Town where our fathers died,
Town of our pioneer's pride,
From every heme to-night,
Let Union ring!
Since that day the citizens of both sides of
the river have aimed to make good the fondest
hopes and brightest predictions of the union-
ists. The new hotel project has been given new
life by the subscription of $50,000, with more
in sight. The Detroit boat line is assured. The
new railway to the east will be built this year,
and the Faulkner Chemical Company's plant
will add another huge industry to the growing
list in Greater Bay City.
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
Both political parties named excellent tick-
ets for the official positions under the new
charter and on April 3, 1905, the first joint
election was held in the united city. Great in-
terest was taken in the city ticket, and overshad-
owed the election of Circuit Judge Chester L.
Collins, and Road Commissioners George L.
Frank and William Houser. The first election
in Greater Bay City resulted as follows : The
City Council will contain 21 Republicans and
13 Democrats, The Democrats elect Mayor
Gustav Hine and Recorder John Boston, the
Republicans elect Treasurer Edward E. Cor-
liss, and Comptroller C. J, Barnett. The vote
was :
WARDS. --^ ■ - ■
East Side— P
T^ir=t 280 280 244 313 295 365 245
Second 315 jg7 2io 201 254 159 1S5
Thinl 128 rog i;i P3 192 46 U7
^'o\\n\i .■ 282 3>S 345 277 414 206 391
Fifth 187 259 198 24S 237 204 206
Sixth 2T4 132 210 r33 232 134 200
Seventh 176 iii 189 101 207 89 186
Kig'ith 393 4S5 357 522 .18S 498 358
Ni'illi 154 1T2 143 T2I 207 67 141
lotli 157 209 154 217 163 208 1S+
mil 279 219 273 224 368 132 293
Tolah . . .2465 247r 2479 3462 2957 2003 2306 2
West Side—
12th 159 211 1^4 192 161 204 131
i.lth 209 275 221 231 195 276 12S
Mill 137 184 174 148 137 iSo 120
iSlli 205 155 220 137 20Q 146 161
"3th 162 203 201 159 176 179 163
'7tli 144 137 '^ 114 157 '24 90
Totals ..,Toi6 1165 1158 J007 1035 1109 793 I
la! for
Grea
5 3637 3469 3993 31 13 3299 3814
The result was somewhat surprising, as the
united cities are normally Republican by 500
or more, but the citizens evidently wished to
divide the honors, giving each side of the river
two of the main offices, as well as breaking even
between the parties.
The united City Council met on ilontlay
evening, April 10, 1905, listened to the brief
and bnsiness-like message of Mayor Hine,
named S. G. Houghton of the West Side, city
attorney, Capt. George Turner, East Side, city
engineer, and John H. Northrup, East Side,
street commissioner. All the West Side books,
monej's and records were formally turned over
and all of the city's business is now centered in
the City Hall, built 10 years ago with the ex-
pectation of this very union of the two cities.
In April, 1895, the East Side voted in fa-
vor of bonding for $100,000 for this new City
Hall, by 2,543 ayes to only 820 nayes. Many
citizens felt the building as planned too extrav-
agant for the immediate needs of the city, but
the city fathers felt that while they were build-
ing, they wanted to provide for a century to
come, and so more money was voted, and as
now compietei! the fine Gothic structure, the
pride of the cities, lias cost over $200,000.
Most of the offices were occupied November
27, 1897, and the fire-proof vaults, airy offices,
fine Council chamber and modem city jail, will
answer all purposes of the united city for fu-
ture generations. The Public Library has large
and airy quarters on the south side of the build-
ing.
THE CHAKTER.
The following extracts from the much
mooted charter for Greater Bay City will be of
interest now and in the years to come :
The Boundaries of Greater Bay City are
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
the same as those now embraced by Bay
City and West Bay City. The city is divided
into ly wards. The first ii are on the East
Side of the river, and are tlie same as those of
the present East Side city, with boundary lined
the same as at present constituted. There are
six wards on the West Side, the present First
Ward being the I2th ^Vard of the consolidated
city, the Second being the :3th, and so on to
die Sixth, which is the 17th.
Officers and Elections. — The terms of
the first officers elected are to be as follows:
JMa)'or, two years ; recorder, two years ; treas-
urer, two years ; comptroller, four years ; alder-
men (two from each ward), one for one year
and one for two years; supervisor (one from
each ward), two years; constable (one from
each ward), one year; justice of the peace,
four years. The present justices of the peace
of Bay City and West Bay City shall hold their
oflices until their terms expire. In succeeding
elections the term of recorder is to be four
years. No person shall be eligible to hold the
office of mayor, if he hold any judicial office or
any city or county salaried office. The treas-
urer cannot be elected for more than two suc-
cessive terms. No person can be elected to a
city or ward office tmless he be an elector.
City elections are to be held on the first
Mondays in April of each year. The aldermen
and supervisors are inspectors of city, State and
county elections. If any one is disqualified by
reason of being a candidate, the Council shall
appoint an inspector in his stead. In case of a
vacancy in the board of inspectors, the electors
present may fill it. On the Thursday following
the election, the Common Council shall meet as
a board of canvassers. All persons elected must
qualify within 20 days thereafter. Failure to
qualify leaves the office vacant. In case of a
tie, the winner shall be elected by lot. An
elector must reside in the ward 20 days preced-
ing election day.
The tenure of the several elective officers of
both cities, who are not by this act exi>ressly de-
clared to hold over, shall be at an end. They
shall forthwith tum over their books, records,
etc., to the proper officers of the consolidated
city.
After the organization of the consolidated
city, the charters of Bay City and West Bay
City shall thereupon be superseded and re-
pealed. All property of both cities becomes the
property of the consolidated city, when the
organization of the new city is completed.
A general registration shall be held on the
first Monday of October, 1908. Until then the
present regi.stry of electors shall prevail. The
inspectors of election of each ward shall con-
stitute a board of registration. On the Saturday
next preceeding any general city or special elec-
tion and on such other days as shall be ap-
pointed by the Council, not exceeding three in
all, an opportunity shall be afforded for regis-
tration.
The Mavor shall receive not less than
$1,000 per annum. He shall preside at all
meetings of the Council. The acting maypr
shall preside in his absence. He has the power
of veto of any ordinance, resolution or motion
of the Council. It will take a two-thirds vote
of the Council to pass a measure over his veto;
at the following meeting, the mayor shall com-
municate with the Council, giving his reasons
for the veto. He shall sign all licenses and
permits. He is the conservator of the peace of
Bay City and in an emergency, of which he
alone shall be judge, he may take command of
the Police Department. For cause he may re-
move a member of any board or commission or
any appointed officer, who shall have a right
to make a defense. He is ex-ofUcio member of
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
tlie Board of Supervisors and of all boards
cr&ited under the provisions of the act, except-
ing- the Board of Education and the Board of
Assessors.
Common Council. — A majority of alder-
men can do business and a minority can meet
and adjourn. A meeting of the Council may
be called at any time by the mayor or acting
niaj-or. On a request from six aldermen, the
mayor shall call a meeting within 24 hours. AH
aldermen shall be given a personal notice of the
same. All aldermen can be forced to attend
Council meetings. Non-attendance makes each
subject to a fine of not more than $5. An alder-
man remaining away four weeks in succession,
unless sick or excused, vacates his position.
Vacancies may be filled by the Council until the
next charter election. Aldermen are to re-
ceive §2 per session of the Council. At the first
annual meeting of the council it shall elect a
president, who may vote on all occasions. In
case of a tie vote, the mayor shall break it. The
Council shall be the judge of the election and
qualification of its own members and shall have
the power to make its ov\-n rules and by-laws.
It shall have the power to apiX)int a city at-
torney, a street commissioner and a city en-
gineer by a majority vote. Any officer appoint-
ed may be removed by a two-thirds vote of the
Council, but the mayor, recorder, police jus-
tice and justices of the peace cannot be thus
remo\ed. Ordinances may be passed by a
majority vote. The Council has supervisory
control over all ofHcers, agents and employees
of the city, and over all boards and commis-
sions.
No aldermen shall be personally interested
in any public contract or in the sale or furnish-
ing of any labor, material, merchandise or sup-
plies to the city, any ward or any official
thereof. No alderman shall vote upon any
question in which he has any direct personal in-
terest. An alderman violating any of these
provisions is guilty of a misdemeanor.
The Council shall control all finances, rights
and interests, buildings and property belonging
to the city.
The Coimcil can control by ordinance the
river so far as navigation, ferries, docks, etc.,
arc concerned ; can control and regulate erection
of buildings; prescribe location of buildings;
can appoint sealer of weights and measures;
can prevent paupers being brought to the city;
can lay out and regulate management of market
places; can preserve peace, restrain gambling,
license hotels, saloons, plumbers ; punish drunk-
ards, vagrants, beggars, fortune tellers, disor-
derly persons; license circuses; define what con-
stitutes a nuisance; regulate slaughter houses
and buildings for storage of explosives; prevent
obstructions on streets, alleys and sidewalks;
control riding or driving on streets; prevent
dogs running at large; designate routes of
parades; establish pounds; prevent desecration
of the Sabbath ; protect cemeteries ; erect City
Hall and needful buildings; can acquire works
by purchase or otherwise for the purpose of
supplying the city with electric light, power or
heat ; regulate the setting of awnings, posts,
etc. ; license pawnbrokers, auctioneers, butchers;
regulate weights and measures ; assess and col-
lect taxes ; employ all persons confined in jail
for non-payment of fines ; punish offenders of
oi'dinances ; purchase land for cemetery outside
of city; apjjoint fire wardens; light alleys and
streets; regulate construction of and clean cel-
lars, slips, barns, drains, etc. ; prescribe rules
for undertakers; regulate soliciting of guests
for hotels ; fix jurors' fees ; regtilate construc-
tion of partition fences, walls or buildings ; reg-
ulate crowds at fires by police ; inspect boilers ;
regulate laying of gas pipes; regulate quality
and weight of bread; regulate height of tele-
phone and other poles ; regulate stringing of
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
wires, and conducting of telephone exchanges;
require building permits ; construct a city mar-
ket ; prescribe conditions of hcenses for tran-
sient traders; own voting machines; own and
operate system of water-works.
The Council shall control all streets, side-
walks and alleys; authorize running of rail-
roads and street railways, and designate ma-
terial to be used ; can change the route of any
such railway; can acquire private property for
public purposes; can issue bonds for any pur-
pose if sanctionetl by a majority vote of the
electors.
The Comttroller shall at the end of the
fiscal year, emling March ist in each year,
make out a detailed statement of all receipts and
expenditures of the city for the past year.
This statement must be signed by the mayor
and recorder, and filed in the latter's office.
The comptroller shall keep the finance
accounts of the city, and countersign all bonds,
and orders on the treasury. He shall jnake a
full statement of the financial accounts of the
city and print tlie same. He shall sign all con-
tracts and agreements on behalf of the city, and
shall make all purchases for tlie city or its offi-
cers. He shall keep a complete set of books
showing the condition of the city's finances.
The comptroller shall have the power to
appoint a deputy and such other assistants as
he may require, to be approved by the Common
Council. He may revoke such appointments,
His salary is fixed at $3,000; he is to pay his
assistants.
The comptroller is cx-ofHcio a member of
the Board of Supervisors.
The Recorder shall keep a record of all
ordinances. He may appoint a deputy, to be
paid by the Council. He shall be responsible
for the acts and faults of such deputy and may
remove him at pleasure. As clerk of the Com-
mon Council his salary is $1,000; as clerk of
the Board of Education, his salary is $500.
The Treasurer is the collector of taxes
and assessments. He has the power to appoint
one or more deputies, to be approved by the
Council, and may make and revoke such
appointment at his pleasure. The salary is
$3,000 in full for himself and deputies.
The City Attorney shall be appointed by
the Council and shall be the coimselor and
solicitor for the city. He is cx-oMdo a mem-
ber of the Board of Supervisors. His term is
two years. His annual salary, which cannot be
less than $1,300, is to be tixed by the Council.
Street Commissioner, — The term of office
of street commissioner shall be two years. He
shall be responsible for the wagons, sprinklers,
tools, etc., of the city and shall have care of the
streets and alleys.
City Engineer. — The term of office of
city engineer shall be two years. The salary
is to be determined by the Council.
Water Works Committee, — The mayor
shall annually appoint at the second meeting of
the Council in April, or as soon thereafter as
convenient, four aldermen who, with the mayor,
shall constitute this committee which shall
have full charge of the Water Works Depart-
ment. It shall submit a monthly report to the
Council. It shall have all the powers of the
present Board of Water Works, At its first
meeting a presi<lent pro tern shall be appointed,
to hokl office for one year.
Board of Health. — On nomination of the
mayor, the Council at the first meeting in April
shall appoint four persons, electors and prac-
ticing physicians, who, with the mayor, shall
constitute the Board of Health. One of its
members shall be secretary, who is the only one
to receive a salary, this to be fixed by the
Council.
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
Fire Committee. — The mayor and four
akiermen shall forai this committee, which shall
have entire charge of the Fire Department.
They shall ser\'e without compensation and
no member thereof shall hold any other politi-
cal office. All officers and members of the
present department shall be retained during
good behavior. There shall be no appeal from
the committee's decision when any member is
dismissed.
Police CoMMiTTEE.-^The mayor and four
aldermen, appointed by himself, shall form this
committee, which shall meet on the second
Tuesday of each month and at any other time
the mayor shall direct. The recorder is clerk
of the committee. The Council shall by ordin-
ance prescribe the powers and duties to be
exercised by this committee and shall place
under the direction of the committee, subject
to the supervisory control of the Council, the
care, control and management of the police
force. No member of the department shall l.)e
removed without cause and all police officers
now in office in Bay City and West Bay City
shall remain in office until removed for cause.
Electric Light Committee. — The mayor
and four aldermen, appointed by himself, shall
constitute this committee, which sliall have
entire control of the electric light works. Any
person holding stock or in any way interested
in an electric light company shall be disqualified
for meiTibership. The powers and duties of
the committee shall be prescribed by ordinance
of the Council.
Board of Assessors. — This board shall
be composed of the comptroller and two elect-
ors and the president shall be the comptroller,
who himself receives no pay. The salary of
the other members is to be fixed by the Council.
The assessors shall be members of the Board
of Supervisors. The duties of this board are
the same as that of the present Board of
Board of Public Works.— The mayor
city comptroller, city engineer, with two elect-
ors appointed by the Council, constitute this
board. The city engineer and electors shall not
hold any elective office under the charter. The
members of this board shall receive $150 per
year. The board shall have exclusive charge
and management of all public buildings and
without its recommendation no contracts for
public work can be let by the Council.
Local Improvements and Assessments.
— The consolidated city charter on this subject
is similar to the present charter of Bay City.
The expense of paving, etc., is to be charged to
the property specially benefited thereby, accord-
ing to the benefits deri\'ed therefrom. The
general fund of tlie city pays 30 per cent, of
the cost, the street and alley crossings are paid
out of the ward fund and the remainder by
tlie property specially benefitted.
The Council shall not order a street pa^ed
excepting by a three-fourths vote of all alder-
men elect. When any pavement is jjetitioned
for by a majority vote of the property owners,
a majority vote of the Council can pass the
measure. All public work shall be estimated
by the Board of Public Works and bids shall
be asked.
Money collected on local tax rolls shall be
placed to the credit of the fund for wdiich the
same is collected and used in paying ofif the
bonds covering the special improvement. Be-
fore July 1st each year the Board of
Public Works shall report to the Comicil what
amount is needed for special improvements in
order that the amount may be raised by
bonding.
General Taxation. — The Council may
raise annually by tax such sum of money as
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
may l)e necessary, not exceeding two per cent.,
aside from the school tax on the real and per-
sonal property of the city. The Council shall
direct on July 20th the amount of money to be
raised. The Board of Education by a major-
ity \-ote shall determine the amount of money
to be raised for school purposes. Every alder-
man shall recommend the amount to be raised
for ward purposes, not exceeding one per cent.
The State law governing general taxation shall
prevail. The Board of Review shall consist
of the Board of Assessors, Board of Public
Works (except city engineer) and city attorney-.
l'"ive shall constitute a quorum.
LiGHTixG. — It sliall be lawful for the city
to purchase or to construct, operate and main-
tain either independent or in connection with
water -works, within or without the city, works
for the supplying of the city or vicinity with
gas, electric or other lights. A two-thirds vote
of the aldermen is necessary to authorize and
operate the lighting systems now owned by
the city of Bay City and West Bay City, as now
used, operated and maintained for municipal
and commercial lighting.
The city is authorized to borrow not exceed-
ing one-half of one per cent, for the construc-
tion of lighting works. The Council may
raise money with which to make repairs and
alterations in extending the city lighting
works.
The Police Court of Bay City is re-
tained. It has exclusive jurisdiction over all
criminal cases arising within the city limits,
trying offenders under the ordinances and
State laws and holding the defendants m fel-
onies for trial in the Circuit Court. The pres-
ent police justice is to retain his position until
the second Monday of April, 1907, at which
time the Council shall designate one of the jus-
tices of the peace of Bay City to handle Police
Court business, paying the justice $500 a year
for the work. The court shall be open at all
reasonable hours, excepting Sundays and holi-
days. The Comicil can prescribe by ordinance
for the holding of the sessions of the court.
The police shall bring ail persons charged with
offenses promptly before the court for a hear-
ing. Persons can be punished by the justice
for contempt of court.
It is the duty of police officers to serve all
processes issued out of the Police Court.
Upon the written request of the justice, the
Council can designate one or more officers to
attend the court. No policeman shall take any
convicted prisoner away to prison. This is
made the duty of the sheriff.
Wellnesses refusing to appear in court and
gi\'e testimony can be attached and held in the
County Jail until needed, not to exceed thirty
days. The city shall have the use of the
County Jail for the imprisonment of all persons
convicted under ordinances.
The present salary of the police justice is
$1,800. Until the present justice goes out of
office, the salary is fixed by the charter at
?i,500. Neither the police justice nor the
justice of the peace is to receive any fees for
work done in the Police Court,
The police justice must keep a true record
of his proceedings. Fines must be turned over
to the county treasurer within 48 hours in
State cases, and to the city treasurer for viola-
tions of the city ordinances, to be used for
charitable purposes,
MiscELL.\KEOus. — All money except school
funds shall be drawn from the city treasury in
pursuance of an order from the Council by
warrant signed by the recorder and comptroller.
The treasurer shall exhibit to the Council at the
end of the fiscal year an annual statement.
A record of all ordinances shall be kept by
the recorder.
All ordinances, by-laws, regulations and
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
rules of the Councils of the cities of Bay City
and West Bay City now in force, and not incon-
sistent with this act, shall remain in force until
repealed or amended by the Council, under this
act, within the respective territories for which
they were originally adopted, provided that all
rights, privileges or franchises, heretofore
granted to any person, persons or corporations,
shall he continued in force by this act, and they
shall extend over the entire consolidated city.
Within one year after the first annual elec-
tion, the Council shall cause all acts and parts
of acts of incorporation to be revised and cor-
rected so as to conform to the provisions of
said acts, and print the same in book form,
AH new plats of land within the city must
be approved by the Council. It is a misde-
meanor to sell lots from plats that have not been
thus approved.
All deeds, conveyances, etc., shall be exe-
cuted by the mayor and recorder as directed by
the Council.
All official bonds shall be filed widi the
recorder for safe keeping.
The city need give no bond in any litigation.
All city employes shall be witnesses in suits
without charging fees.
.'Ml accounts against the city must be ac-
companied by an affidavit.
Any officer who resigns shall turn over all
books, papers and moneys to his successor. A
violation of this is a misdemeanor.
No loan shall be made by the Common
Council in any year exceeding die amounts pre-
scribed in this act. Old bonds may be re-
funded. Bonds shall bear a legal rate of in-
terest. The comptroller shall keep a correct
account of all bonds outstanding.
The major, city attorney, comptroller and
city assessors shall be members of the Board of
Supervisors, and get the same pay as other
members. Supervisors of wards shall exercise
the same functions as those of townships.
Public Schools. — The territory embraced
by the two cities shall constitute the Union
School District of Bay City, which shall be
subject to the general laws of the State.
All members of both Boards of Education
elected in 1903 shall hold office until the first
Saturday in October, 1905. All elected in
1904 shall hold their office until the first Sat-
urday in October, 1906. On the first Saturday
in October, 1906, and every two years there-
after, one member shall be elected in each ward.
No person holding any other office or ap-
pointment under the city government shall be
eligible to membership on the Board of Edu-
cation.
l~lie recorder shall be c.v-o/Jicio clerk of the
Board of Education. If he fail to discharge
his duties, he may be removed. The city treas-
urer is c.v-ofHcio treasurer of the school district.
He must give bond to the board. If he fail,
the Ijoard may appoint another treasurer.
School moneys may be deposited in a bank
paying the largest interest. School funds shall
nut be loane<I to any member of the board. The
recorder and comptroller must sign all orders
on the school fund.
The Board of Education shall have full
[lower to purchase school sites, build and fur-
nish school houses, maintain schools, hire su-
perintendent and teachers, etc. It shall also
have authority to establish one or more high
schools.
Before June 20th each year, the board shall
iletermine die amount of money necessary to
he raised by taxes for the support of the schools.
The same shall be reported to the comptroller,
who shall spread the amount upon the assess-
ment rolls. One per cent, per year can be
raised for school purposes, not including the
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
payment of bonded indebtedness. The board is
authorized to borrow money by bonding, but it
must be authorized by a majority vote of all
taxpayers. Interest higher than 5 per cent,
sliall not be paid. The board may refund
bonds.
At the first regular meeting of the board
held after each election the board shall elect a
president and vice-president. It may adopt
rules and ordinances.
No member of the Board of Education
shall be personally interested in any contract
with the hoard, nor interested in the sale of
property to the district. No member shall
vote on any question, in which he is personally
interested.
Public Libraries.— At the first meeting
of the Board of Education herein provided for
(third Tuesday in April, 1905, or as soon there-
after as convenient), the board shall appoint
six persons, who, with the president of the
board, shall be trustees of the Public Library
or Libraries. Their terms of office shall be
one, two, three, four, five and six years respec-
tively. One member shall be appointed an-
nually thereafter to serve six years. They
will be known as the Board of Trustees of the
Public Libraries of Bay City. The president
of the Board of Education shall be ex~officio
chairman of the library trustees.
An annual tax of $2,000 shall be ordered
raised by the Council for library purposes.
The city treasurer shall be the custodian of
the board's funds.
The ministers of the Presbyterian, Meth-
odist, Baptist, Congregational, Catholic, Ger-
man Lutheran, Episcopal and Swedish
churches, the president of the Board of Educa-
tion, superintendent of schools, mayor and five
citizens of the West Side shall be trustees for
the Sage Library,
Six hundred dollars a year shall be raised
by the Council for the annual addition of books.
Enough money to pay the librarian and janitor
shall also be raised.
Hosted by
Google
CHAPTER IX.
Bay County's Lumber, Salt and Coal Industries and Transportation Facilities,
Pleasant it was, when woods were green
And winds were soft and low,
To lie amid some sylvan scene,
Where, the long drooping boughs between,
Shadows dark and sunlight sheen
Alternate come and go ;
O wl
1 d
Igh
d kf I g
b k f f leaves,
II 1 p ]g eaves,
h d w h dl move.
Before me rose an avenue
0£ tali and sombrous pines ;
Abroad their fan-like branches grew.
And, where the sunlight darted through.
Spread a vapor soft and blue,
In long and sloping lines.
— Longfellow.
The Pine Tree's Lament! I am the mon-
arch of the forest. My proud head far over-
steps my smaller, and yet ambitious, compan-
ions. In vain do they wisli to become my
equal. With dismay do they reahze their
inabihty to do so, for I am the giant, and they
tile pigmies. Beneath my branches may they
take refuge from tlie impending storm but
never to become as great and as majestic as I.
Fortunate is it that they are small. Little do
they realize the terrible fate which awaits such
as I. Were I of the pigmy family, I would
he passed over in silence, to remain in the
enjoyment of the rest of my days. But great
beings like myself are never allowed to die
from natural causes. Nay! We are plucked
like the budding rose in the bloom of youth.
The winds of a hundred winters have whistled
through my branches. On and on might I live,
but for the relentless, unceasing ravages of the
woodsmen's army. My time will soon come.
The progress of the so-called civilization de-
mands my downfall. And then my present
envious fellows may have the satisfaction of
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
seeing- my life ebb. I can foresee my fate. In
the autumn the army of woodsmen will invade
the quiet of the forest, and with their glisten-
ing axes will begin chopping at my very base.
My thick coating of bark, that has protected
me through the chilly blasts of winter, cannot
withstand their sharp blades. My body is
penetrated after a succession of powerful
blows, and a few strokes of the cross-cut saw
complete the mischief. I totter, tremble, and
then fall with a creaking, crashing noise, ending
in a heavy thud that thunderingly echoes
through the forest. I am down, and at the
mercy of those who so ruthlessly ended my
existence. They pounce upon me like wild
beasts upon a fawn. At their mercy as I am,
they stand upon me and gloat over their
superiority, in my fall my branches bring
neighboring trees to the ground as weli, and
with these in my grasp I had hoped to strike
my destroyers, but their agility and foresight
kept them out of reach. Standing on either
side of my prostrate form, these knights of the
axe and saw measure my body into various
lengths, and to make my destruction more com-
plete, they saw through my side until my limbs
are severed and my body cut into as many
lengths as they deem fit. The top that once tow-
ered above the forest is left to an igtiominous
end. Each of the several portions of my body
are inspected and dien the bark from a portion
of one side is stripped off, and trampled under
foot. Then a sleigh with a team of oxen or
horses comes along. Onto this sleigh am I
bolted with a ponderous chain, and in an
instant, at the crack of the blacksnake whip, I
am hauled out into the skidway. This I find
is two logs laid parallel and about 1 1 feet apart.
On these am I lifted to remain until the com-
ing of snow and ice of another winter. Were I
near a winding river, I should be piled upon its
banks, to remain until the rush of waters in
spring would carry me on their bosom to its
mouth, there to be imprisoned in a boom, until
such times as my captors decide to haul me over
the blue waters of the bay to the great metrop-
olis Oil the mightier river. Were there no river
I should find the skidway on a cut by the rail-
way. With hundreds of my species I would be
piled on a fiat car and whirled at great speed
up grades, around dizzy curves, through vil-
lages and towns, until here too I reach this
self-same city, where from a high trestle I am
dumped unceremoniously into the dark waters
of some mill boom. As I bob about some man
comes along with a long pole, in which is a
sharp brad and hook, with which he catches
and drags me alongside a row of other unfor-
tunates. Then I am liaule<l a prisoner to a
place which buzzes like a beehive. Some rude
jerks land me alongside of an inclined plane,
going up to and into a huge building whence
come all Uiis noise and confusion. Without
waniing a sharp hook of the continuous chain
catches my head and I am forcibly dragged
up the siuiceway into the noisy beehive. Then
two spiteful, ugly-looking, heavy sticks of
wood, rounded on top, and having se\-eral
sharp pieces of iron on the side, suddenly
spring out of their hiding places in the floor and
strike me a terrific blow on the side, sending
me upon an iron carriage. Two men on board
clinch me with iron teeth, and hold me so that
I cannot get away. A signal is given, the car-
riage begins to move, and in an instant a saw
is burying itself into my body. This operation
is repeated a few times, 1 am turned occas-
ionally so that my sides may be inspected and
soon I have lost my identity. I am no longer
a proud tree, but merely a squared piece of tim-
ber know'n as a "cant."
Such in truth was the course of all the
majestic pines that once made a "black forest"
of all this valley and the country for hundreds
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
of miles to the northward. True, this lone
tree nmst have escaped the earlier visitations,
for the sawmdls and logging camps underwent
great changes in the course of years. The
lumbermen sought to save the waste, reduce
the loss and diminish the cost of production.
Wonderful labor-saving machinery replaced
the original primitive metliods. The capacity
of the mills was doiibletl and trebled by sim-
ple devices suggested by the ingenuity of indi-
viduals and the experience of years.
The fine logs first go to the band-saw,
where the operator cuts each board to the best
advantage as the face of the log may indicate
after a few cuts. At this point we have the
wide, thick sidings, known as "uppers." The
central portion, probably 12 inches through, is
passed over on rollers to the gang feed-rolls,
which carry it into the series of gang-saws,
that saw it into the ordinary stock boards of
modern hnnberyards. The wide, thick uppers
or Bi<lings, varying in size, are passed aver
li\'e rollers to a parallel edger, where two trans-
fer chains take it. The skidway operator will
set the saws so that the best jMssible quantity
of clear lumber will be obtained. Usually
only the wane, sap and bark is taken off the
two edges. The pieces taken off are of var-
ious widths — in butt logs from one to eight
inches thick. These are cut into various
lengths for staves, lath, sashstulT and shorts.
The loss incurred here by the okl mills would
today more than pay for the running of the
whole plant. Expert sawyers get the good
boards squared at the correct length with the
first cut. Next the boards are rapidly sorted,
the square-edge stock boards go to the trimmer,
while the others go to the edger. Expert
trimmers next remove all shaky ends, rotten
butts, and waney ends, so as to be fit for mar-
keting, as first, second, or third grades. Ex-
pert sorters next pile the boards on separate
cars, according to grades, and these are
pushed over the tramway to their respective
piles. About 75 per cent, of the output of
modern sawmills are stock boards. The rest
are mill culls, for home consumption, and
shipping culls for shipment. The slabs which
years ago went to waste in the refuse burners
are to-day cut up for staves, lath, and sliingles
or Ik>x boards, and the remainder is cut in stove
lengths for fire-wood, and commands good
prices. Fortunes have been wasted in the old,
crude manner of sawing logs and the reckless
slaughter of the pines, when only the best was
preserved, and all else went to waste.
When Judge Albert Miller laid out the
prospective village of Portsmouth, he realized
that his first requirement would be a sawmill,
to supply the lumber for the homes of the
prospective settlers, for there seemed to be tim-
ber enough along the river to supply all the
then known world. In 1836 Cromwell Bar-
ney began the erection of the framework for
the sawmill, while Judge Miller went to Huron,
Ohio, to buy a second-hand engine and machin-
ery. The influx of immigrants from New
York and the East kept all the lake craft busy
and, as it was then November, it took Judge
ililler two weeks at Detroit before he bought
the schooner "Elizabeth Ward" for $2,000 to
make the trip, he to furnish his own crew.
After [jlacing all the machinery aboard, to-
gether with several thousand dollars worth of
provisions, the boat started up the Detroit
River, November 22, 1836. The Indian trail
to Fhnt was deep with mud, and he had to
leave his horse at Flint, and continue home
on foot. When he reached home he found the
river frozen over solidly, and no sign from the
\-essel ! Daily for a week he went to the mouth
of the river on the ice, but to no purpose, —
the boat never came. Finally he learned that
his captain and four $2,50 per day sailors had
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
tied up at Port Huron and were living easy on
his supplies! Judge Miller made another
trying trip to Port Huron, where he fired the
crew, and arranged to have the machinery
Iiauled over on sleds, which had to cross the
wilds of St. Clair, Macomb, Oakland, Genes-
see and Saginaw counties, a lurid experience,
full of hazards and hardships ! But by April
I, 1837, the mill was ready for operations, and
that day the first pine log was cut within the
borders of Bay County. The mill erected
under such primitive and trying circumstances
was soon silenced by the panic of 1837, and all
the fond hopes of the farseeing mill operator
were shattered for awhile.
In 1841 James McCormick and his son,
James J. McCormick, came from the Titta-
bavvassee Indian field, and reopened the mill.
They shipped the first boat-load of lumber to
Detroit in 1842, the cut being 60 per cent,
iippers, for which they received $8 per thous-
and, one third down, the rest in eight and 10
months! The "Conneaut Packet," Capt.
George Raby commanding, carried this first
load of hmiber out of die wood-bound stream.
Thousands of cargoes followed in after years,
following mainly the course of that first boat-
load down the Detroit River. James J. Mc-
Cormick operated the mill until 1849, when the
gold fever called him to California. It was
destroyed by fire in 1862.
In 1844-45 James Fraser, in association
with Cromwell Barney and Israel CatHii,
erected the water-mill at KawkawUn. In
1845-46 the first sawmill was built in Bay City
proper, by James Fraser, Hopkins and Pome-
roy, on the site where 60 years after, Samuel
G. M. Gates is still busy converting logs into
lumber! In 1847 James Fraser and Israel
Catlin built the mill, later known as the Jen-
nison & Rouse mill, on Water street, between
9th street and McKinley avenue. More than
a dozen mills sprang up along the river front
from 1850 to 1854, and by 1857 there were
already 14 mills, the output o£ each mill aver-
aging from 1,500,000 to 4,000,000 feet per
annum.
When Bay City began its corporate exist-
ence in 1865, there were iS sawmills in opera-
tion on the East Side, six on the West Side
and one at Kawkawlin. Here are those pioneer
mills with their output in that memorable year :
Nathan B. Bradley, 6,800,000 feet; Fay &
Gates, 4,500,000; Samuel Pitts, 6,800,000;
Watrous & Southworth, 3,000,000; Young,
1,200,000; Miller & Post, 4,000,000; Peter &
Lewis, 4,000,000; James J. McCormick, 4,-
400,000 ; J. F. Rust Company 4,000,000 ;
James Watson, 3,000,000; William Peter, 7,-
200,000; Miller & Company, 6,000,000; H. M.
Bradley, 4,000,000; Jennison & Cathn, 3,500,-
000; James Shearer, 6,815,000; Dolson &
Walker, 1,500,000; McEwan & Fraser, 6,000,-
000; Braddock, 3,000,000. Hon. Nathan B.
Bradley, Samuel G. M. Gates, and Charles E.
Jennison alone remain, to celebrate with us
this 40th anniversary of that season. On the
West Side, the Huron Company cut 3,180,000
feet ; Sage & McGraw, 9,000,000 ; Drake
Brothers, 3,000,000; Bolton, 5,500,000; Tay-
lor & Moulthrop, 6,000,000; Moore & Smith,
7,000,000; while the Kawkawlin mill cut 5,-
000,000 feet,
George W. Hotchkiss, historian of Bay
City in 1876, the centennial year, in accordance
with the suggestion made to the cities of the
country by President Rutherford B. Hayes,
speaks of those early mills in the Lumberman's
Exchange as follows : "These sawmills all
used gate, muley or circular saws, producing
200,000,000 feet of lumber and 2,000,000
cords of sawdust annually. The saws were
six-gauge circulars, swayed to four-gauge, and
the sawdust heap rivaled the lumber pile!"
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
219
Sage & McGraw were the first to introduce
the modern gang-saw. In 1880 there were 32
sawmills, but their capacity was three times
that of the 24 mills along the river here in
1865. In 1865 it cost almost as much to
handle the sawdust and slabs as it did to handle
the lumber produced, but all this changed with
tlic general introduction of the small-gauge
gang-saws. In 1853 a local mill-owner
wagered a bottle of champagne that his circu-
lar-saw would average 1,500 feet per hour all
day ! He won, but it took his edger crew half
the night to clear up the Uimber such an unus-
ual cut had buried them under ! The gang-
saws changed all this, averaging from 6,000
to 9,000 feet per hour, and the edgers cut now
with the double edger.
The list of mills on the river here had the
new additions, in 1875, of Brooks & Adams,
Charles M. Smith & Company and Laderbach
Brothers, Salzlnirg; Keystone Salt & Lumber
Company, Banks; and Chapin & Barber, John
Carrier Company, Hay, Butman & Company,
Eddy, Avery & Company, S. H. \\'ebster,
Pitts & Cranage, Folsom & Arnold, Rust &
Company, Ames Brothers, and J. M. Rouse, on
the East Side, with cuts for the year running
from 1,000.000 lo the 15.000,000 feet, cut by
the Sage mill. In 1879 the West Side had the
mills of R. J. Briscoe, E. J. Hargrave, who
in 1905 is still sawing away at the good old
mill on the Middle Ground; L. L. Hotchkiss,
Murpliy & Dorr, W. H. Malone, now interested
in B. H. Briscoe & Company; B. W. Mer-
rick, and Peter Smith & Sons. The junior
members of the last named firm, Peter C. and
Charles J. Smith, are still in the harness in
1905. The East Side had added the mills of
F. E. Bradley, S. McLean & Son, MiHer &
Lewis, A. Chesbrough and the mammoth
plant of T. H. McGraw & Company. The cut
of the Sage mill in 1880 was 29,388,976 feet.
whiie McGraw passed this great record easily
with 34,000,000 feet! The total for 1880 was
422,783,141 feet of lumber, in addition to
lath, staves, shingles, etc. ! The billion mark
was next set and passed by the collective efforts
of all the mills in Bay County. What wonder
that the forests vanished like a dream of the
night before this onslaught, and by 1885 the
question of log supply began to haunt the
plans of the mill owners and operators. Ten
years later, Congress cut off the only remaining
supply of pine logs in Canada, and the death
knell had sounded for the main industry here
for the 60 years since the first mill was started
by Judge Miller.
As we look back over the lumber data for
those 60 years, we cannot help but marvel at
the good fortune attending its development.
For after all there nnist be a demand for lum-
ber, before so many sawmills could be profit-
ably operated. And the growth of our lumber
industry during all those j'ears merely kept
pace with the growth and development of the
country at large, and more particularly of the
Middle West. New wood-working industries
sprang up, demanding the product of our mills,
and seldom was there much of the manufac-
tured product left unsold upon the ri\'er docks
during all those years. Since these cities were
then altogether dependent upon the lumber
industry, the weal and woes of the lumebr
trade were of vital importance to the entire
community. The artisan, mechanic, laborer,
merchant, and farmer, all felt the beneficent
influence of good lumber prices and ready
sales.
Until 1885 the mil! workers were content
to work 12 hours each day during the summer
season, and each winter most of them went
into the lumber woods and logging camps for
the same employers. With the advent of
shorter hours of labor for many crafts all over
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
the country, and the very evident limitations
of Michigan's future log supply, the sawmill
employes also sought to improve their working
conditions. "Ten hours or no sawdust" was
their slogan, and for a few weeks in that year
the mills were idle. But prices of lumber were
high, the demand great, experienced sawyers
scarce, and the men were eventually granted
the lo hour work day, wiiich prevails in the
various branches of the lumber industry all
over the country to this day.
With the advent of other and varied indus-
tries, the hardwood logging camps have found
it quite difficult to find swampers, skidders, and
sawyers who understand the business and are
willing to go into the woods, and consequently
wages for this work have also materially in-
creased in recent years.
Considerable logging is still being clone in
Garfield, Gibson and Mount Forest townships,
supplying the woodenware works and hoop fac-
tories. Portable sawmills move about the west-
ern townships, clearing the land now wanted for
farming and furnishing the lumber for the
homes, barns and fences of the rural inhabi-
tants. These wooded townships have for years
supplied the oak timber for -Davidson's ship-
yard, and thousands of feet have been shipped
abroad, much of it going to England in, earlier
years. The oak timber was very large and of
the best quality, but is now almost exhausted
in this immediate vicinity. Tamarack, for
upper deck beams and similar ship-building
purposes, plenty of fine oak timber, and tall
straight pines for masts and spars, made the
construction of wooden ships here both easy
and profitable. For many years, oak timber
delivered in the river brought $165 per 1,000
cubic feet. Re<1 oak figures to this day largely
in the manufacture of staves and is still quite
plentiful in the territory tributary to Bay City.
Since brick and asphalt are the favored
paving materials, the cedar of this vicinity
goes largely into railroad work and fence
posts.
Bird's-eye and other maple abound in this
vicinity, as <lo birch, beech, hemlock, white
ash, butternut and similar woods of great value
for the furniture and carriage-building busi-
ness, but until now such lumber has been
shipped to Grand Rapids and other furniture
manufacturing centers. Apparentlj' no onje
has ever thought of saving all that freight on
the timber and lumber, by putting up those
factories in the midst of this timber supply,
cheap fuel and our easy and cheap shipping
facilities! Elm and black ash still abound
here, and are used extensively in the manufac-
tui'e of barrels, staves and hoops.
The soft woods, such as bass, poplar, etc,
also abound hereabouts, making excellent pulp
for making paper, and several of the less well
situated and smaller cities to the north have
within recent years erected large tanneries and
paper pulp mills, while somehow, here too,
Bay City's preeminent advantages have been
totally overlooked.
Plaining mills and box factories have to
some extent replaced the great sawmills, but
there is still much room for kindred wooil-
working industries.
The rejuvenated Bay City Board of Trade
should make a study of these industries, their
source of raw material supply, and similar ad-
vantages and seek to secure some of these mod-
ern plants for this city. With the combined
efforts of both sides of the river, there is still
a chance to develop industries for the finer
manipulation of the remaining timber and lum-
ber supply, which once established are bound
to bring kindred institutions to this locality.
Pine is no longer king here, but there are stiSI
thousands of acres of other and equally valu-
able timber tracts witliin easy hauling distance
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
of Day City, and with proper study and en-
couragenieiit, new and e\'en more profitable
br.-.nclies of the hmiber industry could be
brought here. This is conclusively proven by
the roster of our sawmills still in operation in
J905, with their constantly increasing business
in mixe<l hardwood, as eiuiiiierated in the
leading indiistries of Greater Bay City.
A roster of the sawmills still in operation
in 1905, the survivors of our "Piny Days,"
will include the Courval mill, the Detroit mill
and those of Wyllie & Buell, J. J. Flood, Knee-
lanil-Bigelow Company, E. J. Hargrave, J. R.
Hitchcock, Kern Manufacturing Company,
Canipbell-Bro^vn Lumber Company, and Sam-
uel (i. M. Gates. The log supply comes en-
tirely from the north by rail, branch roads tap-
ping Ihe very heart of the timber belt, and the
mills are no longer dependent upon the snow
and ice of winter or the floods of spring to haul
and flood their log supply precariously to the
mill boom. The W. D. Young & Company's
bnrilwood plant in Salzburg is one of the largest
of its kind in the world. The lumber-yards of
Mershon. Schnette. Parker & Company, E. B.
Foss & Company, and Bradley, Miller & Com-
pany, the last named on the West Side, are
immense institutions, whose busy (locks are
vivid reminders of the palmiest days of this
great industry. All have large planing-mills
and accessories, where the lumber is finished for
the finer trade. A score of smaller plants are
engaged in the same line of the lumber trade,
and altogether Bay County still ranks high in
the country's statistics of the lumber industry.
The act admitting Michigan into the Union
of States, passed by Congress in 1836. provided
among other things that all salt springs in the
State, not exceeding 12 in number, with six
sections of land adjoining each, might be
selected by the State, and in pursuance thereof
the Legislature in July, 1836, authorized the
Governor to make the selection. Most of the
lands selected were in the Grand Ri\-er basin,
one was selected at the month of the Salt River
on the Tittabawassee. Dr. Houghton, State
geologist, commenced boring for salt and con-
tinued until June 15, 1838, when his appropria-
tion was exhausted and the work abandoned.
It was Dr. Houghton's opinion at that lime
that the center of the salt basin was the Sagi-
naw Valley.
In 1859 Judge James Birney, of Bay City,
succeeded in getting a bill through the Legisla-
ture providing for a bounty of 10 cents per
bushel on salt. This stimulated more boring,
and in June, i860, the flow of brine was struck
600 feet beneath the surface. A!! the business
men in the valley at once came down with the
"salt fever!"
The Portsmouth Salt Company was organ-
izetl March 13, i860, with James J. McCor-
mick, Appleton Stevens, B. F. Beckwith, A. D.
Braddock. Albert Miller, Charles E. Jennison,
W. Daglish and William R. McCormick as in-
corporators. The Bay Cily Salt Company
filed its articles of association May 18. i860,
James Eraser, D. H. Fitzhugh. H. M. Fitz-
hugh, Curtis Munger and Algernon S. Munger
being the incorporators. In June, 1 861. the
South End company produced the first salt in
Bay County. The Bay City company had
their well on the site of the Michigan Pipe
Company's plant. The two were sunk pur-
posely far apart, as there were many people
who believed that the supply of brine would
soon be exhausted at the rate xvells were going
down.
However it has since been found that there
is an inexhaustible supply of brine rock under-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
lying Bay County, and that a limitless supply
of fine brine may be secured for the mere
pumping. For more than 40 years this pump-
ing has been going on here, and the supply is
as good and plenty as ever.
The North American Chemical Company
came here chiefly because of this flow of brine,
and they would also like to secure rock salt
for some of their chemicals. In 1901 they
bored to a depth of 3,500 feet, without striking
the salt rock, and the drill becoming fast, the
work was abandoned. Another attempt is
soon to be made, as geologists are satisfied
that this salt rock does exist. The coal mine
shafts have not touched it because they do not
go down that far. Oddly enough, the boring
for these salt-wells all went through the exten-
sive vein of bituminous coal, but the borers
were intent on salt, and passed everything else
by.
The brine of the Bay County salt-wells
stands at 96 and 98 by the salinmeter, and is
quite free from troublesome impurities, or
"bitter water" as the salt trade calls them. Dr.
S. S. Garrigues was the first salt inspector ap-
pointed by the Governor, and from that dny
to this the inspection of the salt has been rigid,
and the supply to the markets of the world
correspondingly pure and wholesome. The
cheap means of securing good barrels here pre-
sented from the first a ready and good means
of salt packing.
The original kettle system of evaporation
early gave way to the pan system, where the
exhaust steam from the sawmills did the \\ork
of evaporation. This kept the cost of produc-
tion at a minimum, and provided new uses for
the waste materials of the sawmills. The brine
of Canada is equally good, and labor cheaper,
but by this means the local salt-wells managed
to compete with them successfully. The ear-
liest salt shipments brought $1.40 per barrel.
and the cost of manufacture in connection with
the sawmills was computed at from 60 to 80
cents per barrel. This included all labor, cost
of barrel and packing. It will readily be seen
that there was a good margin at first, but the
price gradually came down.
Bay County salt has long been distin-
guished in the world's markets, because it does
not cake in the barrels, a characteristic of all
rock salts. This non-caking quality makes Bay
County salt very desirable, but it has been
found that the producers of caking rock salt
ha\'e placed false labels on their product, hav-
ing it appear as Saginaw Valley salt. This in-
duced the Legislature in April, 1905, to send
a committee to Chicago and other salt shipping
points to investigate these impositions, with a
view to passing a law making this a criminal
offense.
The salt produced by the North American
Chemical Company is shipped almost exclu-
sively to Chicago and Duluth, in barrels and in
bulk, as the trade demands, the shipments be-
ing made iu large quantities by water. Their
new loading device will handle 100 tons of salt
per hour, and will expedite their salt business.
This mammoth plant now has 27 wells in op-
eration, al! being down 1,000 feet, and the
blocks supplied with the very latest devices for
securing absolutely pure salt. The results are
naturally far in advance of the earlier salt-
wells and blocks.
The mill-owners were quick to see the
profits of running salt-wells in connection with
their sawmills, and by 1865 practically every
sawmill had its salt-block annex. In 1865 over
$700,000 was invested in the salt industry
here, and the output exceeded 200.000 barrels.
As the mills increased, so did the salt-wells,
and in 1880 the production in Bay County was
more than goo,ooo barrels. In 1882 the State
inspection was made on 1,158,279 barrels, of
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
which 439,996 barrels were shipped by water,
ami over 550,000 barrels by rail.
The price declined steadily, as the produc-
tion increased, and in 1882 was down to 70
cents per barrel. In 1876 the salt manufactur-
ers orgJinized the Salt Association of Michi-
gan, Judge Albert Miller being vice-president,
and Thomas Cranage, treasurer, with John
McEwan, J. R. Hall, J. L. Dolsen, H. M.
Bradley and H. C. Moore, of Bay City, on the
executive board. The capital stock was $200,-
000, in 8,000 shares at $25 each. Bay City
had 15 out of 48 share-holders. Every man-
ufacturer in becoming a share-holder of the as-
sociation is obliged to execute and deliver a
contract for all salt manufactured by him, or
a lease of his salt manufacturing property.
Each member makes salt only on the associa-
tion's account, while the board of directors has
the power to determine the rate of advance in
the price of salt, and it also has the power of
appointing traveling or resident agents for tlie
sale of the salt. Such was this "Salt Trust"
in 1881, a very prototype of the much abused
combination of industry and capita!, — the trust
of 1905. But here the consumer coukl not
complain, because the price of table salt has
always been extremely low, owing to the un-
limited supply of this valley and its cheap pro-
duction. The remaining salt-wells arc inde-
pendent of the salt trust organized in the East
some years ago.
Salt is given some attention in the 32d an-
nual report, Michigan Bureau of Labor, for
the year 1904. The report quotes the rapid in-
crease of the salt industry in the salt basin dur-
ing the palmy days of the lumber industry. It
goes on to say that coal has to a large extent
become the fuel for operating the remaining
salt-wells, and unlike many other kindred in-
dustries, which were crippled by the exit of the
lumber industry, the manufacture of salt seems
to be little affected. Bay County now has four
of the 41 salt manufacturing institutions in
Michigan. With coal proving so easy of access
in the salt basin of Central Michigan, the State
authorities anticipate the gradual revi^'al of
the salt industry, as many savings are now ac-
complished that in Michigan will make up the
difference in the cost of fuel. This official re-
port for the year 1904 shows four plants in
operation in Bay County, which have been in
business for an average of 12 years. The ag-
gregate cost of these four plants is given at
$106,000, an average of $26,500 per plant; ag-
gregate annua! cost of repairs, $10,472, an
average of $2,618 per plant; aggregate daily
capacity, 1,445 barrels, an average of 361 per
plant ; aggregate number of barrels made in
1904, 272,502, an average of 68,125, ^^'^i'^ ii^
1903 the aggregate was 298,986 barrels, an
average of 74.746. Thirty-six per cent, of the
product was sold in bulk, 47 per cent, in l)ar-
rcls and 17 per cent, in table packages; 55 per
cent, of the output in Bay County was sold in
the State. The average daily wages were
$1.67 and 142 people were employed.
The historian of Bay City in 187G had his
suspicions that underneath his feet at no great
depth was a good layer of bituminous coal, for
had not the drills for salt-welts often brouglit
up bits of coal from strata of unknown thick-
ness? Even before that date Corunna, 40
miles to the south, had a mine in full opera-
tion. Outcroppings of coal were also found
all about the valley, particularly to the south
and east. But the populace at Bay City was
too busy slaughtering the pines, to care much
whether that vein of coal was three inches or
three feet thick. The refuse of the sawmills
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
furnished plenty and cheap fuel, hence there
was iio particular demand for cheap coaj. But
the chronicler of 1876 was certain that coal did
exist here, and he was equally certain, that
when \'eins worth working were opened, iron,
manufacture in all its forms would come to re-
place the lumber industry. His first surmise
has since been amply verifie<!, and we heartily
endorse his belief, that the iron and copper ore
of the Lake Superior region could be brouglit
here cheaper than to any of its present manu-
facturing points, having all the other advan-
tages offered by their present location, and
some good ones in addition thereto. Hence it
would seem that the business interests of
Greater Bay City should also take this propo-
sition in hand, through its Board of Trade.
Once convinced that we have all the facilities
for their purpose, the smelters and iron manu-
facturers will not be slow to take advantage of
them. Let us remember how minuteiy the beet
sugar business had to be demonstrated before a
single factory was secured, and let it be noted
how speedily these sugar factories multiplied
in Michigan, when once the success of the en-
terprise was assured! We predict that similar
results will follow the study of the iron indus-
try, as applied to local conditions with refer-
ence to the source of the raw material and the
eas\- access to the markets of the world, either
by water or rail.
This has in fact been the experience of the
coal industry itself in Bay County. When in
1897 Alexander Zagelmeyer and a few others
had proved by systematic and scientific borings
that coal existed in paying quantities under the
prosperous farms of Monitor and Frankenhist
township, when in that year the first shaft was
sunk for the original Michigan coal mine, and
a vein some four feet thick was worked, with
very little trouble from water, the future of the
bituminous coal industry in Bay County was
assured ! Men and capital were ready at once
to follow this lead, and in a few years Bay
County had 14 coal mines!
We find in the United States government
report on our country's mineral resources, that
there are 335,000 square miles of the bitu-
minous coal area. Michigan is called the
Northern field, and its coal area is limited to
the central part of the Lower Peninsula. The
discovery of paying coal veins here in J897
stimulated the sinking of coal shafts in all
parts of this area, so that in 1904 Michigan
ranks 22{.l in the list of coal-producing States,
v\here eight years before she had no rating at
all. We find in the State geological survey for
1904 the following general arrangement of the
Lower Michigan rocks: Drift for 65 feet, slate
50 to 100 feet, Upper Carbon coal group. Then
Parma, 100 feet; Gypsum, 300; Marshall
sandstone, 75; Coklwater shaies, 800: Berea
sandstones, 65 ; Antrim shales, 225 ; Traverse
group, 350; Dundee limestone, 100; Monroe
beds, 700, etc. The State geologist deplores
the fact that out of the numerous deep wells
put down in Bay County, only a few have pre-
served records of the rock formations trav-
ersed.
The deepest hole in Michigan's surface,
asi{le from the deep copper mines of the Upper
Peninsula, was the drill for rock salt of the
North American Chemical Company in the
South End, which reached a depth of over
3.500 feet before work on it was abandoned.
Drift was found for 120 feet; coal measures,
444; then 20 feet of limestone; and at a depth
of 586 feet the flow of 85 per cent, brine. Then
came sandrock down to 635 feet; sandy shale
for the next 25 feet; blue shale for 40 feet;
and at a depth of 712 feet came 10 feet of
gypsum. Then came 98 feet of blue shale; 10
of hard limerock, 80 of sandstone, and there,
at a depth of 920 feet, the second flow of brine.
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
loo per cent. All of Bay County's present salt-
Avells, by the way, reach this second flow of
brine. Then came 135 feet of red and white
shale, and so on down to 3,508 feet. Similar
rock formations are registered at Kawkawlin
and a salt-well in Hampton. The State geol-
ogist is still confident that rock salt exists be-
low that free flow of brine, but if it is more than
3,500 feet below the surface, it would not pay
to seciu^e it. Hence the attempt was given up,
but the experiment of the North American
Chemical Company has proven of much benefit
to future geological surveys at such great
depth in other parts of the State.
But to return to the discovery of a paying
vein of soft coal imtlerneath Bay County, and
its development. The Michigan mine was
quickly followed by the sinking of the Monitor
mine shaft. Expert coal miners were brought
here from Ohio. ISlinois and Pennsylvania, and
coal leases were sought among the farmers of
that vicinity with feverish flurry. At first the
coal mining rights were sold outright by the
farmers, but of late years the farmers merely
execute long term leases, with a proviso, [hat
they get a roj-aity on all coal mined.
Handy Brothers established the first mine
in Bangor township, following it soon after
with a second shaft in the same vicinity.
Tlien E. B. Foss and George D. Jackson
sank a shaft on the historic ground of Oa-at-ka
Beach, near the mouth of the Kawkawlin
River. Here they found the finest vein of coal
in all Bay County, and it is to this day one of
the most productive mines in Michigan. The
great danger is the flooding of the mine, as the
bay is but a few hundred yards to the east.
The last time this happened was in April,
1905. w^hen the mine had to be shut down,
owing to the rush of waters. This mine is
splendidly equipped with all modem appli-
ances, and its pumping apparatus would keep
an ordinary mine clear at all times. The flow
of water gi^adually recedes, and then mining is
resumed.
The Pittsburg mine shaft was sunk near
the pretty village of Amelith, the Valley mine
near Frankenlust, where are also the Bay mine
No. 2, the Hecla mine and, still nearer the city
limits, the Central mine, while the Salzburg
mine is located near the very center of that
suburb, and the United City mine is also within
the city limits on North Union street. The
Wolverine mines Nos. 2 and 3 are in Williams
township, the farthest west of the city, and the
new Auburn mine is located in the same vicin-
ity. An excellent vein exists thereabouts, and
the Midland Branch of the Michigan Central
Railroad furnishes easy transportation to the
miners and the coal.
The latest working a<]dition to Bay
County's mines is the What-Cheer mine in
Merritt township, 10 miles southeast of Bay
City, located and operated by E. B. Foss. So
confident is Mr. Foss in the excellence of that
East Side vein, that he is even now arranging
with other capitalists to build a railroad
through the "Thumb" to Port Huron, to
handle his coal. Rights of way ha\-e been se-
cured, as well as an entrance into the lake har-
ix)r at Port Huron, with terminals in this city,
so that this mine will mean the fulfillment of a
long cherished wish to have railroad connection
with Tuscola, Sanilac, Huron and St. Clair
counties.
The government geological survey for
1904 gives thecoa! area for Michigan at 11.300
square miles. The coal output in Michigan
for 1898 was 315.722 short tons; 624,708 in
1899: 849.475 in igoo; 1.241,241 in 1901 ;
964,718 in 1902: and 1,367.619 in 1903. The
falling off in 1902 was due to the strike of the
coal miners, which for many weeks closed down
all the mines. The value of the oulput at the
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
mines for 1903 was given at Washington as
$2,707,527. Owing to tlie siiortage of the fuel
supply in 1903, the price of this coal advanced
from $1.71 in 1902 to $1.97 per ton in 1903.
The miners averaged 171 days in 1902, against
247 working days in 1903. The average num-
ber of men employed in iVIichigan was 2,276 in
1901 ; 2,344 in 1902 and 2,768 in 1903. The
average production per miner was 494 tons in
1901; 411 tons in 1902 and 545 tons in 1903.
The working day in all the Michigan coal
mines has been from the first eight hours.
The coal production of Bay County in
1903 was 248,645 tons, of which the local con-
sumption was 29,596 tons, 9,916 tons were
consumed at the mines, and 209,133 tons were
loaded at the mines for shipment. The total
value was $410,61 5 ; average price, $1.65 ; aver-
age days in operation, 149; and 660 miners
found employment. In 1903 there was loaded
at the mines for shipment, 288,284 to"s;
24,215 tons were sold for local consumption,
and 12,522 tons were consumed at the mines,
making a total output for 1903 of 325,021
tons. The total value of Bay County's coai
output for 1903 was $607,091, with $1.87 per
ton, 206 working days and a force of 714
skilled miners. These mineral statistics do not
include the many workingmen used in and
about these coal mines, but merely the machine
and pick miners.
The average price of this coal in Michigan
was $1.62 in 1896; $1.46 in 1897; $1.47 in
1898; $1.39 in 1899; $1.48 in 1900; $1.41 in
1901; $1.71 in 1902; and $1.97 in 1903.
It will be seen that the opening of new
mines did not reduce the price of the coal at
the mines. On the contrary, the price has ma-
terially advanced and quite beyond the per
cent, of increase in cost of mining. It follows
that more mines would be operated under
these conditions, if there was a readv market
for the coal at these prices. But either the
present mine operators hold their commodity
at too high a figure, or else the railroads, upon
whom the mines are dependent for moving
their output, have discriminating rates in favor
of the older coal fields of Ohio. This latter
appears to be the case, for the Ohio mines de-
liver coal much cheaper in Detroit than the
Michigan mines can.
It would seem that these mines will have to
look to water transportation to meet this ad-
verse condition. It is apparent that the coal
will have to be hauled from the mines to the
river wharves, and that the same railroads now
own these tracks, but an industry with such a
bright future must rise to the occasion ! The
several mines, or all in one section by collec-
tive action, will have to own and operate their
own branch roads from the mines to deep
water, and then their transportation problem
will he solved and solved right. The mere de-
cision to do so may bring the established roads
to see the error of their ways, and so insure the
Bay County coal as liberal and fair treatment
as is accorded the Ohio and Pennsylvania pro-
duct.
Great as has been the growth of the coal
industry in Bay County in a short seven years,
there is still but a crude beginning. The known
coal area of Bay County extends from its west-
ern border to Munger on the east— 20 miles
from east to west — and from Amelith to the
Kawkawlin River— 12 miles from north to
south! The vein in all this region varies but
little, and mining is possible under identical
conditions. Since the coal lies so close to the
surface, the cost of sinking the shaft and pro-
viding ventilation, hauling and draining facili-
ties, is not excessive, and on the basis of even
the lowest bituminous coal prices in the last
10 years, the business appears to offer a mar-
gin that must attract capital, and prove a boon
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
to labor and the business interests of Bay
County.
More interesting data is gathered from the
last report of tiie State labor commissioner.
There were 28 mines in operation in Michi-
gan in 1904, with 2,714 employees, averaging
^.j hours per day and 18.3 days per month.
This lack of work in 1904 was due almost en-
tirely to a lack of cars and a consequent slow
turn. At the time when there was a demand
for the coal, the mines could get no cars, and
so the competitors from other States supplied
much of the home market! The average daily
wages of all coal mine employees was $3.01
per day in 1904; 28,335 gallons of illuminat-
ing oil were cotisumetl, and 23 mines using
blasting powder used up 65,163 kegs, averag-
ing 5.430 kegs of powder per mine. The ag-
gregate of coal mined in Michigan was 1,414,-
834 tons, at an aggregate cost of $2,286,-
160.21, or $1.62 per ton.
The wage scale agreed on in 1904 runs to
March 31, 1906, and provides that pick miners
shall receive 91 cents for each ton fro]n a 30-
inch vein, 96 cents for a 27-inch vein, and
$1.01 for 24 to 27-inch veins. The ton is
2,000 pounds, over a 1/^ diamond or fiat-bar
screen, 14 feet in length with 72 feet super-
ficial area. Exact scales for narrow work and
room turning are provided. Bottom cagers,
drivers, trip riders, water and machine haul-
ers, tinibermen and track-layers receive $2.42
per 8-hour day; helpers, $2.23; company men
in iong-wall mines, $2.33; motormen, $2.65;
pipemen, $2.36; trappers, $1.06; greasers,
$1.18; all other inside day labor, $2.23. Out-
side day labor for eight hours: Dumi>ers and
trimmers, $2.33; engineers, $2.65; carpenters,
$3.55; check chasers, $1.32; firemen, $1.91,
and the same amount for all other outside
labor. A special schedule per ton is pro\-ided
for chain machine mining and the punching
machines, loading and drilling being 53 and
525^ cents per ton, respectively, cutting and
shearing in proportion.
Since this scale is in force, with practical
adaptations to local conditions, in all the bitu-
minous districts of the country, the cost of
mining the coal should not operate against
Bay County coal, hence the discrimination
must be in the transportation cost and fa-
cilities.
The Wenona mine is now putting in an
electric hauling system, and there the frolick-
ing days of the timorous mine mule are num-
bered! The boys will miss his antics, but will
i^reathe easier, when they hear a coal car ap-
proaching, for like his cousin, the army mule,
the mine mule has fits of bad temper, when he
kicks recklessly at everything and everybody,
tears around and balks alternately, and more
than one driver and miner has gone to his last
reward under the sudden impression of a mul-
ish hoof. The Wenona mine in 1904 em-
ployed 150 miners, 80 day men, 10 trappers
and 46 machine men. The manager is E. B.
Foss and superintendent, James Gallagher,
The Wliat-Cheer mine is a shaft opening, 196
feet deep; shaft 8 by 18 feet in the clear; gauge
of mine track. 40 inches; coal vein, three feet
thick and of fine quality. The rooms have just
been driven; 20 miners and 10 day men are
employed. The Michigan mine has an air in-
let of 19,800 cubic feet per qiiniitc, employ 92
miners, 32 day men, three trappers and eight
machine men. Frank P. Young is manager,
and Sam Wormeldorf, superintendent. The
Central mine employes 75 miners, 25 day men,
two trappers and 10 machine men. George
Waller is manager. Wolverine mine No. 3 is
one of the best in the country, having just put
in a new electric light plant, new boilers, new
guides in hoisting shaft, new cages and a new
motor to haul coal to pit bottom. Fire wiped
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
out all above the ground recently, but the build-
ings are being ]jut up again as quickly as pos-
sible. The working force is composed of 126
miners, 30 day men, three trappers and seven
machine men. R. M. Randall is manager and
Alex. ifcEhvain superintendent. Wolverine
mine No. 2 has increased hopper and otherwise
improved mine capacity; employs 127 miners,
30 day men, three trappers, and 60 machine
men. The Pittsburg mine has 61 miners and
28 day men; John Werner is manager. The
Bay mine is one of the most reliable in Bay
Connty; employs 78 miners, 31 day men, four
trappers and 14 machine men. M. L. Davies
is manager. The Hecla mine shut down in
October. 1903, pending a settlement of the
legal troubles of that million dollar concern,
and is expected to reopen in 1905. The United
City mine reached coal within the West Side
city limits August 26. 1904; the shaft is 6
feet 8 inches by 14 feet; with a depth of 142
feet; the coal vein is nearly six feet thick. At
present 60 day men are employed. John Walsh
is manager and David Jones, superintendent.
The Coryell mine has 180 miners, 67 day men
and eight trappers. Charles Coryell is man-
ager and Elias Mathews, superintendent. The
old Valley or Dutch Creek mine is now being
operated by one of the pioneers of the coal
mine business of Bay County, Frank Zagel-
meyer, with 29 miners and 10 clay diggers. He
found an excellent quality of clay for making
brick in the mine shaft, anil so conceived the
idea of digging clay and coal in conjimction,
organizing the Michigan Vitrified Brick Com-
pany, w^hich will furnish the brick for all of
Bay City's paving this coming summer. This
venture may open a new field for our coal mine
operators. Alexander Zagelmeyer, the orig-
inal pioneer coal mine operator, has a fine mine
in the Salzburg, employing 80 miners, 23 day
men and one trapper. He caters particularly
to home consumption of his output, although he
has excellent railroad facilities besides, and is
gradually increasing the output of the mine.
He is a prominent figure at all councils between
the w-ell-organized coal miners of District No.
24, United Mine Workers, and the coal opera-
tors, and has always succeeded in settling on
terms mutually satisfactory, all differences,
due to new conditions and accidents of the
coal strata. The two short strikes in the dis-
trict have been due to a desire on the part of
the operators to make sure that their interests
were at least as well protected as those of other
operators in the same competitive field, and the
determination of the miners to improve their
living conditions, wherever possible.
I While the mining in Bay County is not
surrounded by the dangers of other coal fields,
the deadly mine gas being entirely absent here,
still accidents are numerous. On December
29, 1903, John Simmons, aged 35, single, was
killed at \\^olverine mine No. 2, by falling
rock. On January 16, 1904, Thomas Brown,
aged 25. single, was killed by a premature ex-
plosion at Wenona mine. On May 14, 1904,
Fred Serva, ageil 28. married, was similarly
kille{l at Wolverine mine No. 2. On October
26, 1904, William Western, aged 42, married,
was killed at Wolverine mine No. 3, by falling
slate. A dozen miners were injured by similar
causes, though not fatally. Andrew Stevens.
State mine inspector, reports all mines having
mine ventilators, driving the fans at a speed
in.suring at least 100 cubic feet of air for each
miner per minute, and the air is well distrib-
uted through all the entries.
The lack of cars for shipping was keenly
felt by the industry, especially in Bay County,
and the output was curtailed on this account.
These mines are now seriously considering the
transportation problem, on which so much of
their future business is dependent, Chicago
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CTflZENS.
imported and consumed 11,000,000 tons of
coal in 1904, and with cheap water transporta-
tion all the way should be as good a market
for Bay County coal, as it once was the best
customer for our lumber. More outside mar-
kets and more home consumption will be neces-
sary for the future development of our coal
industry, and strong efforts should be made at
once to secure iron and metal industries, that
will go hand in hand with our coal industry.
Certain it is, that with three to six feet of coal
right under our feet, the cheap fuel problem
has been solved for Bay Coimty for all time!
The Legislature early provided for the reg-
ulation of the coal mines, and tlie protection of
the lives of the coal miners. Act No. 57, Pub-
lic Acts of J899, provides: 1. For a mine in-
spector, at $1,500 per year; 11. That escape
shafts must not be less than eight feet square ;
III. That a competent and trustworthy en-
gineer shall atten<l to the hoisting devices.
IV. That safety catches and covers be on all
cages, which can carry but 10 men at once, and
then only when the other cage is empty; V.
That employees name the weighman; VI.
Operators held responsible for safety of mines,
and fresh air supply; VII. Imposes the penal-
ties for violations of these safeguards,
and sets forth the rights and duties of the State
mine inspector. The Legislature of 1905 is
now considering some minor additions to this
act, providing for uniformity of these safe-
guards at all mines. Since the Bay City mines
are not very deep, their safeguarding is easily
assured. Verily :
Down Ihe broad ualc of tears afar
The spectra) camp is fled;
Faith shinclli as a morning star,
Our ghastly fears are dead!
* * *
TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES.
All our natural resources — lumber, salt,
coal and agricultural products — are dependent
for their fullest development upon a ready
means of transportation from forest and field
and prairie, to the factory and workshop, and
the finished product from the scene of their
manufacture, to the markets of the w'orkl.
Father Marquette, sailing along the west-
ern shore of Lake Huron, followed the wide
reaches of Saginaw Bay, untii a great, wide
river poured its flood from the south, and in-
vited them to "O-Sauk-e-non," the "Land of
the Sauks" or Sacs, as they are called in these
later days. The explorations of this devoted
Jesuit are not well preserved, the findings of
the first white men to visit these shores but
vaguely outlined, in the musty records of long-
ago. But the great river, with its black forest
of pines, and the crowded wigwams of the
Indians in some pretty groves, where solenm
councils were held with the red men, some
weeks before reaching Mackinaw, can have
been none other than our own.
The other rivers that pour their floods into
Lake Huron from the south and west are in-
comparable to the deep and wide flood of the
Saginaw. The earliest inland trading stations
in Michigan were on its banks, and the lirst
villages and permanent settlements north of
Detroit are in this valley. The easy mode of
tra\-el by canoe and bark to and from Detroit,
and between the several settlements on its
southern forks and branches, proved early the
pathway of the primitive commerce and trad-
ing of Central Michigan.
In 1792 the relatives of Louis Trombley re-
ported to the military Governor at Detroit,
that this Indian trader and two of his coasting
vessels had been lost somewhere near the
mouth of the river of the Sacs ! The "Savage,"
a 40-ton sloop, about 1830 sailed in and out of
the Saginaw in search of fur and trade with
the Indians. In 1832 a 50-ton vessel brought
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
freight for the American Fur Company, and
carried a load of potatoes from Duncan Mac-
Clellan's, far above the sand-bar, to Detroit,
the first export of farm produce from this val-
ley. In August, 1837, George Raby sailed the
"North America" into the river, and for years
traded with his schooner up and down the
river and bay shore. The "Conneaut Packet,'
sailed by Capt. J. Davis Smith, carried the first
cargo of lumber for the McCormicks to De-
troit in 1842. This boat, together with Cap-
tain Wilson's little schooner "Mary," were
both driven by storms on the Canadian shore
and wrecked shortly after.
In July, 1836. While Judge Miller, James
Fraser and Surveyor Eleazer Jewett were din-
ing at Leon Trombley's log house, where
Fourth avenue and Water street now intersect,
the company were startled by lo-year-old
Louis Trombley rushing into the little shack,
shouting: "A steamboat, a steamboat!" Judge
Miller often recalled how they hurried outside
to see what had deceived the boy into thinking
a steamboat was coming. To their great aston-
ishment and delight it really was the steamer
"Governor Marcy," chartered by Mr. Jenni-
son and others of the city above the sand-bar.
Mr. Jennison was the father of Charles E.
Jennison, who in this very year 1905 is assist-
ing, with his sons, in again securing regular
steamer connection with Detroit and the shore
cities. Such is the Hight of time, with its re-
curring cycles in the lives of men! The "Gov-
ernor Marcy" proudly made headway against
a southern wind, and was the first steamer to
plow the waters of this river.
In 1847, James Fraser, the Fitzhughs and
others built the stern-wheeler "Buena Vista,"
somewhat on the Ohio River style, the first
one to be built on this river, and for many
years thereafter this boat did a thriving busi-
ness along the river and ils navigable tribu-
taries. Orrin Kinney, still living on Cass
avenue, was her first engineer!
About 1850 the steamer "Columbia" be-
gan making weekly trips between here and De-
troit; the tug "Lathrop" began towing on the
river; Capt, Darius Cole brought the "Snow,"
and "Charter;" Captain Wolverton ran the
steamer "Fox" after 1854, and soon the river
was alive with craft of all descriptions. We
had the timber and the mills, but not until
plenty of boats for shipping the product of the
mills were at hand did the lumber industry
assume its final large proportions.
In 1858 Captain Cole established the shore
line to Alpena with the steamer "Columbia,"
Later the "Metropolis," "Arundell" and "Sag-
inaw Valley" made this route, while the "L.
G. Mason" and "W. R. Burt" came here in
1868, for the river passenger traffic. The
writer has enjoyed many trips on all these
boats between 1883 and 1893, and witnessed
the destruction of the "L. G. Mason" by fire
about 1890 near the Lafayette avenue bridge.
The river and lake craft underwent con-
tinual changes and inipro\'ements. and it is in-
deed a far cry from the original "Buena Vista"
to the monster "Sylvania" just launched on
these self-same waters !
Old mariners will recall the foundering of
the side-wheeler "Dove" near the mouth of the
river, where she stranded, and will recall the
familiar names of the river craft about 1885 :
Steamers "Metropolis," "Dunlap," "E. T.
Carrington," "Luther Westover," "Emerald,"
"Sea Gull," "Handy Boy," "Plow Boy,"
"Post Boy," "Arundell," "Forbes"! They were
the means of transportation then, where to-day
are the electric cars and vestibuled trains.
Thus early the steam-barges "Donaldson,"
"Sanilac," "Benton" and their barges carried
their lumber cargoes to Ohio ports, just as they
did in 1904. But they are the few survivors of
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
that immense fleet that handled Bay City's
monster lumber shipments for 30 years and
which ammally wintered here, furnishing; em-
ployment and business to many men and
merchants.
The propellers of deep draught were not
long- in locating a sand-bar at the mouth of the
river, where the great stream had deposited the
sediment of the lowlands for untold ages. In
1867 the work of dredging this deposit was
commenced and finished in 1869. Many river
improvements have been made since then, and
lake vessels of the deepest draught can now
enter this river. In 1905 the great steam-
barges laden with salt and coal find no trouble
in loading here, and the way to the outside
world is made easy for them.
In Jnly, 1839, Capt. Stephen Wolverton
arrived to btiild for the government the first
lighthouse, near the mouth of the river, on the
west shore.
And on its outer point, some mile? away,
Tile Lighthouse lifts its massive masonry,
A pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day.
And as the evening darkens, lo ! how bright,
Through the deep purple of the twilight air.
Beams forth the sudden radiance of its light
With strange, unearthly splendor in the glare!
And the great slijps sail outward and return,
Beudiug and bowing o'er the billowy swells.
And ever joyful, as they see it bum,
They wave their silent welcomes and farewells.
— Loiigfcllovj,
This lighthouse, built more than 60 years
ago, has ever been a conspicuous landmark at
the harbor entrance. The snow-white, slanting
sides reflect the rays of the sun, and arc visible
for miles by day. A more modern lighthouse
with stronger reflectors was bnilt some 20
j'ears later, and guards to-day the entrance to
the river, a Httle south by west of the original^
beacon light. The old house has since served
as a home for the light-keeper. In March,
1905, an order came to demolish ihe old beacon
light, and contracts have already been let for
a more modern home for the light-keeper.
Hardly did the remaining pioneers hear of the
order for demolition, when they petitioned
Congressman Loud, on the committee of naval
affairs, to preserve the beloved old landmark,
and efforts are now being made in Washington
to save the structure. A buoy system was later
introduced, so that deep-draught steamers
wotdd not go too far toward the Kawkawlin,
which swift running stream is also ever busy
carrj'ing down the sediments gathered along
its banks. The fact that not one single wreck
with loss of life or property has taken place
there for 30 years or more speaks well for the
fine harbor facilities, and easy accessibility of
Bay City by our lake craft. The "Sylvania,"
greatest craft of the Great Lakes, launched a
few weeks ago by the West Bay City Ship
Building Company, will have no trouble in sail-
ing smoothly out of this natural harbor. A
pity 'tis, that more ships of commerce are not
made to find profitable the navigation of this
harbor and river, so blessed by Nature.
One of the first results of the organization
of Bay County in 1857, was the building of
permanent roadways to the heart of the local
timber belt, and the farm commimities in the
scattered clearings. Under the supervision of
Gen. B. F. Partridge. James Eraser, William
McEwan, and Christopher Ileinzmann, this
plank road was begun in 1859 and completed
in 1S60. Then the Bay City and Midland
plank road was undertaken in 1866 and com-
pleted to the county line in 1868. Mercer &
Hotchkiss built a small sawmill at Spicer's
Corners for cutting the plank for this road.
The Kawkawlin plank road and the State road
to Saginaw on the West Side opened up new
territory for settlement, and proved a boon to
the early settlers.
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
On May 29, 1882, the electors of Bay
County voted in favor of bonding for $100,-
000, at 5 per cent, interest, for building ma-
cadamized stone roads. In 1883 the stone road
committee had built two miles on the Kaw-
kawlin road, two miles on the FrankenKist
road, five miles of the Midland road, and five
miles on the Cass River road. Since then these
roads have been gradually extended in every
direction, reaching the Saginaw County line
both east and west of the river, Tuscola
County to the east and southeast, Midland on
the west, and the latest additions are to the
north, toward Arenac.
There is not a county in Michigan that has
done as much for permanent roadways as has
Bay County, and the results have been com-
mensurate. Farmers residing beyond the
county lines to the east, west and south, bring
their pro<luct to market in Bay City, because
they find good roads, ndiatever the season.
This has been an especial boon for the sugar
beet and chicory industry, and the people have
never regretted the money so spent. It costs
considerable to keep these roads in good re-
pair, and an immense stone roller was bought
by the board in 1904 to crush the hardheads
for resurfacing. Heretofore limestone has been
used, but experience proves, that these soft
stones are crushed into powder, which is blown
away. The townships have caught the spirit
of good roads, and one can now travel in any
direction from Bay City over miles and miles
of the best possible country roads. The floods
of 1904 and the deep snow of last winter
brought up some new problems. Open wire
fences are recommended along public high-
ways to avoid snow drifts, and the drainage
system will be improved to meet even such
high water marks as were reached in 1904,
Much of Bay County's progress in agriculture
and land improvement is directly due to our
fine stone road system.
By 1S65 the fine waterway and planned
roadways hardly sufificed to meet the growing
deman{ls of these looming lumber towns, and
the citizens, headed again by James Eraser and
Judge James Eirney, moved to get railroad
connection. The Flint & Pere Marquette
Railroad Company was gi\'en a land grant of
alternate sections by Congress, June 3, 1856,
which action was ratified by Michigan Febru-
ary 15, 1857, and in October, 1858, the first
grading was done below Flint.
In 1864 Judge Birney drafted, and had
passed by the Legislature, an act authorizing
Bay County to bond for $75,000 toward aiding
the construction of a railroad between here and
Saginaw on the east side of the river. The
swamp extending from our southern citj' lim-
its almost to the limits of Saginaw, seemed an
impassible barrier, but Algernon S. Munger
secured a dredge, made a canal along the route
as now iised, throwing the subsoil on the road-
bed, which made a good surface and in that
manner overcame Nature's worst obstacle to
entering Bay City along the river front from
the south.
On Saturday moniing, November 23,
1S67, the first excursion train came down from
Saginaw and on November 26th the citizens
celebrated the opening of tlie railroad widi a
big banquet at the Fraser, where Mr. Munger
was presented with a $350 watch and chain, as
a token of appreciation of his w^ork in secur-
ing the road.
On January i, 1867, the Jackson Division
of the Michigan Central Railroad was com-
pleted as far as the West Side. Henry W.
Sage, D. H. and Charles C. Fitzhugh were
mainly instrumental in securing this road thus
early for the West Side. As we view the great
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
traffic yai'ds, magnificent depots and busy
roundliouses, with the hundreds of men find-
ing employment on this road in 1905, we can
not help but appreciate the good work of those
early business men, and the good judgment of
the railroad management in selecting this point
for the southern terminal of the Mackinaw Di-
vision and the Gladwin Branch, and for the
northeiii terminal of die Detroit and Jackson
divisions. The Detroit Division was com-
pleted in 1873 and is ro8 miles long.
The Michigan Central Railroad bridge was
built across the river here in 1873, and in April,
1905, is being replaced hy a more substantial
and modern structure. The feat of placing
the new structure without causing more than a
few hours interruption of traffic was accom-
plished by placing the new structure on pile
frames to the right, with similar pile frames to
the left of the piers. When everything was
ready the old bridge was moved bodily onto
the left piles, and the new structure moved
bodily am! speedily onto the permanent piers.
But six hours were required to do this work,
and it is considered quite an engineering feat.
Thus we find, that while the Pere Mar-
quette has all its main depots, offices, shops and
traffic yards in the city above the sand-bar, the
Michigan Central has all similar institutions for
employing labor and handling its traffic, in
Bay City. East and West Side.
Wlnen things looked gloomiest for Bay
County, die Michigan Central opened the ilid-
land Branch, making a rich farming country
tributary to this city. When the coal indus-
try was being tried out, it was the same road
that offered every encouragement to tlie oper-
ators. This road has been instrumental in Id-
eating more than one manufacturing institu-
tion at this deep-water harbor, thereby increas-
ing its own business, but incidentally also help-
ing the development of the city and county.
Eor many years the Michigan Central
Depot at Bay City has been one of the finest
in the country, containing all the traffic offices
for the several divisions centering here. The
freight houses on the river bank, at the foot of
First street, are most conveniently located and
very spacious. The belt line is another great
convenience for freight shippers, and offers
some fine sites for new industries.
The Pere Marquette Railroad completed its
handsome passenger station on Jefferson ave-
nue in 1904, after compelling the city to close
Fourth avenue from Adams street to Madi-
son avenue. The old rookery across the way
was used as a depot by Bay City for 30 years,
during 20 of which the people insisted in vain
that it was not in keeping with the other ad-
vances in the city. The old freight sheds are
still in use on Adams street, but these, too, are
to be replaced this very year by new and mod-
ern structures.
The shore line railroad, projected as early
as 1882, became a reality in 1897, when the De-
troit & Mackinac Railway was built from here
to Alpena, via Pinconning, Turner, Twining,
Omer, East Tawas, Tawas City, An Sable,
HarrisviUe and Black River. In 1904 this road
was extended to Cheboygan, whose citizens cel-
ebrated the event by a monster excursion to
Bay City, and later entertained the business
men of this city in a most hospitable manner in
the city of the large pulp paper-mill and mam-
moth tanneries. The road is steadily pushing
northward to the Straits of Mackinac and will
soon be in a position to handle much of the
Upper Peninsula traffic. It connects with the
Pere Marqiiette at Bay City, and another fine
field has been opened for the enterprise of our
local merchants and industries.
The Lake shore pine barrens have been
found to possess many good qualities for graz-
ing and orchards, and even good farms are
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
springing up, where lo years ago every one
thought nothing but pine timber would grow.
As this vast territory to the north becomes
more thickly settled, electric inter-urban lines
are sure to connect them still closer with the
metropolis of Northern Michigan. Much along
this line has already been done by the cheap ex-
cursions of the Michigan Central and Detroit
& Mackinac, and still more is promised in that
line in 1905.
Bay City is the northern terminal of the
Cincinnati, Saginaw & Mackinaw Railroad,
now owned and controlled by the Crank Trunk
system, thus offering ideal connections for Chi-
cago, Canada and the East. For some years this
roa{l has been planning to enter the East Side,
its depot now being situated on Williams and
Midland streets. West Side, and is popularly
known to the traveling public as the Grand
Trunk road. Its lines extend to Wenona
Beach, handling much of the coal output of the
mines in that locality. The road is planning
to run its tracks into the beautiful summer re-
sort, whose enclosure they now skirt, and make
a specialty of bringing excursions from all over
the State to this "Little Coney Island" of Cen-
tra! Michigan.
Another new steam road is assured over
the much desired "Thumb" route, — Bay City
to Port Huron, via Caro and Cass City. An-
other is being boomed from Bay City to De-
troit, via Vassar, Lapeer and Pontiac. The
vast amount of sugar beets shipped annually,
and the bright prospects of the coal industry of
the valley, offer splendid inducements for these
additional transportation projects.
The inter-urban electric line from Bay City
to Detroit, via Saginaw, Flint, Pontiac and
Birmingham, will be completed this summer.
The branch between here and Saginaw via
Zilwaukee and Carrollton has been in opera-
tion for some years, and a splendid bridge takes
it from the West Side to the East Side just
south of the North American Chemical Com-
pany's plant. In its official report to the Sec-
retary of State, it reports 36 miles of track on
this branch, much of it double, employs 220
men and carried 4,059,632 passengers in 1904,
at 20 cents each way. It is controlled at pres-
ent by the same syndicate that owns the local
street railway system. In that same official
report we find our street railway system owns
nearly 18 miles of track, employs 125 men and
carried 2,303,125 passengers in 1904. The
fare to Detroit is now $3.26, but the electric
line will carry passengers through, when com-
pleted, in almost the same laigth of time, for
$2. The value of these inter-urban lines to
rural districts can not be overestimated, and
Bay City does not want to stand idle while new
lines are being projected and built. Efforts
should speedily be made to open up the settled
district to our north, not yet touched by any
railroad, and let the motto be here, as in our
fine stone road system, "That all good roads
LEAD to Bay City."
The river is our natural highway, and in-
dustries should be crowded on its entire 15
miles of deep-wafer channels and many docks,
left by the desertion of the lumber industry.
Railroad competition builds up communities,
and should be encouraged. The coal industry
should get better and cheaper car service. The
Inter-State Commerce Commission might look
into the charge of local railroad discrimination
with profit to all concerned. Our fine stone
road system must be sustained and enlarged
continually, until not one mile of our fine farm-
ing district is left untouched. New steam and
electric roads should bear in mind that Bay
City is by nature and endeavor the metropolis
of Northern Michigan.
Hosted by
Google
CHAPTER X.
Stgar Beets, Agricultural Products, Fish and Varied Industries.
Wlicresoe'er they move, before iliem
Swarms the slinging fly, the Ahmo,
Swarms the bee, the honey- make r ;
Wheresoe'er they tread, beneath them
Springs a flower iniknown among us.
Springs the White-man's Foot in blossom.
—Sang of Hiawatha.
SUGAR BEETS.
The veteran chief of our national Depart-
ment of Agriculture, Secretary James Wilson,
(luring his personal visit to the sugar beet belt
of Michigan in the fall of 1903, put his seal
of approval upon Bay County's proud title,
and any one with discerning eye need bnt look
about, upon the cozy homes, the well-kept
bams and storehouses, our rich farms of 1905,
where stood three decades ago the giants of
the virgin forest, to realize that this indeed is
a garden spot.
Bay County first attracted the lumbermen.
The farmers of the East preferred for many
years the prairies of the West, to the wooded
lowlands of Michigan. The pioneers who
rushed past our southern border to people Iowa,
Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas did so be-
cause they did not care to clear a farm, when
there appeared so much rich soil all ready for
the plow and harrow. But experience soon
proved their calculations to have been in error.
While the pioneer of the Dakotas shivered in
his shack all winter for the want of firewood,
and burned his corn, because the price in the
markets of the world did not warrant him to
haul it over tedious courses to the nearest trad-
ing center, the Michigan farmer was warmed
by the hardwood that grew at his very doors,
and his labor and income were continuous. The
great trees on the lands of Bay County's pio-
neers brought good prices in Bay City, and
many of them were hauled by the farmers
themseh'es to the sawmills. Those not re-
quired for manufacture made good firewood,
good fences, barns and even cozy homes. If
he chose, the Bay County farmer could work
his farm in summer, and go to the logging
camps at good pay all winter. Where the
pioneer on the Western prairies could hardly
get lumber at any price, the Bay County
farmer from the first could get all he wanted
for the hauling and a song. Since farms and
farm produce were scarce, prices were always
good. In 1880 the government census showed
that hay had brought $30 per ton, and potatoes
$1.50 per bushel, during the early spring and
late winter.
The soil in Bay County has been found to
Hosted by
Google
238
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
be uniformly a clay loam, rich and crummy
withal. On the few ridges were found light
warm soils, hence the county can produce any-
thing from the finest table celery and sweet
sugar beets to the ginseng root and tobacco.
When things looked gloomiest for the bus-
iness interests of Bay City, owing to the kill-
ing of the lumber industry by the $2 tariff on
logs, we placed our faith and reliance in the
productiveness of our soil, and the increasing
importance of our agricultural resources, and
we were not disappointed.
Upon the organization of Bay County in
1857, there were about 25 farms in process of
creation in the wilderness of pine stumpage and
swamps. It was the generally accepted notion
of those times, that the lowlands near tJie
mouth of the river were utterly worthless for
farm purposes. But the success of our pioneer
farmers disproved those notions by 1870, and
from that year dates a decided boom in our
rural properties. From mere pine barrens, our
townships have blossomed into a veritable
garden spot, through dint of industry and in-
telligent cultivation.
In 1878 Judge Isaac Marston delivered an
address before the State Agricultural Society,
enumerating the rapid and rich development of
Bay County's agricultural resources. In 1865
there were but 132 farms, and only 2,756 acres
were improved. The crops for that year were
estimated at 3,300 tons of hay, 4,500 bushels
of oats, 4,950 bushels of com and 5,600 bushels
of wheat. In 1870 the Federal census showed
271 farms, 4,000 tons of hay, 26,000 bushels of
potatoes, 73,000 bushels of oats, 84.000 bushels
of corn, and 5.500 bushels of wheat, 50,000
bushels of wheat being imported for local grist-
mills. Tuscola and Gratiot counties, with less
population than Bay, raised four times as nuich
wheat and other farm products. This was due
to the slow development of Bay County's farm
districts. Settlers who came with the inten-
tion of taking up farming were pressed into
the sawmills, where the returns were quick. But
many have lived to regret their action, for they
spent all their wages, and at the end of 10 and
20 years were at exactly the same place where
they started, while those wiio went into farm-
ing at once had accumulated much valuable
property and a competence. The wage earners
as consumers of farm products contributed to
the wealth of the food producers.
As late as 1870 good farm property within
easy distance of Bay City could be bought for
$10 to $15 per acre. During the winter when
the mills were idle, laborers would contract to
do the clearing for $15 per acre. The soil was
a rich black alluvial, with just enough admix-
ture of sand to make it easily tilled and
crummy. With the building of the piank
roads, the farm lands became more desirable
and were quickly taken up, so that the State
census of 1874 showed 668 acres in wheat. In
1876, 1,410 acres were harvested and by 1880
this had grown to 5.624 acres, on 997 farms,
with 29,279 improved acreage. These figures
are indicative of the progress made in the set-
tlement and development of our despised low-
lands.
In 1890 Bay ranked third as a wheat pro-
ducing county and, best of all, ranked first in
many of the farm products, in quality and
quantity of production per acre. In that year
wheat averaged nearly 25 bushels to the acre
and corn, 94. The data of that Federal cen-
sus proved conclusively, that the 6,000 square
miles of territory drained by the Saginaw River
and its tributaries were the most productive in
all Michigan. Wheat, corn, barley, oats and
rye were the leading products. The orchards
had matured and multiplied to a point where
there was no longer any doubt about this being
also a great fruit belt.
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
The chemists of the Department of Agri-
cuttnre gave the following instructive composi-
tion of Bay County's soil : Sand and silica,
8-J.-'4 : alumina, 4.60 ; oxide of iron, 2.42 ; lime,
i.iS: magnesia, .46; jKitash, 1.18; soda, .54;
snlnhuric acid, .20; phosphoric acid, .38; or-
ganic matter containing 17 per cent, nitrogen,
~,.^j: \\ater and loss, .25; total ash food, 3.94;
cc![>.'!city for water. 47.30. Comparing this com-
pnsition with that of the soil in Europe's fav-
orite sugar beet belt, it w-as found to be as
gi)( .!. and hi some respects even superior.
This led about 1895 to the first experiments
witli the sweet roots, which have since given
Ba\- County its four monster sugar factories,
opened a new and practically unlimited field
fur the ingenuity and industry of our farmers,
and enhanced the value of all farm produce for
Ihc entire State. The deep, rich loam, with a
siilisoil of clay, with plenty of moisture, hot
summers and late falls, presented ideal condi-
tions for sugar beets, and the fact that many of
our farmers came from the beet fields of Ger-
ivimy and Holland, assured the success of the
venture from the first, Hon. Nathan E, Brad-
ley, C. E. Chatfield. E. Y. Williams, Rev.
William Retither and others secured Ijeet seed
from Germany and also from the Department
of .\gricultiire at Washington, Dr. H. W.
W iley furnishing willingly for these experi-
"le: t^, all the seed at the disposal of the de-
partment for 1896 and 1897.
In the special report issued by Hon. James
Wilson, March 2, 1898, on the beet sugar in-
dustry, Michigan was given only secondary
consideration, so little did the national depart-
ment appreciate the resources and initiative of
oiu- farmers and manufacturers. Of Michigan
the report merely said: "A large part of the
Southern Peninsula, and especially the Sag-
maw Valley, of Michigan, is directly in the
heart of the beet belt. The contour of the soil
is favorable, being reasonably level (!), with
an a\-erage ( ?) fertility, and the data which
ha^'e been secured in actual experiments in that
valley are of the most encouraging nature.
There seems to be no doubt of the fact, that
this locality is among the best in the United
States for beet culture, and the modifying in-
fluence of the lake on the autumnal climate
must not be lost sight of."
In the averages of the beet samples tested
by Dr. AViley in 1896, Bay does not show up
as well as some of the other counties further
south, counties which since then have proven
in actual experience to be on the whole totally
unfitted for sugar beet culture. In this \-ery
year 1905 the Rochester sugar factory near
Detroit will not be operated, and the few beets
raised in that locality will be shipped to other
and better located factories. The owners as-
cribe their failure to the poor, sandy soil of that
vicinity. This proves the fallacy of building
great enterprises on the strength of a few
isolated experiments. The lack of enterprise
and cultivation by the farmers of that vicinity
is also remarked.
In the experiments of 1897 Bay presented
nine samples; sugar contents, 15.53 per cent,,
purity, 84 per cent.,— an average since steadily
maintained in the cultivation of thousands of
acres. Dr. Wiley praises the weight, about 20
ounces per beet, the long tapering root of the
Bay County beets, with no bulging above
ground, showing a well-worked subsoil, and
his report in this respect proved quite encour-
aging.
The test beets were planted on May 8th,
and har\'ested October 6th. The government
computed that Michigan's experimental station
required the following expense in raising an
acre of beets : Plowing and subsoiling, man and
team, 12 hours; harrowing and planting, 3j4
hours ; cultivating. 1 5 hours ; harvesting, 5
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
hours; and man alone, thinning and hoeing,
76 hours; harvesting, 131 hours, at a total cost
of $29.60 per acre. The average yield per acre
was aver 10 tons; sugar contents, 15.50 per
cent, purity 84 per cent. The department also
set forth that $100,000,000 was annually sent
out of this country for sugar, and urged that
American enterprise and industry ought to
supply at least a portion of this home consump-
tion. The value of beet pulp for cattle feeding
was set forth, the 16 to 25 per cent, of sugar
still remaining in the refuse molasses was ex-
pected to be minimized by new processes, and
the production of alcohol from this residiuni
was forecasted.
The department recommended planting in
rows 14 to 18 inches apart, and the thinning of
the beets from six to 10 inches. Experience
has since shown 20 to 21 inches to give best
results in practice, with nine to 12 inches be-
tween the beets. It is possible, however, that
this practice has reduced the production per
acre and resulted in a large beet, which has pos-
sessed rather less than the average amount of
sugar.
Three things enter primarily into the suc-
cessful culture of sugar beets, — a rich soil, a
moist, warm cHmate with late fall, and inteih-
gent and industrious cultivation. Bay County
has ever prided herself on having the soil and
climate, and the stock of early settlers from the
beet regions of Europe, was another favor-
able factor in determining local capitalists in
investing their money in the first beet sugar
factory, the Michigan, in i8g8.
The success of the beet crop of that year in-
duced many farmers to take acreage the next
two years, whose soil was not so well adapted,
and many who graduated from the sawmills
and lumber traffic to the farm, and hence were
not so well versed in the fine culture required
for the greatest success of this sensitive crop.
Hence the Bay City factory, erected in 1899,
and the original Michigan both had ample
acreage in 1899 and 1900, but many of the
growers could not see the exorbitant profit they
anticipated, and hence ceased to take acreage
altogether, and moreover antagonized the in-
dustry. This did not deter the erection of the
West Bay City sugar factory in Banks in 1900,
and the German-American factory in Salzburg
in 1901, the latter being built on the coopera-
tive plan by a few local capitalists and many
local fanners, the latter putting in some ready
cash, but providing to pay for most of their
stock in certain amounts of beet acreage each
year. The latter factory met with some hard-
ships the first year, but the farmers kept their
course steadfastly, and the campaigns of 1903
and 1904 were quite satisfactory.
It has since been claimed in the official re-
ports of the labor department for Michigan,
that too many factories were located at Bay
City and Saginaw, quoting as a proof of this
assertion the fact that this very year the mam-
moth Saginaw sugar factory is being dis-
mantled to be taken to Colorado. We can not
agree with these labor authorities. We believe
that all the industry requires for constant
growth, let alone prospering as it now is, will
be the earnest and intelligent cooperation of
the farmer and the manufacturer.
Since the beet sugar industry has taken
thousands of acres annually from the competi-
tive field of other crops, the prices of ail farm
truck and produce have materially advanced
here since 1898. Thinking farmers realize that
even if there was not one dollar of direct profit,
it would still pay them well to raise beets and
so sustain the beet sugar industry. Their profit
would then come indirectly, but none the less
certainly, from sugar beets. But even if we
are to accept the worst statements of land grub-
bers, who find sugar beets too strenuous a crop
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
year in and year out, it is still true that hun-
dreds of thousands of dollars are paid out an-
nually by our sugar factories to our beet
growers.
Here at home the sugar factories have had
"troubles of their own" in recent years. There
is plenty of soil fit for cultivating the very best
sugar beets, the factories have secured the very
best seed, their agriculturists have been doing
their very best to assist the farmers in raising
a profitable crop, and yet not one of the four
factories ha<I sufficient acreage for a three-
months' run in 1904, The Michigan sugar
house, the first one built in Michigan, was not
operated at all last fall, because of the lack of
beets, and the Bay City sugar house, which
sliced its own and also the Michigan factory's
l)eets, did not then have enough for an average
season's campaign. This is a deplorable state
of affairs right at our doors, and much of it
appears to be dite to a misapprehension of facts
i)y the farmers.
For some years the land grubbers, whose
main crops are hay and corn, for obvious rea-
sons ha\-e not been content to contribute noth-
ing to sustain these enterprising sugar factor-
ies, but they have actually done much to dis-
courage their more energetic neighbors from
beet culture. One of their main arguments has
been met by the local sugar factories this year
by offering $5 per ton flat for the beets. This
will do away with fault-finding at harvest time
with the findings of the weigh, tare and chemi-
cal departments at the sugar factories, and yet
leave the more successful farmers to sell their
beets on the percentage basis as heretofore.
The farmers will this year have their choice
of contracts, and as last year gave splendid re-
turns for the extra care and work required by
the beet crop, the acreage in 1905 is more en-
couraging. If Bay County's farmers should
stdl prefer to flood the markets of Michigan
with ordinary farm produce, in preference to
the finer cultivation of sugar beets, the Michi-
gan factory will next winter be moved to Col-
orado, where the Saginaw factory was taken
this winter, and where the farmers are more
than anxious to have them locate.
The beet sugar industry is still in its in-
fancy, and it almost seems as if everything and
everybody w'as conspiring to kill it off. The
ill-founded cry of Cuban reciprocity resulted
in Cuban cane sugar, raised by cheap coolie
labor, being admitted to this country almost
free of charge to compete with the home-grown
product of American fields and American
labor. This was done to help Cuba ostensibly,
but time and experience have shown that it
primarily favored the American Sugar Refin-
ing Company, which imports and handles al-
most the entire sugar consumed by our people.
This action of Congress is almost on a par
wilh the $2 lumber tariff manipulation, and
has been as directly and speedily injurious to
Michigan, in particular! Not oxe single
new sugar factory has been built, since
Cuban sugar was admitted in 1903, aljiost
duty free ! !
This so-called reciprocity legislation is a
blot upon the recor<l of the party in power. At
the National Republican Convention in St.
Louis in 1896, the party in its national plat-
form went squarely on record in favor of the
infant sugar industry, urging the advisability
of protection of so vital an industry until we
would produce enough sugar for our own con-
sumption. Much of the capital invested in the
beet sugar industry in Michigan in the four
years from 1898 to 1902 came into the business
relying upon this solemn pledge, that their in-
terests would be protected. Hardly another
industry in all our great land is open to more
injurious competition. It seems almost treas-
onable to ask American labor and American
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
capital to compete with the cooHe labor and the
chmatic advantages of Cuba, and yet this is
ju5t what Congi-ess ordained. The result is
evident in the blight of our most promising
farm and factory industry. Undoubtedly
many Congressmen from districts that did not
ha\-e any sugar factories voted hi favor of Cu-
ban sugar as against our own American pro-
duct, ill the hope, that their constituents would
at once secure cheaper sugar. Their disillu-
sionment has been both swift and thorough, for
the sugar prices have been rather higher than
before Cuban reciprocity killed this native in-
dustry. As if to cap the climax of this paro-
doxical action, the powers that be are even now
trying to also secure free admission to the Phil-
ippine coolie-produced sugar.
And so we fin<l our promising beet sugar
business in 1905, after but six years of ardu-
ous development, apparently being ground to
death between two millstones, — obstreperous
and sJiort-sighted beet growers on the one
hand, and ill-advised favoritism to foreign
coolie labor and the sugar trust on the other.
It will he for our farmers to do their share
toward saving for Bay County its most prom-
ising farm and factory industry. And the
powers that l>e at Washington should thinic
well before blighting the last remaining hopes
of this infant industry. They can not plead
ignorance, for Hon. James Wilson, Secretary
of Agricuhure, personally visited our beet belt
and our sugar factories, an<l his report, sub-
mitted to President Roosevelt in 1904, of
which 10,000 copies were printed, was widely
read and gave much vital information. That
report gave Michigan 19 sugar factories and
predicted "quite a number of new factories in
the near future." A little investigation by the
same authorities will show in 1905 that, in-
stead, five sugar factories were idle last year,
and three are being dismantled, with more
doomed, unless some little encouragement is
lield forth by our farmers, and the high pro-
tection policy is allowed to offer at least a
little grain of comfort to one of our most
promising industries. Each farmer should
raise as many acres of beets, as he can thor-
oughly work and harvest with the help at his
immediate command. That would solve half
of the i)voblem. Congress and the govern-
ment at Washington can save what is left of
our beet sugar business, by letting bad
ENOUGH alone!
Secretary AVilson's report deals fuily Avith
the value of the by-products of the beet sugar
business, particularly the manufacture of al-
cohol from refuse molasses by the ilichigan
Chemical Company, but he does not say that
even tliis factory has not yet been able to se-
cure enough molasses for even a six-months'
campaign. All these factories were built on a
basis of future development of the industry,
and their millions of dollars invested are now
confronted by absolute ruin. He speaks of
cheap water transportation, but we have never
yet heard of a single ton of beets or of sugar
going or coming by the river route. The fac-
tories on the other hand are doing everything
[jossible to get farmers interested, even at
great distances from the plants, by providing
weigh stations on the railroads, where beets can
be weighed and loaded. Pulp feeding for
stock-raising is becoming more generally ap-
preciated, and if the beet toppings and leaves
could be profitably preserved for cattle feed
during winter, there would be little waste left
on farm or in factory. The pulp can be fed
in wet or dry form, and glue, alcohol and even
charcoal can be produced from it. Secretary
Wilson is confident that the beet industry will
make still better uses of its refuse materials.
He says hut a few years ago the meat indus-
try of the country was conducted locally, and
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
many things went to waste. To-day the meat
industry is well organized, and hair, hoofs,
blood, horns and otiier parts of the carcass,
that formerly went to waste, are being* utilized,
and iie pre<Hcts as much progress for the beet
sugar inthistry. The average citizen of Bay
will wonder, by the way, why beef prices are
so higii in 1905, if the prices of cattle are so
luw. and all this former waste is being utilized.
Cut.- any way, we hope these fond predic-
tions will come true, and our beet sugar busi-
ness receive such consideration as its great
value to our farmers and laborers certainly
merits. The seasons of 1902 and 1903 were
bad for sugar beets, late springs, too much
rain, and early frosts and freezing, all combin-
ing to injure the crop's prospects. Other crops
also suffered, of course, but the farmer appears
to be used to off seasons for potatoes and corn,
but just one bad season for his beets totally
discouraged him. Potatoes were high in 1903,
because most of them hereabouts rotted in the
gi-ound, hence many farmers rushed largely
into potato raising in 1904, and as a result
the price ivent down to about 25 cents per
bushel. Sugar beets on the other hand have a
never changing value of $5 or more per ton.
Hence it will be of vital interest to our
county, for the farmer to include sugar beets
in his regular crop rotation, for he is in fact a
partner with the factory in the business. The
culture of sugar beets caused a general revi\-al
m agriculture, and <lairying has also felt the
beneficial effects of this vitalizing crop and its
by-products. The invention of labor-saving
machinery will lighten the work of the beet
growers. \Vith proper soil preparation and
good fertilizing, the value of every acre of our
farms will be enhanced. For the intense cul-
tivation required by the beet crop kills all no.x-
lous weeds, makes the soil crummy and light
to depdis not before readied, and so more pro-
ductive for other crops in proper rotation.
The vakie of the crop to Bay County and
Michigan can be illustrated by a few facts and
figures. The 16 factories operated in 1904-05
cost over $12,300,000, or more than $600,000
per factory, with a daily capacity of 12,000
tons of beets. Over 96,000,000 pounds of
sugar were produced in Michigan in 1904,
despite the shortage of the beet crop, while
1 1 3,000.000 pounds were produced by the
same factories in 1903. Skilled workmen to
the nunilier 511 were employed at $3 per
day, and 2,910 other laborers in the factories
averaged $2.48 per day. About 59,000 acres
of beets were raised last year, — a decrease,
compared with 1903, of 34,000 acres and 195,-
000 tons of beets. These figures apply particu-
larly to Bay County and s^ieak for themselves.
The average acreage per farmer H-as estimated
in 1903 in Bay County at 7.1 ; in 1904 at 6.3,
averaging 9.7 tons per acre each year, but with
much better sugar percentage in 1904. The
average price per ton in 1903 was $5.01: in
1904. $5.61. Thirteen pounds of seed were
sown per acre, at 1 5 cents per pound, while the
average cost per acre for raising and harvest-
ing the beets was $23.29 in 1903, and $22.69
in 1904. About one-third of Bay County's
beet growers hired outside help to take care of
the crop in 1904, furnishing work to men,
women and children, the latter profiting es-
pecially by these opportunities during the sum-
mer vacation season. The sugar houses only
ran 59 days on the average in 1904, with aver-
age daily capacity, 640 tons of beets, produc-
ing an average of 6,022,000 pounds of sugar
in 1904. The beets tested 14 per cent, in 1903
and 15 per cent, in 1904.
The writer in 1903 interviewed 103 beet
groi\'ers for the State labor department and
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
found 71 of them believed beets to be their
most profitable crop on a limited acreage, and
64 were certain the value of farm lands had
advanced, while the rest thought the values
stationary or did not know which. Just a look
at the records of the register of deed's office in
Bay County will set at rest all doubt about the
increase in land values and increased demand
for farm lands in recent years. And it is
something more than a coincidence that this
boom dates back no further than the introduc-
tion of the beet sugar industry.
The banks and business bouses of Bay
City offer another convincing proof of the
benefits conferred on Bay County by the in-
troduction of the beet sugar industry. Most
of the him<lreds of thousands of dollars, paid
out each fall in ready cash by the factories to
the farmers, find their way into the various
avenues of business, buying more comforts for
the farm home, improving the farm property
generally, lifting mortgages and opening up the
rural townships. Only this very month of
April, 1905, another large addition has been
made to the colony of Gernian farmers from
Illinois, in Kawkawlin tow^nship, drawn hither
by the fine farming country and the ready and
rich market facilities. Garfield, Gibson, Mount
Forest and Pinconning townships, five years
ago sparsely settled, are being rapidly cleared
by industrious and hardy farmers, so that ere
long the entire county will come within the
virile meaning of the title "Garden Spot of
Michigan." The soil, climate, drainage, and
fine road system are here, the muscle, brawn
and brains are here ; the rest must follow ! The
beet sugar industry !ias given Bay City a com-
manding position in the agricultural and indus-
trial aaffirs of our country, and hence has done
much to increase the value of all other farm
products.
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.
With the advent of the beet sugar industry
came the raising of chicory on a large scale,
and to-day Bay County chicory has a world-
wide reputation. The two local factories will
increase their output from 2,500 to 3.500 tons
of chicory this year, and are planning more
additions for next year.
The county still holds its leading place in
the production of grains, the average yield per
acre and the quality being the very best in
Michigan. The large gristmill and grain ele-
vators of Hine & Chatfield and Bromfield &
Colvin, on the East Side, and of the Franken-
lust Flouring Company, together with the Au-
burn grain elevator, provide a ready market
for Bay County's grain supply.
The Bay City Sanitary Milk Company,
Ltd., two cheese factories at Amelith, one at
Arn, three at Auburn, one at Beaver, one at
Bentley, one at Linw'ood, and one at Willard,
with five institutions producing? the finest dairy
butter, indicate the development of the coun-
ty's dairy interests.
The Beutel canning factory, on the site of
the old Sage mill, uses up the product of many
acres and many orchards.
The two four-story brick blocks occupied
by the Harry N. Hammond Seed Company,
Ltd., on Adams and Jefiferson streets, are hives
of a new and growing industry locally. Sev-
eral hundred men and woman are employed
during the season sorting and packing the seed
for shipment, which is grown on the rich fields
of Bay County !
A dozen large produce houses handle the
garden truck of surrounding farms, with sev-
eral smaller distributing plants on convenient
railroad points in the heart of our farming
district. Thousands of dollars worth of su-
perior garden products are annually shipped
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
from Bay City, principally to Chicago and the
far East. This steadily increasing bvisiness de-
niaiids at an early day the erection of a well-
equipped and well-situated public market
place. This much needed improvement has
been long in abeyance, and should be one of
the first great concerns of Greater Bay City.
The 75 miles of macadamized stone roads in-
vite the farmer to come here with his farm
prodncts, even from far distances. Con^'en-
iences for marketing this product quickly and
conveuiently would bring still more of this
business. Let us have a public market, and at
once! Modern methods and experience have
shown that hauling by wagon for long dis-
tances is more expensive than shipments by
rail in large quantities, hence more railroad
facilities would also be a boon to our rural
districts.
The Bay County Agricultural Society in
the day of Judge Isaac Marston was a leader
in Michigan. In late years it has acquired a
most desirable Fair Grounds and half-mile race
track par excellence, on the eastern limits
of Bay City, just north of the eastern terminal
of Center avenue, and within easy reach of our
oldest and most advanced townships. Yet our
county fairs in recent years have not been rep-
resentative of our county's standing in the ag-
ricultural world ! Our progressive farmers and
business men should take hold of the annual
fair and make it what it shoul<l be, representa-
tive of the highest and best in the agricultural
and dairying interests of Bay County. Each
progressive and public-spirited farmer's family
should be able to spare at least diree days once
m each year, for mutual comparison, study,
recreation and encouragement. The county
has provided al! the facilities in the beautiful
Fair Grounds; but for some inexplicable rea-
son, the property has been woefully neglected
m the last lo years. Eugene Fifield, of Bay
City, is president of the Michigan State Agri-
cultural Society in 1905, a compliment no less
to his years of devoted work for Michigan's
annual agricultural fair than to the county he
represents ! And if a great gathering of our
farmers and farm products is such a good thing
for the State, why not a similar annual reunion
of our sons of toil, right here at home? The
results will justify the great effort now neces-
sary to revive interest and zeal in our Bay
County Agricultural Society and our annual
fair! Let every enterprising and intelligent
farmer be up and doing ! Verily our rural pop-
ulation has gained much in recent years! Bay
County is screened from end to end and from
side to side by the wires that furnish the tele-
phone right in the homes of our farmers. And
our splendid road system assured us at once a
complete list of rural free mail delivery routes.
There is scarcely a corner of the county that
does not now get its daily paper as regularly
as the city folk. Surely Bay County leads in
all these things, and the leadership of our
farmers should be in evidence at the annual
fair, in an up-to-date city market, and enough
beet acreage to assure ns forever the business
benefits of this industry! Let the fair title
"Garden Spot of Michigan" be no mere play
of words. Do not leave everything to Prov-
idence and your good neighbor ! Work to win,
and win you must!
One of the attractions in this valley for the
aboriginal Indians was the unlimited supply of
fish that could he secured just for the trying.
The earliest settlers never feared a famine, for
the river and bay were alive with the finny
tribes. The earliest settlers of Bay City di-
vided their time between lumbering and fish-
Hosted by
Google
246
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
iiig. As early as i860 the export of fish, from
Bay City was valued at over $50,006 annually.
Few people even now realize the importance of
this industry. In 1905 it has resolved itself
into a veritable science. ^
There are two kinds of commercial fisher-
men, — those on the river, and those fishing on
the hay, — and their methods and catches vary
vastly. River fishing is best in spring and fall,
when the fish seek the creeks and branches for
spawning, and then the catches on the bay
shore are enormous. In summer the campaign
is carried on far out in 'the bay and lake, while
in winter the spear fishermen try their luck
.through the thick ice of Saginaw Bay. The
fish are packed in barrels in alternate layers on
ice, and are shipped as far East as New York
City.
Despite the efforts of the Stale and Federal
fish hatcheries, the supply is gradually 'dimin-
isliing, owing chiefly to the rapacity of the
fishermen themselves, who block the streams
where the fish go to spawn, and who, despite
the strict surveillance of the State game war-
dens, catch many undersized fish. Like the
lumbermen who slaughtered the forests ruth-
lessly and heedlessly, these fishermen may some
day find their occupation gone, just for the lack
of a little foresight and good business judg-
ment, for the fish supply of lake, bay and river
is no more inexhaustible, than was the lumber
supply.
Trap nets are used on the river and bay.
and gill nets on the lake. Pickerel, perch and
bass are caught mainly on the river and bay,
while sturgean, lake trout and white fish pre-
dominate in the lake. The best season usually
is April, May and June. Winter spearing
through the ice is variable, the shanty village
sheltering from 500 to 2,000 souls, according
to working conditions and the run of the fish.
River fishing is increasing in importance, sev-
eral hundred men finding it a paying .pursuit.
The fishing fleets are annually growing,
and bay and lake fishing are also increasing.
Beebe & Company, the Trombleys, the Lourim
brothers, George Penniman and Frederick W.
Benson have been in this business for more
than 25 years, while Robert Beutel, W. P.
KavanaUgh, D. A. Trumpour Company, W. E.
I-'isk, Dormer Company and Saginaw Bay Fish
Coinpany are among the larger and more re-
cent entries into this paying industry. Ang-
ling for sport and food is open to all and is
the delight of many people each season.
VARIED INDUSTRIES.
So closely interwoven are the mutual in-
terests of Bay County, tliat an injury to either
the industrial or agricultural interests is bound
to injure the other. When all the homes of
Bay Cit)' are filled with \\-ell-paid and con-
tented people, the farmer will have a ready
market for his products right at his doors,
prices will be good and land values increase.
On the other hand bountiful harvests mean
much ready cash to our rural population, M'itli
increased purchasing power, and correspond-
ing prosperity for the business institutions of
Bay City. Many of our farmers find steady
employment each winter in the fishing and
other industries, an advantage not enjoyed by
many farm communities, most of whom
throughout the country can do little but sit
around and eat up during the winter the ac-
cumulations from the summer's work and
harvests.
The ship-building industry has done much
for Bay City in the last 30 years, and inci-
dentally furnished employment for many farm-
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
evs (hiring the winter seasons. Bay City has
ever offered unrivaled facilities for ship-lraiid-
ing. Practically nniimitetl supplies of oak anel
other timber were at hand for the wooden ves-
sels of a decade ago. The presence of the broad
and deep Saginaw River, on which hundreds
of vessels, from the smallest to the very lar-
gest and latest addition to the fleet of the Great
Lakes, have been launched here for 50 years,
and without one single mishap, meant much to
the industry.
During all those years, the local ship-build-
ing plants kept pace with the growing demands
of the lake trailic. The schooner "Savage."
built for river traffic in 1831-37; the stern-
wheeler "Buena Vista,'" all hold and no cabin,
launched in 1848, commanded by Daniel Burns,
he of State-wide celebrity as a humorist and
buffoon; some fishing boats built about 1849;
and the first large Ixiats built here by H. D.
Braddock & Company in 1S57-58, the '"Essex"
and "Bay City," — all were noted craft in their
day and generation.
Later, Ballentine & Company turned out
some large and good lake craft, and with the
advent of Capt. James Davidson the local ship-
building industry assumed large proportions.
In 1875 the product of the shipyards was
placed at more than half a million dollars. In
188 1 Crosthwaite's yard built three vessels
worth over $100,000; Davidson's yard, two
vessels, costing $180,000; Wheeler & Crane
built and rebuilt five vessels, at a cost of $395,-
000. while the Bay City Dry Dock, at the foot
of Atlantic street, earned $30,000. In 18S3
Wheeler & Carne built a steam barge for Cap-
tain Forbes, igO'/^ feet keel, 34 feet beam and
14 feet hold, a monster boat for those days,
but a midget compared to the "Syivania" with
its length of 593 feet, launched at this same
yard in April, 1905.
In 1883 Captain Davidson was building;
the largest boat then on the Great Lakes, ex-
treme length, 287 feet, 40 feet beam, 21^ feet
hold, heavily trussed, and for some years the
pride of Bay City. In the lO years from 1885
to 1895, Captain Davidson built some of the
finest and fastest wooden vessels in the workl.
The "City of Paris," "City of Berlin," "City
of Venice," "City of Rome," and sister craft,
are to-day the proud leaders of the remaining
wooden ships on the Great Lakes. The advent
of the whaleback and other styles of modem
steel steamers have relegated the wooden ves-
sels to the rear in recent years, but the David-
son shipyard still finds plenty to do in building
smaller river craft, rebuilding the worthy
wooden vessels still in commission and in gen-
eral dry dock w'ork. The plant is still one of
the finest on the Lakes and may yet be con-
verted into an iron and steel ship-building
plant.
Hon. F. W. AYIieeler, now of Detroit,
early foresaw the changes coming in the build-
ing of lake craft, and he forthwith kept pace
with the most advanced ideas of iron and steel
ship-building. The immense shipyard north
of the Michigan Central Railroad bridge, has
nearly a mile of river front, immense work-
shops, mills and power cranes, and when the
shipyards of the Great Lakes were placed in a
trust by the American Ship Building Company,
with headquarters at Cleveland, Wheeler's,
modern plant was one of the first to be taken
into the combine. Since then this fine yard
has secured its share of the new steel ships built
on the Lakes, and has the distinction in 1905
of turning out the three largest steel steam-
ers afloat on fresh water. Time and again
rumors have had this yard transferred to other
points, but the fact that the very best craft are
even now- assigned to the West Bay City Ship
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
Building Company's yard is the very best proof
that the location here meets modern require-
ments.
Labor troubles, often ill-advised and work-
ing only mutual injury, have blighted the ship-
building industry at this yard on several oc-
casions, invariably ending with loss all around
and not one thing gained by anyone. It al-
most proved a case of killing the goose that
laid the golden egg, and it is to be hoped that
the local shipyard employees will in the future
receive the best wages offered similar crafts in
other lake ship-building plants, as in the past,
which to a layman appears eminently fitting
and fair, and under no circumstances again lend
themselves a lead a new and arbitrary wage
basis fight, unsupported by other shipyard
employees, whose chestnuts they were evidently
trying to pul! out of the fire. The net result
in years past has been the driving of new boat
contracts to these outside yards, compelling
local ship-builders to leave home and follow
the work in other ports. It must be self-evi-
dent to all thinking men, that the local yard
could not compete with these outside ship-
yards, if the cost of labor here was more ex-
pensive than elsewhere. Our cheap fuel, fine
yards and harbor facilities will meet this com-
petition, if the cost of labor is the same as else-
where, and will preserve for us one of our old-
est, largest, and most profitable industries.
Since the keel was laid for the monster
steamer "Sylvania," the West Bay City Ship
Building Company has employed nearly i,ooo
skilled mechanics steadily all winter, and the
work now on hand will keep the yard running
at capacity until next summer. By that time
other contracts are expected, and the ovitlook is
indeed favorable. Captain Davidson during
1904 employed nearly 500 men, according to
the State labor commissioner's annual report,
at $2.58 on the average per day.
The Bay City Yacht Works and the Brooks
Boat Pattern Company are recent additions to
Bay City's boat industry, and their trade al-
ready extends around the world. Yachts built
here may be found in the Gulf of Mexico, on
the Atlantic and the Pacific, and in far-off
Japan. Both plants are constantly increasing
their facilities and output, and incidentally do-
ing much to advertise the city abroad.
The Industrial Works, William L. Clem-
ents, president and Charles R. Wells, secretary
and treasurer, is far and away the oldest and
most reliable employer of labor in Bay City.
From a modest beginning in 1868, doing much
marine repair work, this plant has gradually
grown to its present mammoth proportions,
covering two squares on the river front, from
iith street to Columbus avenue, with substan-
tial and large brick buildings. The railroad
cranes and wrecking cars manufactured by this
concern are unrivaled and are protected the
world over by patents of great value. This
big plant has run to its capacity with day and
night crews for many years, barring a few
months last year, when matters of manage-
ment were being adjusted. Nearly 1,000
skilled mechanics are on the pay-roll of this
institution.
The Smalley Motor Company, Ltd., N. A.
Eddy, chairman and James B. Smalley, treas-
urer and general manager, is another new and
substantial institution, with a plant on the river
front at the foot of Trumbull street built in
1903 ; employment is given to about 200 skilled
workingmen the year round.
The National Cycle Manufacturing Com-
pany employs about 150 skilled men, and the
product is sold all over the country, as well as
abroad, a living message of our growing im-
portance as a city of diversified industries.
The M. Garland Company, 83 men; Na-
tional Boiler Works, 35 men; MacKinnon Man-
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
ufacturing Company, 72 men; Valley Wind
&. Engine Company, 30 men ; Alert Pipe &
Supply Company, 45 men ; Bay City traction
car shops, 51 men; Valley Iron Works, 35
men; Bailey Metal Furniture Fixture Com-
pany, 25 men ; Marine Iron Company, 45 men ;
Bay City Iron Company, 47 men ; Bay City
Boiler Company, 49 men; brass foundry, iq
men ; Wilson & Wanless, 27 men ; VaHey Auto
Company, 19 men; Michigan Central Railroad
repair shops, 43 men; Valley Sheet Metal
Works, 15 men; and Excelsior Foundry Com-
pany, employing nearly 100 men, indicate the
extent and value of Bay City's iron industry,
enhanced by many smaller concerns, who work
in the same lines of business. What we need
now is smelting works for ore, made possible
by cheap coal right at our doors, and our un-
surpassed water shipping facilities.
The Hecla Portland Cement & Coal Com-
pany, capitalized at $5,000,000, in 1902-03
constructed its million dollar plant just south
of the lighthouse, with a mile of deep-water
frontage on the river. Julius Stroh, the mil-
lionaire brewer of Detroit, tt'as the main stock-
holder, and the little settlement nine miles
from West Branch, where the marl beds are
located, is named "Stroh" in bis honor. The
dried marl will be hauled in 50-ton dump rail-
road cars to the milhon dollar plant In Bay
City. The drying plant has a capacity of 1,000
tons of marl per day. The company located
four coal fields : Flecla mine No. 4 in Frank-
enhist township has proven a good producer,
"bile the others — one near Kawkawlin, the
second west of the city, and the third just east
of Auburn — have not yet been developed. They
are planned to produce 1.500 tons of coal daily,
3C0 tons for the use of the cement and kindred
plants, the rest for shipment by water, for
which huge and modern coal docks are to be
constructed. The company owns its own rail-
way to the marl beds and coal mines and era-
ploys its own rolling stock. The clay and shale
used in the manufacture of Portland cement is
secured in the same shafts witii the coal, and
the plant as now completed has a capacity of
3,000 barrels of cement daily. In 1904 the
stockholders went into litigation, which is still
pending, and hence our most promising new
industry is awaiting the slow process of un-
tanghng the status of the company's affairs by
legal procedure.
The North American Chemical Company is
another million dollar plant, of which Bay
County may be justly proud. This mammoth
plant furnished the match-makers of America
with the chlorate of potash used on match tips,
and came to this country in 1898 from Liver-
pool, England, because the Dhigley protective
tariff compelled them to do so, in order to hold
their American trade. The company is located
just outside of the city limits, on 250 acres of
the old McGraw sawmill site, and also owns
and operates the Bay coal mine in FrankenUist
township. M. L. Davies is the general man-
ager and since coming here in 1899, has be-
come actively identified with the interests of
Bay City and, with his charming wife, has be-
come a decided acquisition to the business and
social life of our community. Althougb Mr.
Davies is a typical Englishmen, he stops the
\vheels at the plant just one day in each year,
July 4th, the several hundred employees other-
wise never losing an hour. Since 1898 this
plant has paid out in wages $615,000, and to
the merchants of Bay City $1,250,000, and at
the Bay coai mine from 1899 to November
30, 1904, $275,800 in wages, and $150,000 to
our merchants for supplies ! The chemical pro-
ducts of this plant include bleaches and dyes
for dress goods, salt, chlorate of soda, chlorate
of potash, and other chemicals, the process of
making which is a secret and patented. The
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
main building is 550 by 220 feet with numer-
ous smaller buildings of brick. Fourteen boil-
ers and tbree Corliss engines of 1,200 horse-
power run the plant and consume annually
60,000 tons of coal, mostly slack. It produces
1,000 tons of the purest white salt daily by the
grainer and vacuum process.
Bousfield & Company's woodenware works,
the largest in the world, is located on six
squares on the river front, south of Cass ave-
nue. The company employed 632 men and
boys in 1904. It ships its product all over the
country and is one of our oldest and best man-
ufacturing institutions. The plant of the Han-
son-Ward Veneer Company is one of the lat-
est and largest additions to the South End,
employing 242 men the year round. Handy
Brothers with 218 men and Bradley, Miller &
Company with 227 men, on the West Side
river front, and the E. J. Vance Box Com-
pany, Ltd., on the East Side, with 141 men,
are the largest local box shook manufacturers.
Mershon, Schuette, Parker & Company, witli
131 men, Bradley Miller & Company, with 46
men, and E. B. Foss, with ii2 men, lead in
the lumber-yard business. The surviving
sawmills employ the following forces of men,
according to State census statistics : Samuel
G. M. Gates, 71 ; Kneeland-Bigelow Company,
53 ; Campbell- Brown Lumber Company, 37 ;
Edward C. Hargrave, 84; Morey & Meister,
55 ; WylHe & Buell, 140; J. J. Flood, 87; Wol-
verine Lumber Company, 34; Catherwood &
Glover, 32 ; and Kern Manufacturing Com-
pany, 144. W. D. Young & Company's hard-
wood mill leads the country in maple flooring,
employing 233 men, and running the wood
alcohol plant in connection with 55 men. The
Goldie hoop mill is one of the best in the coun-
try, with 1 38 men, and the Standard hoop mill
employs 95 men. The Quaker Shade Roller
Company is a new institution, with 105 men
and 4! women, and the Michigan Pipe Com-
pany is an old reliable institution, with 41 men.
Smaller box factories are those of B. H. Bris-
coe & Company, 46 men; Bindner Box Com-
pany, 53; William H. Nickless. 42: Fred G.
Eddy, 30; Bay City Box Company, 79. The
following named concerns operate sash, door
and building supply mills: Matthew Lamont,
employing 68 men ; Lewis Manufacturing Com-
pany, 53; G. Hine, 46; Sheldon. Kamm &
Company, Ltd., 42; Heumann & Trump, 41.
Cooper houses : Goldie Manufacturing Com-
pany, 96; Beutel Cooperage & Woodenware
Company, 61 ; Aaron Wheeler, 53 ; Edwin F.
Rouse, 39. The Bay City Woodworking Com-
pany employs 32 men and 24 women ; Maltby
Limiber Company (cedar posts), 31 men, and
Bay City Cedar Company, 2 1 men. The
Creamery Package Manufacturing Company
has 29 men; Walworth & Neville Manufactur-
ing Company (cross amis), 59; the Beutel can-
ning factory, 19 men and 36 women ; the Stone
Island brick and tile works, 44 men ; Bay
County Rock & Stone Company, 21 men.
Three large and modern breweries employ over
100 men, and supply much outside territory.
The Scheurmann shoe factory is a modest be-
ginning for a promising industry, widi 14 men
and ID women. The Victory shirt waist fac-
tory is another innovation, with 65 women.
The Bay City Knitting Company now occupies
a four-story brick building on First and Water
streets, has the most modern machinery and is
constantly branching out. It claims to-day to
be the largest order-filling hosiery factory in
America, has 25 men and 83 women on its
pay-roll, and will practically double its out-
put of "Star" hosiery this very year. The
Galbraiths established this business, from
humble beginnings in 1899, and by persistent
pushing and good workmanship have created
one of our most promising manufacturing in-
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
stiuitions. These and a hundred other but
smaller concerns are our creative industries,
and the roll of employees, taken from the State
labor reports, is an encouraging- indication that
we still have many wealth producers in our
ranks. The big sawmills have been super-
seded by smaller but more enduring industries.
And this must be but a beginning, for there is
plenty of room for more like unto them.
Hosted by
/Google
CHAPTER XL
iizxCTi AND Bar axd the Medical Puofessiox.
The Bench and Bar.
Ko partial justice holds the unequal scales^
Ko pride of caste a brother's rights assails —
Ko tyrant's mandates echo from this wall,
Holy to Freedom and the Rights o£ All!
But a fair field, where mind may close with mind
Free as the sunshine and the chainless wind;
Where the high trust is fixed on Truth alone,
And bonds and fetters from the soul are thrown ;
Where wealth and rank, and worldly pomp, and might
Yield to the presence of the Trne and Right !
—Whillicr.
One of the first institutions reqiiireil in a
community of pioneers iias invariably been
some court of justice, where law could be
expounded, justice a<lministered and other
duties of a public nature performed. Hence
the justice of the peace in this settlement was
an important personage, who applied tlie prin-
ciples of law and justice to the whole range
of offenses, from neighb'irhood quarrels to
murders, who tied and untied nuptial knots,
and most of whose time was taken up in set-
tling land claims and controversies.
Michigan's judiciary system has undergone
many changes since the French first settled
Detroit about 1701. Edicts of kings, orders
of military commanders, decrees of imperial
parliaments and of provincial governors, ordi-
nances of the Congress, enactments of territo-
rial governors and councils, provisions of State
constitutions, and laws enacted by the Legisla-
ture, these and more have constituted the su-
preme authority in this part of the globe from
the "Contume de Paris" through the devious
pathways of 200 years down to 1905.
The lurid experiences of Day County's first
justice court, in a dingy blockhouse on the river
front, would, if fully compiled, compare with
some of the court scenes portrayed in the Ari-
zona Kicker. Land lookers, roving sailors, In-
dians, frontier rowdies, these and worse at one
time or another looked over the settlement, and
invariably bimiped against soine one or some-
thing in their explorations, that would end in
the justice court.
More dignified but none the less strenuous
were the duties and sessions of the loth Judi-
cial Circuit, to which Bay County belonged in
1859. the circuit comprising Bay, Isabella,
Losco, Gratiot, ilidland, Alpena and Saginaw
counties. The first sessions were held by Judge
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
\\l\ber F. W'ooclwortli on and after April 3,
iS^Q. in a bniUling on the river front where the
Deniscm Block now stands.
On January 31, 1859, Peter Van Gestle
killetl iiis conntrynian, Peter Van Wert, and at
tlie April term of court tlie murderer was con-
victed and sentenced to solitary confinement for
life. This was the first murder trial in Bay
Conntv, and the settlers attended the court ses-
sions cii masse, many of them sitting patiently
outside, as the court room was too small to
admit all. picking up the trial crumbs that fell
througli the doorway.
The first lawyers in Bay County were Hon,
Tames Birney, Chester H. Freeman, \V. L.
Sherman, Stephen Wright and James Fox, the
l.-ist two remaining but a short time. Judge
Andrew C. Maxwell came from Pontiac in
if^57. and for nearly half a century was one of
the best known practitioners and the most
unifjue figure before the local bar. Certainly
his sharp wit and droll manners furnished more
anecdotes than all the other members of the bar
cnmbine{!. He took an active part in the devel-
opment of the city and county. Hon. Luther
lleckwith came here in 1S60, directly after
graduating from the University of Michigan.
He was prosecutor from 1863 to 1867, was
alderman for years, an able jurist and a good
citi.?cn. Judge Isaac JSIarston came here in
1&G2. haviug studied under Judge Cooley at
the E'niversity of Michigan, and for 20 years
ho was an honored member of the local bir.
removing to Detroit in 1882. In March. 1863.
Hon, Herschel H. Hatch came here to enter a
partnership with Judge ilarston, and in 1864
Judge James Birney joined the firm, which
under the title, Birney. Marston & Flatch. was
considered one of the strongest combinations
of legal lights in Michigan. Judge Marston's
election to the Supreme Court in 1875 dissolved
the partnership, Mr. Hatch later taking in Ed-
gar A. Cooley, at present president of the Bay
County Bar Association, The late Cushman
K. Davis. Ex-Govemor of Minnesota, studied
here under the late Judge Andrew C. Maxwell
in 18G3-64. C. H. Denison was here from 1863
to 1S79. and then became a leading attorney of
New York City. Hon. Emil Anneke was a
graduate of the University of Berlin, took part
in the re\-olutionary struggle in German}- in
1S4S, and with hundreds of other liberal-
minded young men sought his fortune in this
country. In 1862-65 he was Auditor General
of Michigan, and became a notable addition to
the local bar in 1874.
Looking back o\"er this span of 30 \ears we
find that in 1875 there M-ere 42 members of the
Bay County Bar Association, including Judge
Sanford M. Green, then presiding over this i8th
Judicial Circuit. Thus early do we find, in ad-
dition to the earliest arrivals already named, the
men who in future years were destined to pre-
side over the local Circuit Court : Judge George
P. Cobb, who came here in September. 1868.
after graduating from the University of Michi-
gan, did not finish his schooling until peace re-
leased him from the 5th Jlichigan Cavalry in
1866. In 1S70 he became associated with Judge
T. C. Grier and the late dean of the local bar,
Hon. Archibald McDonell. Judge Theodore
F. Shepard. at present presiding over this cir-
cuit, came from New York to Bay County in
]86j. being the first attorney on tlie West Side,
and ahhough his offices for the greater part of
the time since have been mostly on tlie East
Side, he has done much toward the development
of his home community, taken an active part in
the educational work, and has ever l>een one of
the county's sterling citizens. Hon. Thomas A,
E. Weadock. who for three terms represented
this district in Congress, earned enough money
teaching school to allow him to graduate from
the University of Michigan in 1873 and the
Hosted by
Google
2s6
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
next year he came here to enter a partnership
with Graeme Wilson, later taking his brother,
John C. Weadock, now one of Michigan's ablest
corporation lawyers, into partnership with him.
In 1905 this firm is still among the leaders of
the profession in this State. Chester L. Col-
lins, jnst elected circuit judge for the term
igo6-r J.is another of the patriotic class of men,
who served their country in the Civil War, be-
fore taking np life's work in other fields.
Graduated from the University of Iowa, he
began the practice of law in Knoxville, Iowa,
in 1869, coming to Bay City in 1875, so that his
local practice just falls within the scope 01 the
three decades. Griffith H. Francis, present
judge of probate, and graduate of the Univer-
sity of Michigan^ also came here just 30 years
ago, and in that long period has acquired a host
of friends by his sterling worth. Thomas E.
\A'ebster, judge of probate 1880-86, graduated
from the University of Michigan in 1873, and
forthwith began practice in Bay City, and in
1905 is still one of our leading attorneys and
citizens. W. French Morgan, the courteous
and able deputy under three administrations of
the probate office, is a scion of Kentucky, glad
to escape the prejudices of his native heath in
1861, coming direct to Bay City, where 30
years ago he was studying law, being admitted
to the bar in 1878, and in 1905 he is still the
indispensable walking encyclopedia of the Pro-
bate Court. Fatio Colt, now of Midland; Ed-
gar A. Cooley, John L. Stoddard, Daniel ilan-
gan, Henry Selleck, John Golden, Samuel L.
Brigham, and John Brigham are among the
veterans who can look back on more than 30
years of practice before the bar of Bay County.
In 1905 we find the activities of these veterans
and their professioiial associates of younger
years extending far beyond the confines of Bay
County. The fame of Bay City lawyers has
gone abroad, and they will be found in import-
ant litigation before practically every Circuit
Court in Michigan, and their ability has long
been recognized and acknowledged before the
highest tribunal of our State, — the Supreme
Court.
The following review of the attorneys who
have practiced and acquired prominence and
success in their profession, together with the
Bay County Bar Association's officials and their
work for 1905, is from the pen of one of Bay
City's rising young attorneys, whose father
achieved a splendid professional record on this
very same field little more than a decade ago.
The history of the bench and bar of Bay-
County commences with the settlement of
Lower Saginaw, as the trading post near the
mouth of the Saginaw was called in the early
days. Bay County was organized in 1857 and
at that time extended far up the lake shore and
formed a part of the Seventh Judicial Circuit.
Two years later Bay County was added to the
lOth Judicial Circuit, over which Hon. Wilber
F. Woodworth presided until he resigned in
1861, his unexpired term being filled by Hon.
James Bimey by appointment of the Governor,
Judge Birney was succeeded in 1865 by Hon.
Jabez G. Sutherland, a jurist widely known as
an authority on general practice and a text-
book writer of high standing, who held the
office until 1870, when he resigned to accept
an election to Congress.
The most noteworthy of the pioneers of the
Bay County bar was Hon. James G. Birney, a
gentleman of birth, culture and education, who
had already attained national prominence as
candidate of the Free Soil party for the Presi-
dency, and who har! spent the best part of his
life and freely expended his ample fortune in
the struggle for the abolition of slavery. In
his declining years, seeking rest and relief from
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
the burden which he felt he was no longer able
to bear, desiring only rest and oblivion from
the hatred wliicli pursued those who attacked
the "peculiar institution," he found peace and
quiet on the banks of the placid Saginaw and
(ihserved from a distance the progress of that
struggle the result of which was to him never
ill doubt. While never again engaging in ac-
tive practice, his advice and counsel were eager-
Iv sought, and fortunate indeed was the hardy
woodsman or pioneer farmer whose claim or
title rested upon the opinion of the hardy patriot
Birncy. He lived to see the beginning of the
end of the contest and to know tiie greatness of
the success for which he had so long contended,
apparently in vain.
His son, Hon, James Birney, for a few years
filled the vacancy in the judgeship of the cir-
cuit, which comprised the counties of Bay, Mid-
land and Arenac. He presided on the bench
with distinction and remained in active practice
as couusel for many years thereafter, retiring
in 1892.
Hon. Chester H. Freeman, another of the
early hghts of the bar, settled on tJie banks
of the Saginaw when the world hereabouts
was young, and until very recent years con-
tinued to reside in the community which he had
seen spring from the wilderness.
Hon. Andrew C. Maxwell^ afterward cir-
cuit judge from 1894 to 1900, was a contem-
iwrary of the earliest comers to the lower end
of the Saginaw Valley. A man of strong per-
sonality, aggressive, able and not much given
to the observance of nice distinctions, it was in-
evitable that he should have had strong friends
and bitter enemies. He died in Bay City in the
year 1902.
Thomas C. Grier came to Bay City about
i860. Ujion the creation of the i8th Judicial
Circuit in 1871, he was elected on the Demo-
cratic ticket as circuit judge. For many years
he Jiad held a high position at the bar. and the
choice of the Democrats was the choice of the
community at large, no opponent being pre-
sented. His death soon after assuming the er-
mine deprived the community of a useful citi-
zen, a good neighbor and a judge who gave
promise of a career on the bench successful
above the average.
tie was succeeded upon tlie bench by Hon,
Sanford M. Green, than whom few men Iiave
had greater influence in shaping Michigan's
laws and system of practice. Compiler of the
"Revised Statutes of 1846," judge of the Cir-
cuit and Supreme courts under tlie old system
in vogue before the adoption of the constitu-
tion of 1850, a writer of standard text-lx)oks
and an attorney of high standing at the bar, he
brought to the service of the circuit a wealtJi of
knowledge and experience far beyond that of
the average jurist. He \vas reelected without
opposition, and was allowed to retire only when
ad\'ancing years brought an end to his labors.
He died in 1903. He was followal to the
grave by the affection and esteem of the bar of
the entire State and the memory of his work
will last as long as the bench and bar of Miclii-
gan endure.
Hon. George P. Cobb took up the practice
of the law in Bay City in 186S. Industrious
and careful, he rjuickly attained standing at the
bar, was associated for many years with the
late lamented Hon. Archilwild McDonell, and
finally in 1888 was elected, on an independent
ticket, to the circuit bench. His careful, kindly
natin-e made practice before him a pleasure and
he retired from the bench with the esteem of all
in 1894. He is still engaged in active practice
in Bay City,
Few men have been called to the bench
imder such trying circumstances as was Hon.
Theodore F. Shepard in 1900. The declining
years of his predecessor's incumbency had re-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
sulte<l ill a serious disarrangement of the rou-
tine work of the court and the situation called
for a man of character and ability above the
average. Judge Shepard may well be content
to be judged by the record of his incumbency.
Possessing the confidence and respect of the bar,
he quickly restored order, system and dignity
to the court proceedings and his fairness, pa-
tience and manifest intention that each litigant
should have a "square deal" has made his
record on tlie bench one which his successors
may well enndate. His elevation to the bench
followed a long and successful career as prac-
titioner, including service as prosecuting attor-
ney of Bay County and as United States dis-
trict attorney. He will retire from the bench
in 1905, to Ije followed by Hon. Chester L.
Collins, The last named gentleman is at the
present time one of the oldest in point of prac-
tice now at the Bay County bar, and it is per-
haps enough to sny of his character and stand-
ing in the community that he had the support
of tlie entire bar in his contest for the judge-
ship.
In glancing down the long list of names of
attorneys, which have appeared at different
times upon the roll of the bar of Bay County,
one is struck by the number that have become
household words throughout the State and
some of which have achieved even national
prominence, Men of such standing as the late
Hon. Isaac Marston, justice of the Supreme
Court and Attorney General ; Hon. Thomas
A, E. Weadock and Hon. Herschel H,
Hatch, both now members of tiie Detroit
bar and both ex-members of Congress from
the Tenth Congressional District ; Hon.
Robert J. Kelley, recently judge of the Al-
pena circuit and now member of the Battle
Creek bar, besides many others to whose
records the limits of this article will not per-
mit doing full justice, deserve special mention.
With them may be classed the leaders of tht
bar in a day now long past, such men as
Hon. Sidney T. Holmes, once judge of the New
York Supreme Count, and for many years in ac-
tive practice in Bay Count}', senior and founder
of the firm of Holmes, Collins & Stoddard;
Hon. Archibald McDonell_. whose recent death
was felt as a bereavement by the entire commu-
nity; Hon. Luther Beckwith, Windsor Scho-
field, Graeme Wilson and many another, whose
name is now but a memoiy to the old and an
inspiration to die young practitioners of to-day.
The older generations were products of the
times in which they li\-ed, strong men of force-
ful manner and address, men of affairs as well
as scholars in the law, and their character is in-
delibly impressed upon the profession which
they adorned. Something of the nice theoreti-
cal training of the schools may have been want-
ing, manners and habits may lia\'e sa\-ored
somewhat of the rough and ready times and
community in which they lived, but their ster-
ling characters, forceful personalities ami devo-
tion to the high ideals of their profession set
a standard which will tax the energies of suc-
ceeding generations of practitioners to main-
tain.
It woidd be invidious to atempt to single
out tliose members of tlie present bar whose
careers and characters owe their success and
standing to the fact that they buikled upon the
foundation so well laid by their forebears. The
bar is at present able, active and well-organized.
Since the early "seventies" a bar association
has existed, which has Ijeen lately reorganized
with the following officers: President, Edgar
A. Cooley; vice-president. John C. Weadock;
secretary and treasurer, Frank S. Pratt. An
annual banquet and standing active committees
on grievances, etc., are notable features of the
new organization.
In 1899 the Law Liljrary was organized,
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
wliicli hv gradual additions has accumulated
se\-erai thousand volumes and is one of the best
etiuipped in the State. While annual dues are
exacted from members of the bar for its sup-
port, it is at all times open free of charge to
judges and public officials, and has proven of
great value to the public as well as the profes-
sion. The library is situated in the Slieirer
Block and has a librarian in coustant attend-
ance.
Among those now engaged in the active
work of the bar whose wide and acti\-e practice
has conferred a leadership might be mentioned :
Edgar A. Cooley, for many years associated
with the late Justice Marston and Hon. Her-
schel H. Hatch, and now with John C. Hewitt,
in coqmration and general practice; John C.
\\eadock, now, as for 20 years past, associated
with his brother, Hon. Thomas A. E. Wead-
ock, under the firm name of T. A. E. & J. C.
^^'eadock, and whose leadership extends to the
community at large; Hezekiah M. Gillett and
John E. Simonson who for over a quarter of a
century have been associated in practice ; DeVere
Hall. John L. Stoddard, M. L. Courtright, Lee
E. Joslyn, Frank S. Pratt, U. R. Loranger, C.
E. Pierce and John E. Kinnane. men of large
practice and experience and well-known to the
profession at large throughout the State; an<l
Chester L. Collins, whose recent election to the
olTice of circuit judge crowns a long career of
useful and successful work in general practice.
Among the younger members, upon whose
shoulders the burden of the work of the bar is
falling, might be mentioned Edward E. An-
neke and Lewis P. Counians, for six years
prosecuting attorney and assistant prosecuting
attorney, respectively; Edward S. Clark, of
Simonson, GiUett & Clark; James E. Duffy,
until the death of Archibald McDonell, asso-
ciated with the latter under the firm name of
JIcDonell & Duffy; Samuel G. Houghton, the
first city attorney of Greater Bay City; Pearl
M. Haller, Richard A. McKay, Frank P. Mc-
Cormick, Alljert ilcClatchey, Horace Tupper,
Jr., Brakie J. Orr, recently city attorney of
Bay City for three temis and now prosecuting
attorney; Archibald H. McMillan, Delano H.
Thompson, Luther G. Beckwith, Fred W. De-
Foe. R. T. Waddle and James E. Brockway
(member of the Legislature). Hon. Griffith
H. Francis presides over the Probate Court,
two ex-judges of which, Hon. Hamilton M.
W'right and Hon. Thomas E. W^ebster, are
still engaged in active practice in Bay City.
James Donnelly has for many }-ears added to
his professional labors the burden of the duties
of alderman of Bay City. James Van Kleeck,
late State commander of the G. A. R., and Isaac
A. Gilbert were for many years associated and
both are now engaged in practice. Edward W.
Porter and Joseph P. Haffey still keep up the
firm of which the late Heury Lindner was the
founder and head. George R. Foj: and W. .\..
Collins are circuit court commissioners, and
Robert L. King, now justice of the peace, has
given a new and better tone to the practice in
the lowest court. Lawrence SlcHugh, a stal-
wart of the old school, completes a list, partial
only, of the members of the present bar. To
attempt to name all, anil with justice to their
lives and careers, is impossible within the limits
of this article. Let it suffice to say that the
work of the Bay County bar is known and ap-
preciated throughout the State and ranks with
the best.
The presence of the Unitetl States Court for
the Northern Division of the Eastern District
of Michigan calls the members frequently to
meet in contest the best minds of the bars of
this and the adjoining States in the battles of
the forum, and in this our bar has ne\-er Ijeen
found wanting. If the saying is true that the
character and welfare of a community is largely
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
determined by the character of its bench and
of the men of the bar, who maintain, interpret
and administer its laws, then may Bay County
well be congratulated that its welfare and char-
acter are in such safe hands and so well-estab-
lished.
Courts. — The United State.? Court for the
Northern Division of the Eastern District of
Michigan is held in commodious court rooms
in the Federal Building on the first Tuesdays in
May and October. The following are officers
of this court: Judge, H. H. Swan, of Detroit,
salary $5,000; attorney, W. D. Gordon, of
Midland, salary $4,000; clerk, W. S. Harsha,
fees; division clerk, Miss Davison, fees; mar-
shal, W. R. Bates, salary $4,000; deputy mar-
shal, Lucious W. Tobias, of Bay City ; com-
missioner, Mrs. Jennie Wright Jones, of Bay
City.
The terms of the iSth Judicial Circuit Court
begin in March, May, September and Decem-
ber. The offilcers of the court are: Judge,
Theodore F, Shepard; commissioners, George
R. Fox and W. A. Collins; stenographer, A.
M. Haynes; otilicer, Henry Cornell.
The officers of the Probate Court of Bay
County are: Judge, Griffith H. Francis; clerk,
W, French Morgan.
Bay City has for many years had a Police
Court, on a metropolitan plan, over which Wil-
liam M. Kelley, once county clerk and ever a
public-spirited citizen, has now presided for
several terms. Since Greater Bay City became
an estabHshed fact, this court also handles all
minor cases from the West Side. Under Jus-
tice Kelley's experienced eye, this court has
long been a credit to the city. Tlie annual re-
port of our Police department indicates the
mass of minor matters coming before this court
and incidentally reflects all the weal and woe
of a 20th century city more plainly than pages
of subject matter.
According to the annual report for 1904,
there came before this court the following
cases, in which comparisons with the previous
year are shown : Of abusive language, 21 cases
were recorded; eight less than in 1903. As-
sault and battery aggregated 109 cases, a fall-
ing off of 22 cases, as compared with the pre-
vious year. Attempted rape was charged in
13 cases, a mimher larger than the total for
similar charges during the 10 years preceding
1902. Cohabitating with a child under 16
years of age was the basis of arrest in five
cases, the largest number for any one year in
the history of the department. Only two cases
of enticing girls into houses of ill fame were
recorded. Disorderly persons, including va-
grants, were arrested in 77 cases. Fifteen cases
of burglary were recorded, an increase of 11
over the previous year. Drunkenness showed
an increase of -jb cases over the previous year,
481 arrests being made. Ill treatment of chil-
dren was the cause of nine arrests, an increase
of three. Petit larceny, while common, 78 cases
being recorded, was exceeded the previous year
by 16 cases. Malicious injury to property w"as
recorded in 25 cases; the majority of offenders
came from the ranks of the small boys, bent on
mischief more than on crime. Nineteen children
were brought in charged with truancy, and of
juvenile disorderly, 10; of this number, four
were sent to the Industrial School for Boys,
and six to the Industrial Home for Girls. Non-
support caused 17 arrests, exceeding but one
over the previous year. Of violations of the
bicycle ordinance, 91 cases were recorded ;
many being first offenses, very few fines were
imposed. Sixteen arrests were made for viola-
tions of various other city ordinances. The dif-
ference in the number of lodges cared for is
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
ciuite noticeable; there were 285 males and 15
females recorded, against 419 the year previous.
The following disposition of cases, coming
before him in 1904, was made by the police
justice :
The 1,260 arrests are thus classified : Males,
1,166— females, 94; white, 1,243 — colored, 17;
married, 436 — single, 824; able to read and
write, i.iSS — not able to read and write, 72.
The arrests were classified by their nativity as
follows: United States, 821; Canada, 178;
Poland, 85; Ireland, 56; Germany, 36; Eng-
land, 22; Russia, 19; Scotland, 11; Siberia,
8: Norway, 5; Sweden, 4; Australia, 3; Fin-
land, Italy, Switzerland and Syria, 2 each;
Bohemia, China, the Netherlands and New
Foimdland, i each.
Appealed to Circuit Court 3
Bail forfeited i
Committed 10 County Jail 164
Complaint withdrawn 27
Died in Hospital i
Detroit House of Correction 13
Discharged 129
Failed to appear 4
Gave bail 2
Held to Circuit Court 47
Held to Probate Court I
Industrial Home for Girls, Adrian 6
Industrial School for Boys, Lansing 4
Ordered to leave city i
Paid fine 123
Pending 14
Released by police 68
Turned over 10 outside officers 39
Taken to hospital i
Sentence suspended 612
Total 12S0
The Medical Profei
B Id t
daj tie
K
and u e
W tl
a hrn a
pl.
la e
Ada
e d g
SI all
i t
ri
Tlu
Cl
ta
To 1
e t r
he
the e e
See tl
orld
e
ast pla n
\nd
D e bo ndless
reach of kj
~i.ongf
ItO'^
lime was, when the practice of medicine
Iiardiy rose to the dignity of a profession. The
then i)ractitioner, who was the best giiesser, let
out the most blood and had the largest assort-
ment of recipes was a sort of magician and was
never ^\'ithout patients. Tiie discovery of im-
portant scientific truths during the last century
swept away many of the superstitions and pre-
tentions of the practice and schools of medicine
and elevated the profession to one of dignity and
recognized honor in the realm, of enlightened
civilization. The success that has attended the
medical profession during the last half century
is due to the self-sacrifice and unselfish devo-
tion of those who have chosen the saving of life
and the alleviation of physical suffering as a
life duty, and yet the measure of success has
been far less in perhaps the generality of in-
stances than the efforts of those engaged in the
practice of medicine deserve.
War marks with a blare of trumpets the
gallant act and decorates with emblems of a
nation's esteem the hero who risks life for his
country. The physician who saves life receives
no such reward, but he is usually content with
the gratitude of the patient and the conscious-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUXTY
Tiess of a duty well performed. Yet in war, as
in peace, the doctor is an ever essential factor
and risks his life and health in the camp, on the
battle-field and in the hospitals of pain. He is
a comforter of the sick and afflicted, as well as
the hope of the hearts of the families of the
sufferer, and if his fame is less pretentious it
is none the less appreciated.
We find in the opening years of this 20th
century no more honored profession that that
of medicine. In its practice comparatively few,
however, have been rewarded with rich returns,
and there arc many in this profession, who have
not met with the same measure of success finan-
cially that comes to those engaged in other
business or professional pursuits.
This was particularly true of the first prac-
titioners, regulars and volunteers, who sought
to heal and to help ailing mankind in the wilds
of Centra! Michigan. Jacob Graverot, the pict-
uresque frontiersman of early times in this
neck of the primeval forest, attained much of
his fame and eminence among the Indians by
his primitive but apparently effective treatment
ment of the natives when il! or wounded. His
limited knowledge of medicine, particularly the
curative qualities of herbs and shrubs, made
him a medicine man among the roaming Chip-
pewas. The first settlers in these parts for
years after his death, which occurred about
1839, heard the red men recount his miraculous
cures of members of their tribes, long before
anotlier pale face medicine man visited the
banks of the Saginaw.
Here, as elsewhere, the hardy pioneers, who
first left the borders of civilization and wan
dered into the little clearing where Bay City
stands to-day, were like the conquerors of old,
who burned their ships behind them, and risked
everything, even health and life, in the un-
known and isolated settlement. The bayous
and swampy lowlands were veritable malaria
breeders, yet Judge Albert Miller in his me-
moirs recalls the fact that the men and women
who first came to these parts were a hardy race,
antl sickness \^■as a rare occurrence. Home rem-
edies, such as were found in every home in the
land 70 years ago, were never missing from the
crude shelves of the log cabins of the settlers.
In extreme and rare cases, some practicing phy-
sician would be brought from Saginaw. Flint
and even Detroit.
Mrs. Elizabeth (Wilcox) Rogers, wife of
Thomas Rogers and daughter of Dr. Wilcox,
of Watertown, New York, who came here
about 1837, was for years the "Good Samari-
tan" of the pioneer settlement. Born Novem-
ber 12, 1809, she spent much of her youth in
the office of her father, and early learned to
compound medicines and fill prescriptions. She
was an ardent student of medicine, and when
18 years of age was, often consulted by her
father on various and difificalt cases that oc-
curred in his daily practice. After marrying
ilr, Rogers, they came West by way of To-
ronto, Canada, Judge Miller hired Mr, Rogers
as blacksmith and millwright to assist in estab-
lishing the first sawmill in what is now Bay
City, and he filled a multiplicity of minor pub-
lic positions <!uring those early days. He was
constable, then mall carrier between here anfl
Saginaw, and justice of the peace for a number
of years. Thus the husband tied the nuptial
knot of the first couple married here,- — Fred
Derr and Miss Clark, the school teacher of the
little settlement. And it was his good wife
who was present wlien Elizabeth Barney,
and later wife of A, G, Sinclair, was born in
May, 183S, in the little log cabin, where the
Maxwell Block stands to-day, — the first white
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Cromwell Barney,
child born in Bay County. From that time
forth until 1850, Mrs, Rogers was the minister-
ing angel of the backwoods settlement. The-
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
263.
early settlers never forgot her many acts of
beiicxolence and her womanfy devotion to the
sick and djing, in days that tried men's souls.
/Vt all hours of the day or night, through storm
or snow, raiu or shine, on foot or on horseback,
she Mould hasten through the woods, infested
with Willi beasts, to the bedside of the sick or
dving. There was scarcely a child born in the
settlement for 20 years that she was not pres-
ent, even after practicing pliysicians came to
the growing lumber town. And all this she did
because she felt it was a duty she owed her
fe!low-men, without remuneration, happy if her
humble efforts relieved the suffering and
cheered the dying. And during all these years
she was raising a famiiy of her own, four boys
and three girls remaining with her, when 'Sir.
Rogers was stricken with the cholera, dur-
ing the epidemic in the summer of 1S52,
wtiile cutting prairie hay a few miles south
of his home, lie was found by Orrin
Kinney, and tenderly carried home in a
blanket, but died in a very few hours de-
s])ite all his devoted wife could do. Her
daughters all married men of local promi-
nence : Esther became Mrs. Riley M. Burring-
fon: Bettie became j\[rs. Charles B. Cottrell.
and Ellen became the wife of the late Prof.
Fret! W. Lankenau, for }'ears superintendent
of the West Si<Ie schools. Mrs. Rogers of
blessed memory died July 16, 18S1. She lived
to sec the four families that were here when she
first came, multiply and grow to a prosperous
city of 20.000 souls.
Dr. J. T. Miller of Saginaw occasionally
came down to the forlorn little settlement, while
Dr. Geoi^e E. Smith was the first practicing
physician and registered pharmacist to lo-
cate in Bay City. He graduated from the
Cleveland Medical College, began practice
here m 1S50, owned the first drug store
aud was postmaster from 1853 to 1861.
In iS6i he lunied his attention to the lumher
indusir}-. ^liere he realized quicker returns,
ui^til 187S, nhen his health failed him, and
he again took up the practice of medicine.
He was a highly respected citizen. Dr. August
Xabert, Iwrn January 10, 1828, in Brunswick,
Germany, graduated from the medical college
of his native city, sailed for three years on a
whaling vessel in the South Seas, came here
to practice in 1851, and himself fell a victim
to the cholera epidemic of 1852. A widow an<l
five children survived him, including August
Xabert, now in the upholstering business on
Fourth avenue. He, too, fell at the post of
duty, in the service of hnmanity, yet no medal
was struck in his honor, nor did a grateful com-
munity enscribe his name on the tablets of
fame !
The pioneer physicians had to undergo all
the privations and hardships of the settlement.
Dr. Smith, and the other practitioners who
came prior to 1865, had to be as expert in a
canoe as on horseback, and they had to know
the Indian trails as well and better than the set-
tlers, because, forsooth, the settler need know
only his own vicinity, while the physician must
know them all ! It was nothing unusual for Dr.
Smith to follow the "blazed" trail to \\'iliams
township, where the "C. C. C." of Mr, Chilson,
and an irregular path through the dense forest,
alone showed the way. In spring and fail it
was not practical to travel this trail with a
horse, which would flounder around helplessly
in the quagmire, and a stout stick and huge
rubber boots \\'ere the physician's only aids in
reaching a rural patient during those seasons.
Often these calls would come in the middle of
the night, and a pine torch, and later a lantern,
would be carried by the guide to the home of
the sufferer. Whenever practicable, the omni-
present bark canoe of the Indians would be
called into requisition as the readiest mode of
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
transportation to the patients along tlie Sagi-
naw and KawkawHn and their tributaries. Any
one who has ever navigated one of these craft
will appreciate the skill required to handle
them, and the danger inseparable from trips
along the bay shore to the Kawkawlin or Quan-
nicassee in so frail a craft. Calls from Frank-
enlust, Hampton and Portsmouth townships
always meant a long trip over corduroy roads
or no roads at all.
Since drug stores were scarce, it behooved
the pioneer physician to carry a snia!! sized
pharmacy with hinij and thus burdened he
would have to ride a horse of sure foot but try-
ing gait to the scattered cabins, where often
dire want and privation were the effective aux-
iliaries of disease and deatli.
TJiat fees were meagre and often paid in
farm supplies rather than cash, is not surpris-
ing under the circumstances. But ungrateful-
ness and debt dodging were seldom heard of in
this settlement. Dr. Elizabeth (Wilcox) Rog-
ers declared all our first settlers to be "noble-
hearted men and women, whom it would seem
God had selected to make the beginning here,
which otherwise would never have been done!"
And the same pioneers adored her "because
she was as brave as a lioness in the face of
danger, and when her sympathies were called
into action, she was as tender as a child !'' This
mutual high estimate of character speaks vol-
umes for the integrity and kindness of heart of
our pioneers.
From 1855 to 1865 the Indians added start-
ling experiences to the daily life and practice
of the few physicians, who risked health and
fortune in this settlement. Seldom did these
red men visit Bay City, but what a general
carouse ensued, ending usually in a brawl and
bloodshed. Then the doctor would be sent
for and, at the risk of meeting the altogether
too promiscuous blade of the hunting knife,
would bind up the wounded and maimed, or
assist at the inquest of the dead.
Almost as dangerous and exciting was the
tloctor's work in Bay City during the palmy
days of the lumber industry. Many were the
free for all fights among the lumber jacks and
sailors, and the calls for the surgeon's services
in the tenderloin district were of almost daily
occurrence. Frequently the surgeon on his
mission of mercy would arrive before peace
and quiet had been restored, and whiie revolver
shots and beer kegs were still flying promiscu-
ously about at the hands of burly fellows crazed
by fire-water and licentiousness. That these
lurid experiences were the exception, and con-
fined to the harbor district, did not detract from
tlie risk taken at some time or other by all
the physicians who practiced here during those
stirring times, and many a life, recklessly
thrown away in these shambles of a frontiei-
settlement, was saved by the devoted effort and
scientific treatment of the doctor who chanced
to be called first, only too frequently without as
much as a single word of appreciation, let
alone remuneration. This was particularly
true of the roving population who came and
went like a surging tide among this and simi-
lar lumber towns of Michigan in the decade
from 1870 to 1880.
From that time on the population assumed
a more staid and reliable character. Working-
men came to make homes and take up land, and
the rough and read rambler followed the
frontier as it was pushed steadily westward
and northward. And just as the population
became more stationary, even so the professions
became more numerous and progressive. Emi-
nent surgeons who had ser\'ed tlirough the
bloody campaigns of the Civil War contimied
the practice of their profession amid more
peaceful and more promising surroundings in
Bay City, then just entering on its period of
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
265
unprecedented growth and development.
Young students who had left the high scliool
and university, risking their life no less than
their profession, in defense of their country,
flocked from the battle-fields back to school and
later went from college and university halls to
the wider fields of life and practice.
Great discoveries were being made about
this time in every field of endeavor. Railroads
were connecting all parts of the country, steam-
Iwats connecting the most distant portions of
tiie globe, and the electric spark was provid-
ing a sure and ready means for an interchange
of knowledge and experience, unknown in pre-
ceding ages. The medical profession was one
of the chief beneficiaries of these modern inven-
tions, just as in the profession itself rapid
strides were made in scientific knowledge and
practical application.
Tims early the concentration and combina-
tion of kindred interests were being appreciated
and carried out in an humble way, humble we
say, when compared to the giant combinations
of capital, of labor and even of the professions
in these opening years of the 20th century.
The origin of medical associations sprang from
the same desire for mutual benefit and protec-
tion that has characterized other pursuits, with
this marked distinction however, that the peo-
ple at large truly share in the benefits derived
from this concerted study and effort of the
medical profession.
Wonders have been acomplishcd in medi-
cme and surgery in the last 40 years, and who
can say how much of this advancement, so
precious to mankind, has been brought about
hy the concerted elYort and concentrated study
and investigation of the medical profession the
world over? Yet the benefits to he derived
from collective effort required years of practi-
cal demonstration, before even here the dawn
of a new era pierced the antiquated customs of
other and darker days ! As these benefits be-
came more apparent, the question of education
upon lines of the greatest advantage to all be-
came recognized, and the organization of socie-
ties, which have for their basic principle the in-
terchange of ideas that benefit the members
mutually, soon followed. The development of
medical science and the requirements of civili-
zation have created conditions that call for all
that is brightest and best in our professional
life, and the medical society ocupies a position
of recognized utility in human endeavor and
an honored position among the educational as-
sociations of the world. The benefits it confers
on its members are invaluable. It has enabled
the profession to purge itself in a large meas-
ure of quacks and ignorant pretenders, "fakers'*
more properly designated, and to protect the
public as well as itself from the wolves that
have preyed upon the credulity of the masses.
Since Bay County from its earliest days
possessed able and devoted practitioners, it fol-
lowed as a matter of course that the bright
young men then largely comprising the profes-
sion here should early take a most advanced
stand on so vital a proposition. Hence the Bay
County Medical Society as early as 1865 began,
in an informal way, its period of usefulness.
But not until about 1873 was a permanent
organization perfected^ and even this suffered
an interval when this promising field lay dor-
mant. The late Dr. Horace Tupper was the
first president of the Bay County Medical So-
ciety, and Dr. Robert W. Erwin, one of the
deans of the profession locally, who in 1905
is still enjoying a lucrative practice, and who
but two short years ago was the vigorous pres-
ident of the Board of Health, was its first secre-
tary. Dr. Tupper was one of Bay County's pio-
neer physicians, and one of the most widely
known practitioners in Michigan, his services-
being required all over this part of the State.
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
The Bay County Medical Society in 1905
holds regular meetings, and from a small Ije-
g-inning now includes the larger number of the
members of the profession in Bay Count)'. It
has been an agency of value to the citj- and
count}', as well as to the individual members.
The subjects that form topics for consideration
are such as appeal to the advanced medical
practitioner, including surgery in its various
branches, and the best methods of combatting
maladies that affect human life. It has been of
inestimable advantage to the profession in the
valley and is strong, vigorous and alive to
every onward movement in medical science.
It represents the finest equipped ph}'sicians and
surgeons in this county, and there are no abler
practitioners to be found anywhere.
As a relaxation from the arduous labors of
the profession, tlie membei-s of the society are
accustomed to gather occasionally at a phj"si-
cians' banquet, where the best of good-fellow-
ship reigns. Even here it is their chief delight
to discuss learned matters and from the lips
of a leader in their chosen profession acquire
more knowledge and the benefit of ripe experi-
ence and minute research. Their predecessors
in the line of duty 30 years ago did not lia\-e
these advantages. Preeminent leaders there
were, then as now, but the same means of tra\'el
and intercourse were so restricted that able
treatises in the medical journals alone couid
con\'ey to the profession in the rural districts
the benefits of new ideas, new formulas and
new methods.
The present officers of the society arc: Dr.
Russel W. Brown, president; Dr. Archibald \\'.
Herrick, secretary; Dr. Charles H. Baker,
treasurer. It would be impossible to gi\"e in
this connection a list of the membership of the
society in all these years since its organization,
but among those who have been prominent are
the well-known and still active practitioners.
the deans of the profession locally, — Dr. Henry
B. Landon, Dr. Robert W. Erwin, Dr. Isaac
E. Randall, Dr. Charles T. Newkirk and Dr.
John W. Hauxhurst, while the necrology of
the society contains such honored names as
Dr. Horace Tupper, Dr. Columbus V. Tyler,
Dr. Jeffrey R. Thomas, Dr. R. ^\'. Elliott, and
Dr. A, F. Hagadorn, able and beloved practi-
tioners, whose names will live long in the hearts
of those they served so well in life, many of
whom owe their very li\-es to timely and expe-
rienced medical aid in times of need!
While we are decidedly in the age of the $
mark, when almost e\'erything and everybody
is measured by the monetary standard, and
when there are occasionally people who feel
that anything they pay for in hard cash re-
quires no further comment or concern, to the
great majority the de\-ote<l care of the family
physician cannot and will not ]>e measured by
that low standard. Life and health are price-
less gifts, and those who ser\-e humanity in the
consideration of those gifts merit a reward that
goes beyond the grave and that cannot be com-
puted in mere dollars and cents^ be the com-
putation ever so liberal. \'erily the able and de-
voted physician is indeed a benefactor of man-
kind !
Bay County has reason to appreciate tlie
ahility, charncler and servicer of its medical
practitioners ! If every community in our good
State and great conntr)- is as ably ser\-ed, then
can we well understand and believe that the
nation's mortality statistics are becoming year-
ly more encouraging, and the a\-erage span of
life, despite our strenuosity. is gradually and
steadily Ijeing prolonged. The advance in sur-
gery and medicine is one of the great marvels
of this enlightened age, and progress and re-
sults are constant and well-defined on this vital
field of human endeavor. We need but look
about as and take but a fleeting glance at com-
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
267
mrative statistics of health and mortality right
here at home (hiring the past 30 years, to appre-
ciate the benehts conferred by the earnest study
and advanced methods used by our own es-
teemed guardians of hfe and health.
There is no organization of citizens which
has for its objects the welfare of the community
and advancement of its members that has been
productive of a greater measure of general
good than the Bay County Medical Society.
It deserves the highest meed of praise and its
members are among our most esteemed citi-
zens. From its ranks have come some of the
ablest instructors in our country's leading
schools of medicine. Dr. Fleming Carrow, the
noted oculist, who was for some time in prac-
tice in Bay County, was for many )-ears profes-
si>r at the University of Michigan, the special-
ist on diseases of the eye and ear. He was en-
joying a lucrative practice extending all over
the State, when the call came to accept a chair
ill Michigan's far-famed university at Ann
Arbur, Dr. R. S. Copeland, of the Homeo-
l)aliiic Medical School at the University of
Michig;ui, came to Bay City about the time Dr.
Carrow was called to Ann Arbor, and for some
3'eai-s also enjoyed a lucrati\-e practice, until
called to the higher post of duly and honor.
Bay City has skilled men filling the places
of those who have been called to larger fiekU,
and right well are they maintaining the repu-
tation of their predecessors. Dr. W. W. \A"i!-
]i;inis and others have this very year, after
studies abroad, taken up at home the practice
of electro-therapeutics, and it may be safely
asserted that in this branch of the profession
there are none better equipped than those in this
■^ity. In the field of general practice the society
IS strong and the names and reputations of a
score or more of these are secure.
Note the changes in the honor roll of our
medical profession of 30 years ago and now.
In 1875 we find practicing here the following
physicians: Charles A. Bogert, John H. Bur-
land, William H. Burr, James Clark, Sira Car-
men, William W. Elmer, John M. Emery, Ste-
phen H. Hagadorn, Jolin Hargra^■e, W, E.
Vaughn, who located here in 18C8; Norman
Johnson, Owen Kelley, C. C. Kingsbury, Rich-
ard Kratzsch, George LaMontagne, Jeremy T,
Miller, John Oldfield, Patrick W. O'Toole and
W. R. Tupper, practitioners long since van-
ished from the scene of their activities, whether
by death or removal. Among the active list of
30 years ago, but w hom the Grim Reaper has
since gathered to the majority, we find the late
Dr. William Cunningham, Sr., Dr. Edwin H,
Gates, who came here in 1866: Dr. A. F. Hag-
adorn, who came here in 1875; Dr. George
Heumann, whose thrilling experience in a bliz-
zard whde crossing Saginaw Bay cost him a leg
and nearly his life, a vivid reminder of the
dangers constantly attending the devoted min-
istrations of the first physicians in this frontier
settlement ; Dr. Henry A. Marks. Dr. Aaron A.
Pratt, Dr. Jeffrey R. Thomas, Dr. Horace
Tupper, Dr. Columbus V. Tyler who came here
in 1869; and Mrs. Marion F. Maxon, the lone
woman physician 30 }-ears ago, with offices in
the Griswold Block, were all beloved and es-
teemed practitioners, whose memories are treas-
ured by the thousands they ser\'ed so well, and
whose fame as leaders in the various branches
of the profession locally will endure for genera-
tions yet to come.
To few men in any walk of life is it given
to be able to look on 30 years of consecutive
ser\'ice in one commuiiit\\ and in this distin-
guished list we find on active duty in 1875, ^"^
some much earlier; Dr. Robert \\". Erwin, then
located on Fifth avenue and Adams streets;
Dr. Harvey Gilbert, then in tlie Cranage Block
and in 1903-04 the energetic health officer,
combatting a mild, local epidemic of smallpox.
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
and incidentally carrying forward the campaign
for more effective work in the secretary's de-
partment of the State Board of Health; Dr.
Henry E. Landon, our esteemed veteran soldier
and physician, the first of the still living and
practicing physicians to come here, who can
now look back upon 40 years of almost con-
tinuous service among the good people of Bay
County, and who in 1875 had offices on Fifth
avenue and Jefiferson street; Dr. Charles T.
Newkirk, the globetrotter and veteran army
surgeon, whose medical experience extends
over three continents, who in 1862, hardly of
age and just graduated from Victoria College
at Toronto, joined his brother in the Argentine
Republic, in South America, later lost his
brother, Dr. Daniel Newkirk, in a smallpox
efiidemic, served three years as surgeon in the
army of Brazil in Paraguay, with the rank of
captain, then four months in a yellow fever
epidemic in Buenos Ayres, and, after visiting
the leading hospitals of London and Continen-
tal Europe, located permanently in Bay City in
1868. In 1875 ■^^^ ^"*^ ^""1 located at No. 305
North Water street, where to-day stand the
mammoth storage tanks of the gas company.
In i8g8 the writer had reason to see and appre-
ciate the w-ork of Dr. Newkirk, then major and
surgeon in the United States Army, serving
before Santiago, amid the hospitals of the
wounded and dying at Siboney, and the fever
wards near Aquadores. In 1905 Dr. Newkirk
is still serving his State as surgeon, with the
rank of captain of the 3rd Infantry, Michigan
National Guard. Dr. Charles A. Walsh was
located in the Cranage Block in 1875, and for
more than thirty years Bay City has admired
and appreciated his professional services, his
good citizenship, which ever finds time and
energy from his other duties for public-spirhed
endeavors. Dr. George A. Williams had head-
quarters in Whitney's drug-store in 1875, and
thirty years after still enjoys good health, his
share of the county's practice, and the reputa-
tion of being a capital entertainer and a pro-
ficient linguist. Dr. William F. Hovey, Civil
War veteran, was in 1875, practicing on South
Water street, but of late years he has retired
for a well-earned repose from the exacting du-
ties of his profession. He lives with his daugh-
ter, Mrs. H. C. Clements, on Center avenue,
but still takes an active interest in pubhc affairs
of his ward, city, county and State. Bay City,
West Side, has in 1905 no more popular and
representative a citizen than Dr. Isaac E. Ran-
dall, who began his professional career there in
1867, and practically grew up with that com-
munity. In 1875 we already find him in the lo-
cation on John and River streets, where he is
in 1905, the beloved family medical adviser in
hundreds of Bay County liomes, pension ex-
aminer and public-spirited citizen, who contrib-
uted much toward the union of our municipali-
ties. Dr. Wiiliam E. Magil! came to Denona
in 1870, was practicing in 1875 on Henry street
between John and Jane streets, and soon there-
after began active public life and service, which
kept him much from his professional duties.
For five years he was superintendent of the
West Bay City schools; mayor, 1881-82, county
treasurer six years; insurance commissioner for
Michigan 1891-93, since which time he has held
sundry other local offices, being the last city
treasurer of West Bay City, going out of office
upon the consolidation of the sister cities in
April, 1905. There is in all Bay County no
better illustration of loyal friendship and un-
swerving devotion, the local illustration of the
far-famed story of Damon and Pythias, than
the thirty-five years of companionship of Hon.
H. H. Aplin and Dr. William E. Magill, a
friendship that has exerted a marked influence
on the course of local and public events in that
long period, unhampered by opposing political
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
269
beliefs. Dr. Magill being for years as ardent a
Democrat as his friend was a stanch Repnh-
hcan. Both are still in active service, united
now pohtically, since the money issue changed
party demarcation and their fellow-citizens wish
them many more years of usefulness and happy
comradeship. Dr. John W. Haiixhurst in 1875
was located on Midland street between River
and Linn streets, then as now, the heart of the
West Side, and in 1905 we find this eminent
physician still enjoying the confidence and es-
teem of a wide circle of acqtiamtances, with his
professional services in much demand. Dr.
Henry Wiede, practicing in Salzburg in 1875,
has vanished from this vicinity. Dr. Fred D.
Hiesordt has the tmiqne distinction of being the
oldest native-born practitioner. Born in Bay
City in 1858, he graduated from the Bay City
High School in 1876, the University of Mich-
igan in 1879, and the Detroit Medical College
in 1 88 1. He came here immediately to prac-
tice, and in an unostentatious way has followed
his chosen profession here since, living with his
father, P. S. Hiesordt, who taught the first
graded school in Bay City. Dr. Columbus V.
T_\ier was one of the most conspicuous figures
in Bay County's medical profession. Born in
1825, he came here in 1869, was elected State
Senator for the term from 1876 to 1879, and
serveil on the State Board of Heahh. He was
a prominent member of the Bay County Med-
ic:il Society and of the American Medical Asso-
ciation,
In 1905 we find Bay City well supplied with
hospitals and sanitariums, yet only five years
ago there was not in all Bay County a single
emergency institution. In r88o Dr. J. A. Water-
house, graduated of the Eclectic Medical Insti-
tute at Cincinnati, Ohio, came here to estab-
lish the Bay City Hospital, occupying four
rooms in the Smith & Hart Block on Water
street; the year following he engaged thirty
rooms at Third and Saginaw streets, called in
his brother. Dr. H. M. Waterhouse, a skilled
surgeon, and for several years treated thous-
ands of patients. This and similar institutions
started later thrived for a while and then van-
ished. In 1900 Mercy Hospital was founded
through the seif-denying and persistent efforts
of the good Sisters of Mercy, ably assisted by
the medical profession and many of the laity.
This institution has been successful from its
very inception, as xvell as a boon to sufferi*^
humanity. Since then the Lewis Hospital on
Broadway, Bishop Hospital on Center avenue,
and several private sanitariums have been es-
tablished, so that in this particular Bay County
is now well equipped and has in fact ample hos-
pital facilities for all the surrounding region,
whose people gladly avail themselves of the
splendid corps of local practitioners and modern
hospital accommodations. In surgery Bay City
stands pre-eminent in the State, a large corps
of capable and experienced surgeons enjoying
extended and constantly increasing practice.
The following mortality statistics gleaned
from the Federal census of 1900, will be of in-
terest to the medical profession, no less than to
the laity. During the census year there were 547
deaths in Greater Bay City, 351 on the East
Side, and 196 on the West Side. Of these,
348 were native born and 191 foreign born.
Let it be recalled here that this same census
shows Bay City, East Side, to have had in that
year 13.546 males, and 14,082 females; 27,485
whites, and 143 colored, of whom 19,143 were
native born, and 8,485 foreign born. The for-
eign born amounted to 30.7 per cent, of the
whole. Now- we have always been told that the
hardy foreigners are far stronger physically
than the pie-eating Yankees, but for Bay City
the statistics tell a different tale. The total
death rate per 1,000 of population in Bay City,
East Side, was 12.7 per cent.; the death rate
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
of the native born was ii.S per cent., while that
of the foreign born was 14.9 per cent. On the
West Side the total death rate was 14.9 per
cent per 1,000 popnlation; the death rate of
the native born was 13.8 per cent., while that of
the foreign born was 17.8 per cent. The age
periods of the deaths on the East Side were as
follows : Under one year, 72 ; nnder five years,
108; five to 14 years, 25; 15 to 24 years, 30;
25 to 34 years, 27; 35 to 44 years, 25; 45 to
64 years, 68; 65 years and over, 68. On \Vest
Side the age period of the deaths were as fol-
lows : Under one year, 46 ; under five years,
67; five to 14 years, 14; 15 to 24 years, 23; 25
to 34 years, 21; 35 to 44 years, 14; 45 to 64
years. 30 ; 65 years and over, 27.
The principle causes of death on the East
and West sides, respectively, were as follows:
Measles, 3 and 4 : scarlet fever, 10 and 2 ; diph-
theria and croup, 21 and 8; diarrheal diseases,
13 ajid 15; typhoid fever, 8 and 6; malarial
fever, 2 and 3; infiiienza, 3 and i; pneumonia,
13 and 14; consumption, 19 and 20 (the first
number being the deaths on the East Side, the
last figures the deaths on the West Side). In-
creased mortality during the last decade is
shown in pneumonia, 5 per cent ; heart disease,
12,2 per cent. ; kidney diseases, 24 per cent,
(now used as an argument favoring temper-
ance!) ; apoplexy, 17.6 per cent.; cancer, 12. i
per cent. ; old age, 9,1 per cent (mark that !) in-
fluenza 17.7 per cent. ; stomach diseases, 1.9 per
cent.; suicide, 1.5 per cent.; septicemia, 2.3 per
cent. ; diabetes, 3.9 per cent. ; burns and scalds,
3.3 per cent, ; cerebro-spinal fever, .8 per cent,
(this disease is causing much illness and death
in New York and elsewhere in 1905) ; gimshot
wounds, 1.4 per cent. Encouraging decreases
in mortality for the same period are shown in
consumption, 54.9 per cent; diarrheal diseases,
19 per cent. ; bronchitis, 26.1 per cent. ; cholera
infantum, 31.9 per cent.: debility and atrophy.
.^3.1 per cent.; diphtheria, 34.7 per cent; con-
vulsions, 23.2 per cent. ; brain diseases, 12.3 per
cent. ; croup 17.8 per cent. ; malarial fever, 10.4
per cent.; rheumatism, 1.3 per cent.; inflamma-
tion of the brain, 7.^ per cent.; paralysis, 2.7
per cent.; fiver diseases, 1.5 per cent.; dropsy,
3.4 per cent. Much of this discrease in our
most dreaded national ailments is of course due
to the ad\-ances made by the medical profession
in the last decade, no less than to the more ra-
tional living of the nation itself. Verily we do
progress !
In this place it may not be inappropriate to
note a few of the coordinate branches of the
schools of medicine. There is the druggist, the
skilled mixer and compounder, upon whose ex-
perience and ability often depends so much of
the physician's success and the weal and woe
of many patients. William W. Vedder is the
<lean of druggists on the West Side, being the
first pharmacist to locate there in 1873, and in
1905 he is still dispensing drugs to his appre-
ciative neighbors. On the East Side, John K.
Mason is the dean, beginning under the firm
name of Mason & McNeil in 1874, taking in
Lyman F. Beach in 1879, the firm of Mason &
Beach continuing to this day among the leaders
in the drug line in Northern Michigan. Lucien
S. Coman was located at No. 107 Center ave-
nue in 1875, later going to the comer of Center
and AX'ashington aveues, where he continued in
business almost np to the hour of bis death.
Florentine H. J. VanEmster was located on
Broadway and i8th street in 1S75 ; later he
erected the fine block at the head of Washing-
ton a\'enue, which bears this name, Mr. Van
Emster met a tragic death a few years ago
through the burning of his drug store, three
lives being lost in the conflagration. Frederick
Von Walthousen was in 1875 located on Third
and Water streets ; later he removed to Center
avenue and Adams street, and in 1905 is still
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
nmong tlie living, but bent under the weight of
75 winters and nian.v misfortunes. C. C. Whit-
iiev in 1S75 had a drug store in the Bank Block,
but in 1905 we find him in the National Chic-
ory Company and the National Biscuit Com-
pany, while otiiers are carrying on his former
business. Tliere were twelve other drug stores
ill 1875 on the East Side, and two others on the
West Side, so the growing city, then as now,
was well supplied in that line.
Less numerous but ecpially welcome were
tJie dentists. Dr. Hezekiah B. Hulbert came
here in 1S68, and in 1875 was located in the
Cranage Block, while in 1905 the sage prac-
titioner is located in the Ridotto. Dr. Carl W.
]\Iaxon, in 1905 practicing on the West Side,
came here in 1866, was located in the Westover
Block in 1875 and has long enjoyed his share
of the dental business. The late Dr. N. H.
\\"ebster came here in 1866, was located in the
Sliearer Block in 1875, and continued actively
at work for nearly 30 years. His widow- still
lives in their commodious home on State street,
in its day one of the finest homes on the West
Side. As late as 1875 the West Side had no
dentists, but in 1905 this field is also well taken
care of. Most of the practitioners in dentistry
in Bay City. East and West Side, in 1905. are
recent graduates from the University of Mich-
igan and similar institutions, which are today
furnishing the world with the most advanced
practitioners in that field of endeavor. They
are a boon to our sweet-tooth generation, with
Its manifold needs for dentistry in a degree un-
known by our forefathers. They are progres-
sive citizens withal and with the medical pro-
fession take a foremost place in our social, pub-
lic and civil life. Their long years of study
and preparation, no less than their close appli-
cation to their chosen profession, merit unlimit-
ed success.
As early as the 17th century, b'retlerick von
Logau made this aphorism a bj'-word in his
nation :
The best medicines that I would propose,
Are Joy and Temperance and Repose,
For they slam the door on the doctor's nose !
As a nation we have still much to learn on
that score, and our practitioners would find it
less difiicult to save human life, were lite not
held too cheaply by many people. Good health
is the greatest boon of God, and mankind should
not fritter tt away recklessly, heedlessly, un-
mindful of the first laws of heahh and the timely
warnings of Nature, Medicine and science can-
not always heal wounds thus recklessly in-
flicted! The most progressive physician is still
but himself human, and far from being onmi-
potent. His efforts to prolong and to save life
require the constant and earnest co-operation of
our people. Temperate living will do much to
alleviate the sum of human suffering and in-
crease the sum of human happiness. That is
the life work and the life ambition of each suc-
cessful physician, never so happy as when this
ideal has been reached in even a remote degree
and e\-en in an isolated instance. And a grate-
ful and appreciative people extend to the pro-
fession that high plane in life, to which their
devoted work for weak and suffering humanity
justly entitles them.
Each lonely place shall him restore,
For him the tear be <hily shed;
Beloved, tilllife can charm no mnre.
And mourned till gratitude be dead I
Hosted by
Google
CHAPTER XII.
Churches, Religious Societies, Hospitals and Charities.
METHODIST churches.
According to the late Judge Albert Miller,
the first churcli tliat was built in the Saginaw
Valley and dedicated to the worsliip of God
was the Methodist Mission Church at Kawkaw-
lin, which was presided over by Rev. >Ir.
Brown,
Madison Avenue Methodist Episcopal
Church. — At that time there were a few famil-
ies living in Lower Saginaw, as Bay City was
then called, who had so far advanced in civili-
zation as to build a small school house about 20
feet square, which stood near the corner of
First street and Washington avenue. Here Rev.
Mr. Brown preached occasionally, when the
people at Portsmouth had the privilege of at-
tending religious worship by walking two or
three miles over a rough road. Mrs. Belinda
Barney, Mr. and Mrs. Raby and J. Crutchfield
organized the first Methodist class in Bay City
in 1837. Meetings were held from time to
time by the various Methodist preachers w'lio
rode this circuit until 1852 when Rev. George
Bradley was assigned to the pastorate by the
annual conference held at Niles. During his
ministry in 1852-53 the society was fully or-
ganized and a church edifice erected on Wash-
ington avenue; here the church worshiped un-
til its present beautiful home on the corner of
Madison avenue and Ninth street w-as com-
pleted. It was built in 1S85 at a cost of $50,-
000, and about ten years later the parsonage
adjoining the church on Ninth street was erected
at a cost of $8,cx)0. On September 5, 1859,
William Benson recorded in the county clerk's
ofiice the appointment of Calvin C. C. Chilson,
Henry M. Bradley, Henry M. StiShnan, John J.
Nichols and A. G. Sinclair, trustees in trust for
the Methodist Episcopal Church. This is the
first board of trustees, of which there is offi-
cial record. The present officers of the Madi-
son Avenue Methodist Episcopal are as fol-
lows : Presiding elder. Rev. W. M. Ward ;
pastor, Rev. G. E. Ackerman ; resident min-
ister, Rev. E. T. Lumber; trustees, — Benja-
min Boutell, Dr. Robert W.Erwin, Charles M.
Hart, Cyrus Killer, W. H. Nickless, E. T.
Rowley, L. R. Russell, C. E. Walker and A.
J. Woolfitt; secretary of the official board, D.
O. Smith; treasurer, W. H. Nickless. The
church now has a membership of about 500.
German Methodist Episcopal Church.
— This church dates back to 1857 when Rev.
Jacob Krehbil visited Lower Saginaw and held
religious services. In 1858 he was succeeded
by Rev. John Horst and his colleague, Rev.
John Braun, who continued their labors until
the close of 1859. Various other pastors fol-
lowed and the society grew in numbers and in
strength, and about 1867 a church edifice was
erected on Adams street between Eighth and
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
Xintli streets. Here they continued to worship
until about 18S3, when their present edifice
at the comer of South VanBuren and 13th
streets was completed. In 1894 :i cellar was
built under the church and furnaces installed.
There is also a comfortable parsonage built ad-
joining the church. The present membership
is about 135. Rev. John Kuster is the present
pastor.
Fremoxt Avenue Methodist Episcop.vi.
CnL-RCH.— During 1853-54 the second settled
pastor of the Madison Avenue Methodist Epis-
copal Church, Re\'. Israel Cogshall, used to
hold occasional services in Portsmouth, In
1864 this church was organized and the fol-
lowing year, under the superintendence of Rev.
William Fox, a church edifice was erected, on
the site where the present church stands, and
dedicated. This building was destroyed in the
devastating fire that swept South Bay City
some jears ago. The society immediately com-
menced the erection of their present structure,
and began to hold services in the basement the
same year (1892). It took about two years to
complete the building, which cost about $15,-
000; of this amount only about $1,500 remains
to be paid. Rev. W. W. Will, who is now
pastor of the church, came here in 1900. The
cluu-ch, which has about 120 members, is active
in Christian work,
A\'ooDsiDE Avenue Methodist Episcopal
Church. — This church was organized in 1873
to accommodate members of this denomination
who resided in the north part of Bay City. The
church edifice was erected in 1S76, during the
pastorate of Re\-, A. B. Clough, which extended
from 1874 to 1877. He was followed by Rev,
Cah-in Gibbs, who remained with the church
two years. During the next eight years there
Mas a change in pastors every year, the minis-
ters coming in the following order; Revs.
Diverty, Spriggs, Lambly, Bancroft, Persons,
Weir, William Pope, D. E. Birlch. The next
pastor. Rev. P, J. Wright, served t\\-o years,
and his successor, Rev, A, J. Richards, one
year. Rev. John A, Rowe remained with tlie
church four years, and during his pastorate the
parsonage was built, at a cost of $3,200. The
next pastors were Revs, Judson Cooper, J. B,
McGee and William Ednnmds, who served
three, two and three years, respectively. The
next pastor was Rev. L. H. Stevens, who came
to the church in 1904 and still serves the church.
They have a present membership of 100, and
every department of the cliurch work is well
organized.
Central Methodist Episcopal Church,
—In the spring of 1887 members of the ilad-
ison Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church
started a mission Sunday-school in the South
End of the city. They met at various places
and held preacliing services and prayer meet-
ings in addition to the sessions of the Sunday-
school. The work flourished, and in 1893 the
Detroit Conference appointed Rev. A. J. Rich-
ards to serve this church, together with the
W'oodside Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church
for one year. He was followed by Rev. J. A.
Rowe, who also served both churches. He was
succeeded in September, 1895, by Rev, O, W.
\\illets, who remained with the church one
\-ear. During his pastorate the church became
an independent body, an{l has been self-sup-
porting since that time. In September, 1896,
Rev. George John Piper became pastor, and
serA-ed the church one year. He was succeeded
by Rev. Erwin King in 1S98, whose pastorate
covered a period of three years. In September,
1901, Rev, W. H, Gray became pastor. In the
following SeiJtember, Rev. Otto L. Dreys was
appointed to this charge, and continued until
September, 1903, when the present pastor, Rev.
B. C. Moore, took up his duties.
In 1891 the land on which the church stands
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
was purchased. A boarding house was stand-
ing on this lot at the time. This was remodeled
and used for a place of meeting for two years.
In 1893 their present house of worship was
erected at a cost of $3,000. It will seat about
300 people. Ten years later the present parson-
age was built on 19th street in the rear of the
church, which faces on Fraser street. The par-
sonage is vahied at over $1,000. The present
membership of the church is 125, and there
are enrolled in the Sunday-school 140 pupils.
The society was incorporated May 13, 1902.
Thoburn jNIethodist Episcopal Church
(West Side). — This church, which has also
gone by the names of "Banks" and "Fourth
Avenue," is the oldest church on the West Side.
J, S. Taylor, who later became one of tlie found-
ers of the First Methodist Episcopal Church,
West Bay City, established the meetings at
Banks, and was the first superintendent of the
Sunday-school. The church at first received
the ministrations of various Methodist clergy-
men from the East Side, but when the \Vood-
side Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church was
established, one pastor was appointed to serve
both churches, and this arrangement was con-
tinued until the church at Banks became an in-
dependent body, excepting while Rev. William
Dawe and Rev. Mr. Davis were pastors of the
First Methodist Episcopal Church, during
which time they also served the Banks church.
When Rev. A. J. Richards' term as presid-
ing elder came to a close, he was appointed to
this church. The house of worship, which is
located at the corner of Transit and Leng
streets, was erected in 1867, and during the
pastorate of Rev. Mr. Richards was enlarged
to its present size. It has ample seating ca-
pacity for 300 people, and including furnish-
ings is now valued at $3,200. The present
parsonage, which is vahied at $1,000, was pur-
chased about nine years ago.
The following are the pastors who succeed-
ed Rev. Mr. Richards, and the periods during
which they served : Rev. E. A. Cross, 1891-
93; Rev. W. H. Allman, 1893-96; Rev. George
A. Fee, 1896-99; Rev. W. E. Burnett, 1899-
1901; Rev. H. G. Pearce, 1901-04; and Rev.
W. E. Brown, the present pastor, who came in
1904. Including probationers, the church now
has a membership of 142. There are enrolled
in the Sunday-school 140 pupils and teachers.
In 1901 a mission was started by this church
at Wenona Beach. Every Sunday afternoon
the pastor of Thoburn Methodist Episcopal
church preaches in the school house.
First Methodist Episcop.\l Church
(West Side). — The history of this church dates
from the fall of 1866, when the Wenona charge
was formed and Rev. A. C. Shaw was appoint-
ed pastor. During his pastorate a house of
worship was erected and dedicated by Rev. B.
I. Ives, of New York. In the fall of 1867, Rev.
Alexander Gee succeeded to the pastorate.
Prior to 1868 Portsmouth had been included
in this charge, but in that year the work was di-
vided, and Rev. Joel B. Goss became the min^
ister. In August, 1868, the society had to va-
cate the hall in which they had held their meet-
ings np to that time, and until November 18,
services were held at Bangor. Then Babo Hal!
was secured, and the following Sabbath a Sun-
day-school was organized. About this time the
society conmienced to build a house of worship
on some lots which had been donated by Mrs.
Calvin C. C. Chilson, who was also very ener-
getic in securing subscriptions toward paying
for the building. Money did not come in very
rapidly, and it was not until November, 1869,
that they were able to dedicate their church. In
September of that year, Rev. Jacob Horton
was appointed pastor, and during the latter part
of his pastorate, which covered two years, the
chapel was built. Rev. W. O. Burnett was
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
appointed to the church the following year, and
remained with the church until the fall of 1874,
when he was follott'ed by Rev. R. Woodhams,
who remained until 1876. Rev. D. W. Misner
was then appointed and was succeeded in the
fall oi 1877, after a pastorate of one year by
Re\'. \Villiani Dawe, who remained three years.
In 1881 the society purchased a house and lot
adjoining the church for a parsonage.
]n 1884 the old church w^as burned, and un-
til their new church was completed the sociefy
worshiiied in the old Presbyterian Church. The
construction of the present, fine brick house of
\vorship was begun in the fall of that year, and
the completed edifice was dedicated on June 20,
1885. The dedication sermon was preached by
Bishop Bowman. Inchiding furnishings, the
church cost about $23,000. The seating ca-
pacity of the main auditorium is about 450,
and the lecture room, which adjoins, will seat
200 more persons. These two rooms can be
thrown into one. The parsonage was begun in
the fall of 1903 and was completed the follow-
ing spring at a cost of $3,500. The entire prop-
en\- is free from debt.
Rev. Matthew C. Hawkes became pastor in
18S3 and remained with the church three years.
During his term the name of the society was
changed to that wliich it now bears. After Rev.
Mr. Hawkes came Rev. N. G. Lyons, whose
pastorate extended to i88g. He was succeeded
by Rev. Charles Morgan, the duration of whose
pastorate was two years. Rev. James H. Kil-
patrick came next and remained with the church
three years. His successor, Rev. C. B. Steele,
also remained three years. Rev. H. C. Scripps,
the next pastor, remained but two years. He
died at Mount Clemens in 1903. He was fol-
lowed by Rev. William B. Pope, whose pas-
torate covered a period of four years. The
present pastor. Rev. J. P. Varner, came to the
church in September, 1904. The church now
has about 500 members, and the various church
societies and the Sunday-school are in a flour-
isliing condition.
Auburn Methodist Episcopal Church
(Aubum).^In 1875 a church building was
erected here, and until 1892 this was a mis-
sion cliurch in connection with the church at
Freeland. In 1892 the church became an inde-
pendent body, and since that time has had the
following pastors: Rev, R. Pattinson, 1893-
94; Rev. W. J. Bailey, 1895-97; Rev. R. L.
Cope, 1898; Rev. \V. E. Edmunds, 1899; Rev.
J. A. Rowe, 1900 ; and Rev. A. J. Holmes, the
present pastor, who took charge in 1901. Dur-
ing Rev. Mr. Holmes's pastorate the parsonage,
\\hich was erected under the direction of Rev.
R. Pattinson, has been remodeled and made
very coiumodJous. In 1S94 a beautiful little
church was built at North Williams. This is
included in the circuit with Auburn and is
served by the same pastor.
Free Methodist Church. — The church
of this denomination in Bay City is located at
the corner of Garfield avenue and Lafayette
street. It was organized about eighteen years
ago, and now- has about forty members. The
parsonage is connected with the church in the
rear. The present pastor. Rev. J. H. McMil-
lan, came here in the fall of 1903. The society
belongs to the East Michigan Conference.
Free Methodist Church (West Side).
— In August, 1886, the land on Litchfield
street where the church is now located was pur-
chased and work on the building was com-
menced. The property is now valued at $r,ooo.
The society owns a parsonage at 301 Spruce
street, valued at $500. The present pastor. Rev.
Curtis Lnm, came here September 25. 1904.
The church has now 21 members, and about
30 pupils are enrolled in the Sunday-school.
Hosted by
Google
276
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.
For the early history of tlie Roman Cath-
olic Church in this region we are indebted to an
article written by John Hyde, editor of the
Catholic Chronicle, which appeared in 1875,
and from which the following; is quoted:
"Among those who most frequently came
here prior to 1848, were Fathers Kundig and
Louis, and Father Pefer Kindekens, the vicar
general of the diocese. Between 1848 and 1852
priestly visits became more frequent. Father
Moynahan, then the pastor of Flint, made fre-
quent trips to Saginaw City, and on most oc-
casions would get some good Frenchman or
Indian to paddle him down the river to Lower
Saginaw, Occasionally, too. Father Joseph
Kindekens, brother of the Father Peter above
mentioned, and Father Kilroy, now pastor of
Emmetf, St, Clair County, would be assigned
to the duty of visiting the Catholics of the val-
ley, and would be watched eagerly from the
shore, as he approached in canoe or on the ice,
carefully holding the pack containing his altar
vestments and vessels. In 1848 there were
eight Catholic families here, most of whom
were French. By 1 851 the number had in-
creased to 14, besides a few young unmarried
men, who had I'entured in to help prepare the
lands for their future wealtliy occupants.
Among the 'old heads' were the Trombieys,
the Trudells, the Longtains and the Marsacs,
and among the men of the younger blood there
were James L. Herbert, the brothers Casson^
William Ferris and others. I have said that
most of the Catholics \\ere Frenchmen, but
M-liat spot on earth can one look at without find-
ing there an Irishman? Lower Saginaw at
that time was no exception. Here too there
were Irishmen : Osmond A. Perrott, P. J. Per-
rott, Bernard Cunningham and James Watson.
"In 1S50-51, the Catholics of Lower Sag-
inaw considered themselves numerous enough
to attempt building a church. The munificence
and forethought of the men who had laid out
the village plot had provided building sites for
the different Christian denomination whose
members might settle here. The Catholics
were the first to avail themselves of the bounty,
and as the most convenient to the settled portion
of the village, the site of the present St. Jo-
seph's Church was selected. There were no
architects here then, but there w-ere many who
had assisted at every 'raising' that had ever
occurred here, and knew just what a building
needed to make it last long. The men went into
the woods to chop and square the timber, and
each helped to put the pieces in their places in
the edifice. The men were few, however, none
of them were rich then (though many of them
are now) and most of them had to support fam-
ilies besides building churches. The work con-
sequently progressed but slowly; so much so
that when Rev. H, J. H, Schutjes arrived here
in 1852, not much of a church was to be seen.
But they had now at least at their head one
who coidd encourage and direct them; and
after some time, by his efforts and their own
will, the building gradually assumed shape, and
Father Schutjes was soon able to perform di-
vine service in it. It was a long time, however,
before a pastoral residence was built. During
this time Father Schutjes resided sometimes in
the family of Mr, Watson and sometimes in the
okl pioneer hotel, the Wolverton House.
"Those were the good old primitive times
of Bay City, when sawmills were few and far
between, and banks and newspapers were not
even in the mind of the prophet. Besides Lower
Saginaw, Father Schutjes was pastor of the
entire Sgainaw Valley. He had to divide his
time between the people at this end of the river
and those in the upper towns. Every alter-
nate Sunday he spent in Saginaw City and in
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
East Saginaw, and in the spring and fall when
the ice was bad and there were no roads, he
often had great difficulty and many hairbreadth
escapes in coming to and from those places.
But the growth in commerce and manufactures
brought increase in population.
'"The number of Catholics kept pace with
the general prosperity, and by the year 1S63
the)' were numerous enough to require the ap-
pointment of pastors for each of the cities of
Saginaw City and East Saginaw. Father
Schutjes was then able to devote his attention
to the wants of his people in Bay City. Soon
the little church of St. Joseph became too small
for the increasing congregation. Frenchmen
came from Canada and Irislimen came form
everywhere. Besides those there were many
stalwart Hollanders and Germans, so that Fa-
ther Schutjes had to speak many languages to
'get along' with his people. French and Eng-
lish, however, being the prevailing languages
in the congregation, he preached aheniately in
those two lojjgues until the year 1867. At
this period it was discovered that not one eighth
of tiie congregation could get into St. Joseph's
Cliurch, so it was resolved at once to commence
the building of a new church."
Irom this point it will be better to trace in-
di\-idually the history of the Catholic clnirches
here.
St. Joseph's CiiCRcn (French). — From
1869, when Father Girard took charge of the
parish, until 1900, when Rev. Francis H. Gres,
the present pastor was appointed, the church
had a rapid succession of pastors. Father Gi-
rard remained imtil January i, 1872. Father
Delbar succeeded him, but remained only un-
til the last of the next December, and Father
Cantors, his successor, remained only to Au-
giist 31, 1873. Father Grilli. an Italian i)riest,
supplied for a few months until November 23,
1873. and was succeeded by Father Van Strael-
Icn, a Hollander, who remained until March 21,
1875. Father Grilli then again took charge and
remained until June 30, 1878, when l-'ather
Kemper, a German, arrived and remained un-
til October 19, 1879. The priest who followed
him died in 1880, and the next pastor, Father
Ebert, remained only a short time. Father Thi-
beaudau was next appointed and remained for
six years. He died in 1886, and was succeeded
by Father Vitali, an Italian, who remained un-
til August 21, 1887. The next pastor, Father
Guerin, remained but a few years.
In 1888 the parish fell in sore straits suffer-
ing from the hard times. Father Thibeaudau
had built the new church in 1880, and a debt
of $6,000 burdened the congregation, while the
parsonage was practically a shed. The parish
was therefore placed under the charge of the
Holy Ghost Fathers society, which relieved the
diocese of the burden, while the parish still re-
mained under the jurisdiction of the bishop.
Rev. F. J. Rothe C. S. Sp., was accordingly
sent here in 1888. On June 20, 1894, Father
Gres, the present pastor, was appointed assist-
ant. When Father Rothe left in March, 1895,
the debt of $6,000 had been cleared. He was
succeeded by Father Dangelzer, and the good
work of the Holy Ghost Fathers was still fur-
thered by the erection of a fine conmiodious
parsonage at Third and Grant streets on prop-
erty adjoining the church lot. In 1900 Father
Dangelzer returned to France, and Father Gres
was appointed to the charge which he now
holds. Since 1900, Rev. Alphonse Coigiiard
has been assistant.
The present St, Joseph's Qiurch is a com-
bination of church and school house. The
church was erected by Father Thibeaudau with
a view to supplying a meeting place until a new
church could be erected. During the hard
times the new church project was given up.
Lately it has been revived by Fathers Gres and
Hosted by
Google
2/8
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
Coignard, it being now the intention to have
the foundations in by November, 1906. The
new church will cost between $30,00 and $50,-
000.
The parish now includes about 500 families
and is one of the largest in the valley. The
wings of the church do duty as school rooms.
The attendance at school is nearly 380 pupils,
who are taught by a corps of six Sisters of the
Dominican Order. In the rear of the church
there is a roomy and well-appointed residence
for the Sisters.
St. James Church. — When it was found
desirable to divide St. Joseph's congregation,
ground v/as selected on the present site of St.
James' Church, and before the close of Septem-
ber of that year the new church was dedicated
under the patronage of St. James the Apostle.
The clnirch continued under the charge of Fa-
ther Schutjes until June, 1873, when he was
called to Detroit to a.ssist the bishop in the af-
fairs of the diocese. His place was filled by the
appointment of Rev. Thomas Rafter, a native
of Monroe County, Michigan. On December
12, 1884, the church was burned down, and as
soon as possible the building of the present
house of worship was commenced. The struc-
ture is 150 by 75 feet, except the transept, which
is about 90 feet wide. The church, which seats
about 1,400, was dedicated on Christmas Day,
1886. Its cost, completely furnished, was about
$60,000. The present beautiful and commo-
dious parochial residence was commenced in
1901 and completed in 1903. Its cost was $12,-
000, exclusive of furnishings. There are about
400 families in St. James' parish. Connected
with the parish is one of the largest and best
parochial schools in the city, having an attend-
ance of 380 pupils. The contract has been let for
a new school house to be built of brick. This
will be located in the block just south of the
church, and will cost about $13,000.
St. Stanislaus Kostka Church (Po-
lish). — By 1847 the Polish population had
grown to such proportions that it became nec-
essary to provide for them a separate place of
worship. This was especially desirable as few
of them had any know-ledge of English. Will-
iam D. Fitzhugh gave a site for the church,
consisting of eight lots at the corner of Farra-
gut and 22nd streets. A house of worship cost-
ing about $4,000 was erected, and served the
church until the spring of 1889. At that time
a parochial meeting was held at which it was
decided to replace the frame building with a
substantial brick structure. To meet the ex-
pense, it was decided that each family of the
parish should contribute $50; later this was
found to he insufficient and the amount was
raised to $60. Work on the new edifice com-
menced in 1890, and the church was blessed on
July 17, 1892. The structure cost $61,000.
The parish at that time was under the charge
of Rev. M. Matkowski. He was succeeded by
Rev. Anthony Bogacki, who was here only a
few months. His successor, Rev. Joseph Le-
waiido\vski, also served a few' months as tem-
porary pastor.
On January 6, 1900, Rev. Edward Koz-
lowski assumed charge of the parish. During
his pastorate the debt of $5,000 which he found
hanging over the church has been paid ; the
Sisters' house has been raised to two stories and
entirely remodeled; the parochial residence has
been raised and put on a stone foundation and
renovated and repaired ; extensive rqjairs have
been made on the parochial school ; electric
hghts installed in the church at an expense of
over $1,000; a new pulpit has been built at an
expense of $900; a beautiful main altar with
over 800 electric lights has been built at a cost
of $4,500, also two side altars at a cost of
$2,000; two new confessionals have been built
at an expense of $350, and a baptismal font at
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
a cost of $400. The towers o£ the church,
wliich are 175 feet high, have been repaired and
strengthened, the outside of the church painted
and the crosses regiided with pure gold leaf.
The cost of the outside repairs upon the church
reached a total of $2,000. In 1904, Father
Kozlowski had a new cement walk laid around
the entire block. This cost over $1,000.
At present there are in this parish, not
counting the missions, 1,300 families. It has
therefore been decided to divide the congrega-
tioii. The old Kinney farm at the corner of
Cass and Michigan avenues has been purchased
as a site for the new church. The property
which measures 600 by 2-J2 feet cost $2,500.
Plans are being prepared for the erection of a
school and church combined, the cost of which
is estimated at $30,000.
A new congregation of Poles has also been
organized on the West Side, comprising about
80 families, and they contemplate erecting a
chiuch next year.
During the first three years of Father Koz-
iowski's pastorate he had for his assistant, Dr.
\'. Wiszniewski, who subsequently tlied on the
Island of Trinidad, whither he had gone for his
health. His successor was Rev. Joseph S.
Kaminski, who was appointed April 17, 1903,
and who still remains. He is a young man full
of zeal and an earnest worker.
There are about 800 children in the paro-
chial school connected with this parish, and be-
sides these over 400 attend the public schools
for lack of room in the parochial school. There
are at present 12 teachers employed in the
school. Funds are being collected to build a
S30.000 school for this parish.
In 1887, Father Kozlowski. who was then
stationed at Midland, started a mission in
Beaver township. At that time St. Valentine's
Mission, as it was called, comprised 29 families.
A school was built, and in this divine .services
were held once a month. At the same time he
started a mission for Poles in Auburn, and
school was held alternately three months in
Auburn and three months in Beaver. In 1889
Father Kozlowski was transferred to St. Jo-
seph's Catholic Church in Manistee, and these-
two missions were attended by the various pas-
tors who were in charge of St. Stanislaus par-
ish in Bay City.
When Father Kozlowski was returned to
this parish on January 6, 1900, he proceeded
immediately to reorganize the Auburn mission.
A building site was purchased in Fisherville,.
two miles west of the old location, and a nice
stone and brick church, with accommodations
for a school in tlie basement, was erected. This
church was dedicated as St. Anthony's Church,
on September 7, 1902. The church is beauti-
fully furnished and frescoed. It has three al-
tars. The cost of the building was about $10,-
000. Here divine service is held the second
Smiday and the last Tuesday of every month.
The parish comprises about 75 Polish families.
School is held alternately six months in Fish-
erville and six months in Beaver. At present
there are a few more than 100 children en-
rolled in the schools. The Beaver mission has
also been reorganized. Plans have been pre-
pared for the erection of a new church, larger
than the one in Fisherville. It is expected that
work on the neiv house of worship will begin
during 1905, the cost of which is estimated at
$15,000, including furnishings. It will be of
brick and stone.
At Auburn there is also a Catholic mission-
for those who speak English. This is in charge
of Rev. D. Malone, of Midland. The English
mission at Pinconning is in charge of Rev.
Edward Rasefte, and the one at Kawkawlin is
ministered to by Rev. Eutrope Langlois, of
Lin wood,
St. Boniface Church (German). — The-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
year 1874 saw the organization of St, Boniface
parish. The German Catholics of Bay City,
believing themselves sufficiently strong in pop-
ulation to form an independent parish, set about
the work and succeeded.
Up to this time the German population of
Bay City, with the people of other races, wor-
shiped in St, Joseph's Church. St. Joseph's be-
coming too small to accommodate the mixed
congregation, the German citizens attended, for
a time, St. James' Church. In the )'ear abo\-e
referred to they organized an independent pa-
rish, as suggested by the diocesan authorities.
In 1874 Rev. Presser, D. D., took charge of
the new parish. Forty families constituted the
population of the parish. At the close of the
year Father Presser resigned, and was succeed-
ed by Father Rochowski. In 1878 Rev, Jo-
seph Ebert was appointed pastor of St. Boni-
face Church. This priest labored incessantly to
improve the parish and clear off indebtedness.
He built the Sisters' Home, Birney street and
McKinley avenue. After a pastorate extending
10 years. Father Ebert resigned in 1888, and
went south, leaving a great portion of the par-
ish debt cleared off.
Rev. John A. Wyss, the present pastor, was
appointed February 21, 1888. He rebuilt the
interior of the school house, and the Sisters'
home was also rebuilt through his energy, A
lot at Lincoln and McKinley avenues was pur-
chased by him to enlarge the school grounds.
Subsequently he bought another lot on Lincoln
avenue to secure increase of ground for the
church and parochial residence.
As the old church was being crowded by
the increase of the congregation, in 1879, steps
were taken to erect a new building and St.
John's Benevolent Society was formed to secure
funds to help the project. This society, with
a determination that is commendable, kept, for
15 years, the purpose for which it was organ-
ized before the people. In 1S96 the construc-
tion of the new church began, the corner-stone
being laid October 1 1, of the same year.
For three years work on the new building
continued, and on June 4, 1899, the church was
solemnly consecrated. Among those who at-
tended were Bishop Richter, of Grand Rapids;
Very Rev. Joseph Benning, V. G., and a num-
ber of Saginaw and Detroit priests.
At the time of consecration the church was
clear of debt, and has the distinction of being
the only Catholic Church in the Saginaw Val-
ley to be consecrated.
The internal decorations of St. Boniface
Church are of a high order. Among the paint-
ings representing scenes in the life of Christ
and the Apostles are the "Last Supper," "SS.
Peter and Paul" and others of the saints. A
number of donated windows enhance the cathe-
dral-like aspect of the interior.
In 1904 Father Wyss completed a handsome
parochial residence, which cost $8,000. The
school of the parish of St. Boniface has about
150 pupils in attendance. Father Wyss being
superintendent and Sister Alberta of the Do-
minican Order, principal. The corps of teach-
ers is made up of four Sisters, the principal and
the superintendent. English courses are taught
as well as German.
After the destruction by fire, in 1904, of the
Holy Rosary Academy in Essexville, it was
decided to rebuild in the parish of St. Boniface.
Accordingly nine lots of land were purchased
on Lincoln avenue adjoining the church and
parochial residence, and work was commenced
at once on a building 100 by 100 feet in di-
mensions, to he five stories high, the material
being stone and pressed brick. The corner-
stone was laid in 1904. The structure will
have accommodations for 150 boarding stu-
dents, while the class rooms will seat 300 pupils.
The academy is exclusively a school for young
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
ladies and besides those who make it their
Iiome, it is expected there will be a large at-
tendance of pupils living- nearby. The struc-
ture will cost, it is estimated, $60,000. It will
have every modern convenience, including an
elevator, and no expense will be spared in
adapting it perfectly to the uses for which it
is designed.
St. Mary's Church (West Side). — In
November, 1873, the building afterward used
as a school liouse was dedicated as a church.
Tiie erection of the present house of worship
was begun the latter part of May, 1881, and
was detlicated on the 30th of Noveml^er, of the
same year, by Rt. Rev. Casper H. Borgess,
bishop of the Diocese of Detroit, A very large
share of the credit for the erection of this costly
and beautiful church is due to Father Schutjes.
Tile parish was set off from Bay City in 1873,
and the first pastor was Rev. M. G. Cantors.
I-'ather Schutjes was made pastor of this church
in the summer of 1880. On March i, 1888,
Rev. John Sanson became assistant pastor, and
continued in this capacity until Father Schut-
jes returned to Europe, when the former be-
came pastor. His successor was Rev. Joseph
Schrembs, who \vas liere 1 1 years, and was suc-
ceeded in October, 1900, by the present pastor,
Rev. Edward A. Caldwell. There are about
350 families in the parish. When Father Cald-
well took up his duties, he found the present
parochial school in course of construction. It
is three stories high, and contains eight school
rooms, a nice chapel in the basement and an
auditorium on the third floor capable of seat-
ing 500 people. The school is attended by 390
pupils.
Notre Dame de la Visitation (West
Side). — In the early "nineties" the congrega-
tion of St, Mary's had become so large that it
^vas decided to divide it, and to organize the
French members into another church. Land
was secured at the corner of State and Smith
streets. West Bay City, and in the fall of 1895
the work of building the basement of the church
was completed. This is of stone. For the past
10 years services have been held in this base-
ment. The completed church will cost between
$50,000 and $60,000. Of this amount, $10,000
was contributed by St. Mary's Church in ac-
cordance with the custom which requires that
iwrtion of a divided congregation which retains
the property to contribute an equitable share of
its value to the new church. When the new
French church was organized. Rev. John San-
son was appointed its priest, and remained in
charge until September 22, 1904, when he was
succeeded by the present pastor, Father Pouliii.
The present fine parochial school building was
completed in the early "nineties" at a cost of
$10,000. There are now about 500 famihes in
the parish.
St. John's Church (Essexville).— In
1884, Father Rafter started a mission in Es-
sexville. At that time he built the present pa-
rochial school building, but used it for a tem-
porary place of worship until the present St.
John's Church was ready for occupancy. Work
on this edifice was commenced in 1889, and the
church was dedicated in 1894. The church has
a seating capacity of about 700. There are
about 365 families in the parish. The parochial
residence was built in 1888. Rev. Cornehus
Roche was the first priest appointed to this par-
ish, and he remained until his death by drown-
ing, in June, 1901. He was succeeded by Rev.
Peter Bresson, who was pastor for two years
and nine months. Rev. R. G. Van Rooy, the
present priest, became pastor on March 27,
1904.
The Holy Rosary Academy, a boarding
school for girls, which is presided over by the
Dominican Sisters, was built by them in 1898.
This was destroyed by fire on March 12, 1904,
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
and on its site a beautiful brick residence for the
Sisters is being erected. The building is two
and a half stories high and will be completed
during the summer of 1905.
In connection with St. John's Church there
is also a parochial school in which are enrolled
265 pupils.
Sacred Heart Church (Kawkawlin).—
Ill 1891 a mission was started here by Father
Sanson, and later was continued by Father
Schrembs. The parish at that time comprised
about 75 families. At first divine services were
held in halls. When the mission came under
the charge of Rev. Eutrope Langlois in 1894.
a frame church was in course of construction.
This was completed in 1S97, and soon after
was destroyed by fire. Father Roche of Essex-
ville was next given charge of the mission, and
he laid the foundation for a church edifice.
After his death. Father Langlois was again ap-
pointed to this charge, antl he completed the
present church which is of brick, and 55 by
85 feet in dimensions. The structure cost be-
tween $S,00O and $9,000 and the congregation
now has in hand a fund which will nearly pay
for a parsonage.
lutheran churches and schools.
St. Paul's German Lutheran Church
(Frankenkist).~In 1848, when Germany was
in the throes of a revolution. Councillor Fred-
erick Koch assured the employes of his smelters
in Carlshuetten, Province of Franken, Ger-
many, that he x\-ould secure their future by
land purchases in far-off Michigan. His son-
in-iaw, Rev. Ferdinand Sievers, Sr., of blessed
memory, led the first flock of emigrants from
Franken into the wilderness of Bay county in
1848, creating the colony of Frankenlust. On
June 22nd of that year, St. Paul's congrega-
tion was organized by Rev. Mr. Sievers and 14
colonists. These pioneers of Bay County
erected and joyfully dedicated their first church
building the following year. A few years later
the log structure was found to be insufficient
for the needs of the congregation, and in 1857
a frame church building, in dimensions 70 by
30 by 22 feet was erected and dedicated. This
cluircli has been a ian<lmark in Bay County for
many years. From the beginning the congre-
gation has always maintained a parochial
school. Rev. Ferdinand Sievers, Sn, the be-
!o\-ed father of this congregation, died Sep-
tember 9, 1893, 1'aving served faithfully for 45
years. His successor was Rev. J. J. Trink-
lein, who remained with the congregation un-
til the end of 1902. In the spring of the fol-
lowing year. Rev. P. Andres, the present pas-
tor was called. From time to time many of the
younger members of the congregation left to
organize new churches at Amelith, Kawkaw-
lin, Monitor and Salzburg. St. Paul's Church,
\\liich lias alwa}-s belonged to the Lutheran
Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States,
numbers 109 noting members. At present the
congregation is building a fine brick house of
worship at a cost of about ?20.ooo. The cor-
ner-stone was laid on April 30. 1905 ; Rev.
J. F. Schinnerer and Rev. L. A. Wissmueller
officiated.
St. John's German Lutheran Church
(Amelith). — In 1850 Councillor Frederick
Koch, of Carlshuetten, Province of Fraken,
Germany, visited the colony of Frankenlust.
sent out by him t\\'0 years before under his
son-in-law. Rev. Ferdinand Sievers, Sr., and
arranged for the purchase of all the govern-
ment lands adjoining Frankenlust on the south,
80 acres to be set aside for church purposes.
This spot was named Amelidi, in honor of
the birthplace of Mrs. Koch, and on July 25,
1851, the colonists of Frankenlust erected a
rude but massive block house at Amelith, to
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
283
serve tlic double purpose of lodging house for
the coming immigrants as ^vell as school and
church. The Stengel and Link families came
from Rostall in Franken that fall, and erected
the first log house near the church. In June
1852 came the Eichinger, Lutz, Schnell,
Schmidt, Stephan, Daschleni, Rneger, Eurk
and Heumann families, who lived in the church
until they could erect log houses of their own.
On June 24, 1852, Rev. I\Ir. Sievers conse-
crated the little congregation and their house
of \\-orship. Eighteen families came from
Franken in 1853, and for the next 15 years
more colonists settled aljout Amelith. The
older children attended the parochial or dis-
trict school at Frankenlust, while Rev. Mr.
Sievers taught the little ones, in addition to
looking after the spiritual welfare of three
widely scattered and growing congregations.
Cantor Mueller (1856-57), Guenther (1860-
Cr-,), Becker (1866-6S), Kuch {1869-71),
Taesch (1872-75), J. G. Winterstein (1875-
94). J. D. Barthel (1894-1901) and Ernst
Rolf (1901-05) have presided in turn and with
^]ilcn<lid results over the parochial school.
Rev. Mr. Sievers served Amelith for 15
j^ears, with short intervals of local supply, but
by 1S67 the venerable colonist and preacher
\ias obliged to give up this additional charge,
an^l Rev. J. F. Mueller was installed in De-
ccmlicr, 1867, and for nearly 32 years con-
tinued his ministrations. On Trinity Sunday,
1899, he preached his farewell sermon amid
the congregation he had served so long and
well. Rev, J. F. Schinnerer ',was installed
September 15, 1899, and is the present pastor,
belo\ed and esteeiued by his congregation.
I bus in over 50 years this congregation has
had hut three pastors, a living evidence of
useful cooperation.
In the winter of 1869-70 the colonists gath-
ered the material for their pre5ent conmiodlous
church, costing $5,000, in addition to the labor
of the parishioners, and on November 10, 1870,
the new edifice was dedicated. In 1901 the
congregation built a new school house at a cost
of $1,500. During the 50 years just passed, 925
children were baptized, 562 were confirmed,
183 couples were married, 280 parishioners
died, and 24,275 attended communion. This
congregation now numbers 740 souls, 450 com-
municants, 155 school children and 150 voting
members. The annual outlay is $1,500 locally,
and $350 for missionary work and the synod.
The development of the early colonists and
their children's material interests have kept
pace with their faithful devotion and their
spiritual welfare. On April 30, 1905, this
congregation in a body assisted in laying the
corner-stone for the new church of their sister
colon}' at Frankenlust.
Bethel German Lutheran Church
was organized October 31, 1852, with 21
members, by Rev. J. Ehrhardt, who was the
first pastor. H. C. Hage, I. T. Wespinter and
H. Jloeller were chosen and ordained presid-
ing elders. Until 1855 the church held its
services in various halls; but in that year a
small house of worship was erected on Wash-
ington a\-enue between Se\-enth and Eighth
streets. This was dedicated in March, 1856,
by Rev. C. Volz, who was pastor at that time.
This structure was soon enlarged. Rev. Mr.
Volz continued as pastor until 1859, from
which time until 1861 the church was without
a settled pastor. Rev. F. W. Spindless then
became pastor and remained with the church
two years. His successor was Rev. John Haas,
who remained with the chiu"ch until June, 1865.
The church was then \\ithout a pastor until
September nth of that year, when Rev. Wil-
liam Reuther became their minister. In the
spring of 1866 a new church edifice was
erected, and the old building was removed to
Hosted by
Google
284
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
the rear and behind the parsonage. The new
church was dedicated June 16, 1867. The old
church was used as a parochial school building.
In June, 1871, the church was supplied with
three bells. On October 25th of the same year,
church and school house were destroyed by
fire. It was then decided to sell the old church
ground and to purchase their present site,
which comprises three lots on the corner of
Madison and McKiniey avenues. Their pres-
ent beautiful house of worship was erected in
1872, and was dedicated on November 25th of
that year by Rev. WilHam Reuther, and officers
of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Michi-
gan, of which Irody the congregation is a mem-
ber. The church is of brick, 95 by 42 feet,
with a steeple 150 feet high, in which two fine-
toned bells are hung. On July 22, 1888, a pipe
organ costing $1,000 was installed. The pres-
ent parsonage, which is the third one the so-
ciety has owned, was built in 1891, and at the
same time a house for the teacher of the
parochial school was built on Farragut street
between loth and nth streets.
In 1883 Rev. Mr. Reuther was succeeded
by Rev. O. \V. Wuest, who remained with the
congregation until April, 1884. In 1884 the
church connected itself with the Synod of Wis-
consin. The pulpit was then supplied by a
student from the seminary of that synod,
named E. Steimke. He remained with the
church until June, 1885. On March 22, 1885,
the church called Rev. J. G. Oehlert, who be-
gan his pastoral duties on July 4th of that year.
In 1891 he was succeeded by Rev, F, Stromer,
who served the churcli until October, 1900,
Rev. E. Klingman was next called, and he
took charge in the fall of 1901 and was here
until April, 1904. From that time until the
last of July, Rev. A. C. Haase of South Bay
City supplied the pulpit, and on July 31, 1904,
the present pastor, Rev. F. Thnine, assumed
his duties.
It was not until 1887 that the congregation
felt able to call a teacher for their parochial
school, instruction, in the meantime, having
been given by the pastor, as is the custom of
this denominatioin. The first teacher was D.
Fogel, who was succeeded in i8g8 by Prof.
F, Siegler, who is still principal of the school,
and has one assistant. Miss Bertha Diehl.
Emanuel German Lutheran Church
dates hack to the year 1854, six years after Rev.
Ferdinand Sievers, Sr., the pioneer of Lu-
theran ministers in this county, founded the
colony of Frankenlust. By him the little flock
in Bay City was served, in connection \vith his
labors for St. Paul's society at Frankenlust, for
II years. In 1865, Rev. I. C. Himmler took
charge of the society, then numbering about
20 voting members. When he resigned, in the
autumn of 1867, there were about 25 voting
members in the society. Its property consisted
of the lot on the northwest corner of Sixth
street and Madison avenue, with a small church
building 18 hy 30 feet hi dimensions and a
school house. In July, 1868, the church hav-
ing been nine months without a pastor. Rev.
J. H, P. Partenfekler, a graduate of the Lu-
theran Concordia Seminary at St. Louis, began
his ministrations to the congregation. In 1873,
the house of worship having become too small,
an addition 22 by 30 feet in size was con-
structed. The society grew and prospered so
that in 1889 it became necessary to build a new
church. At that time the present fine structure
was erected at a cost o£ $18,000. The first
services were held in the new church in the fall
of 1889. The census of the church shows
1,275 souls, 848 communicants and 141 voting
members. Rev. Mr. Partenf elder's pastorate
was brought to a close by his death on Deccni-
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
28s
ber 12, 1896, after 28 years of faithful service
in the Master's vineyard. His successor was
Rev, C, F. Graebner, who served the church
until 1903, when he was called to the presi-
dency of the Lutheran University of Australia.
He was succeeded by the present pastor, Rev.
Paui Budach. Like other churches of this
faith, Emanuel Church supports a parochial
school which is a model educational institu-
tion, with 225 pupils. John i\I. Helnu'eich is
the principa!, with two assistants.
St. John's Germax Lutheran Church
(West Side), — This church was organized De-
cember 28, 1862, by the late Rev, Christopher
L. Eberhardt, of Sagiuaw. There were 20
charter members. For several months they
held services in the house of George Kiesel,
where the church had been organized; meet-
ings were also held for a time in the school
houie in Bangor, and later in W'enona. The
church was built in 1872, and dedicated on
September 15th of the same year. At that
time it was 30 by 40 feet in dimensions. In
1873 '^i^ congregation joined the Synod of
Michigan and other States. Up to that time
the pulpit had been supplied by various preach-
ers of the same faith. Rev. William Reuther
was the first pastor. He was followed by Rev.
0. Wiiest, who served the congregation until
1S84. On January ist of the following year
Rev. A. P. Mueller was called, and served until
his death in December, 1888. During his pas-
torate a bell was placed in the steeple at a cost
of $200. The parsonage at the corner of Jane
and Kiesel streets was built in 1887 at a cost
of $1,100; the school house was also built in
diat year. Previous to that time, school had
been kept in tiie church. Rev. J, F. Mayer
commenced his labors with this congregation
January 8, 1888, and remained with them un-
"1 1892. During his last year the congregation
called for a teacher, and H. Waterstratt was
appointed. He served only one year.
The present pastor. Rev. J. F. Henning,
commenced his labors July 12, 1892, and for
the first three years of his pastorate also taught
school, as the congregation was small at that
time and could not well afford the expense of
a teacher. In 1894 E. Dobbrat2 was secured to
teach the school and remained until 1896. At
that time the pastor again took up the work of
teacliing. In about a year Samuel Linsenmann
came to teach the school, init he only remained
a short time. In 1894 a stone foundation was
placed under the church, and this together with
other extensive repairs, including painting and
decorating, cost $680. In the same year the
pastor founded a library in the church, which
now has several hundred \-olnmes on its sheh^es.
In 1901 the church was rebuilt at a cost of
$3,000. It now has seating capacity for about
500 persons. There are 90 voting members,
850 souis, 250 communicants and 142 families.
There are 89 pupils in the Sunday-school and
50 in the parochial school. The teacher of the
latter school, Philip Kirchcr, took up the work
in 1 90 1.
Trinity German Lutheran Church
(Monitor).— This congregation was founded
in the spring of 1880 by the late Rev. Ferdin-
and Sievers. Sr,, of Frankenlust. The organi-
zation was effected on July i8th of tliat year,
at which time the constitution was adopted
and the first officers were elected. These were
Rev. Ferdinand Sievers, Jr., president; and J.
L. Enser, secretary. There were 17 charter
members, A few months later their first bouse
of worship was built. It was 36 by 22 by
14 feet, and cost $660, The church was dedi-
cated November 7, 1880, and three days later,
Rev. Mr. Sievers. who was the first pastor,
began to teach the parochial school of 10 pupils,
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
In 1887 it became necessary to build an addi-
tion to the cliurch 26 by 22 feet, which cost
about $200, In 1889 A. H. Gehrs was ap-
pointed as the first teacher for the parochial
school. In 1896 the first pastor accepted a
call to South Chicago, and the present pastor.
Rev, L. A. VVissmueller was chosen by the
congregation. In the same year the first steps
toward building a new church edifice were
taken. The corner-stone was laid on July 18,
1897, and the church was dedicated on Febru-
ary 6, 1898. It is one of the largest ant! pret-
tiest country churches in the county, measur-
ing 106 by 42 feet, giving ample seating room
for 600 people. The tower reaches a height of
130 feet, and holds two bells which weigh
about 2,800 pounds. The total cost amounted
to about $11,117.
The present building for the western
parochial school was erected in 1903, together
with a residence for the teacher. The follow-
ing year, the old church building, which had
ser\-ed for a school liouse for the eastern
parochial school, was taken down and the pres-
ent building erected. The old parsonage
which, after a new one had been constructed
in 1893, had served as a residence for the
teacher, was rebuilt and enlarged. During the
past 12 years, the congregation has expended
for building purposes about $17,000 which sum
was raised by voluntary contributions. The
annual expenses of the church, which amount
to about $2,000 are raised in like manner.
The congregation numbers 670 souls, 390 com-
municants, 112 voting members. About 120
pLipiis attend the two parochial schools, where
they are instructed in the common branches of
learning and in the German language and in
religion.
Trinity German Lutheran Church.
— This is the youngest Lutheran congregation
on the East Side. It was organized March 26,
1886, by members of liethel German Lutheran
Church. The church edifice is located at the
corner of Broadway and 32nd street. It was
built in the latter part of 1886 and was dedi-
cated on the second Sunday in January, 1887,
The church is a frame structure 40 by 80 feet
in dimensions, valued at $5,000; the parochial
schctol, which has two class rooms, is vakied
at $2,000 and the parsonage at' $1,000, The
congregation has 70 \oting members. The
following is a list of the pastors, beginning
with the founder of the church: Revs. J, G.
Oehlert, March, 1886 to July, 1S87; G. E.
Bergemann, 1887-92; T. A. Sauer, 1892-95;
H. H. Hoffmann, 1895-96; and A, C. Haase,
the present pastor, who took charge in 1897.
There are 81 children enrolled in the parochial
school, Tlie following teachers have had
charge of the scliool: C. A. Berling, Miss
Helen C, Haase, Gustav Schulz, Miss Emily
\-on W'althausen. The pastor always has
charge of one division.
ZioN German Luther.\n Church
(West Side). — This church is the outgrowth
of a mission established in Salzburg by Rev.
C, F. Graebner about the j-ear 1900, Under
his leadership and with the support of Emanuel
German Lutheran Church, of which he was
pastor, the mission developed into an independ-
ent congregation, which for upwards of two
years has been self-supporting. The church was
organized with 11 charter members on .April
23, 1901, For a meeting place the Salzburg
German Band Hall was purchased and re-
modeled. It was . dedicated August 17, 1902,
and they now ha\e a comfortable house of
worship seating about 250 persons. The
church numbers about 350 souls, 200 communi-
cants and 50 voting members. Rev. Mr.
Graebner filled the pulpit until January, 1903.
On February 5th of that year the present pas-
tor, Rev. E. W. Bohn, was installed. Their
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
287
parocliial school was established in November,
1903. at which time the present scliool was pur-
chased from St. Paul's German Liitlieran
Church at Frankenlust. They have about 70
pupils. J. W. Putz has been the teacher since
the schoo) was established. Their present par-
sonage, which is one of the best owned by tlie
denomination in the Saginaw Valley, was
bnih in 1903.
St. Bartiiolomeus German Lutheran
Church (Kawkawlin). — This church be-
longs to the i\Iichigan Synod. It has 39 vot-
ing members. 154 communicants and 277 souls
in its parish. They own a nice cimrch, school
house and parsonage. Thirty children are en-
rolled in their parochial school. On May 7,
1905, the present pastor, Rev. H. KJonka, took
charge.
Scandinavian Lutheran CHURCH(\Vest
Side).^ — ^This society, which belongs to the
lliiiiois Conference, was organized in 1880
with about 13 voting members by Rev. A.
Schalman, who remained with them as pastor
for some time. He was followed by Rev. S,
C. Rydberg, who ser\'ed the churcli five
j-ears. The next pastor was Rev. A. J. Ander,
whose pastorate also extended over a period
of five years. Then came Rev. C. A. Lindevall,
who remained about two years. His successor
was Rev. A. B. Lilja, wdio remained until 1901.
In June of that year the present pastor. Rev.
J. E. Holtz, took up his duties.
The present church edifice w'as built in
1881, and has sealing capacity of about 400
people. The church, school and parsonage to-
gether are \-alued at about $8,000. The par-
sonage was built in 1882, and the school build-
ing, called Luther Hall, was erected in 1885.
The children attend the public schools (hiring
the school year, and during the summer va-
cation half-day sessions are held in the paro-
chial school by the pastor. The church num-
bers 123 \'oting members, 225 communicants
and about 400 souls. About 125 pupils are
enrolled in the Sunday-school. In 1904 a pipe
organ was installed at an expense of about
Si. 200.
protestant episcopal churches.
Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church.
—This church owes its establishment first to
the Fitzhugh family, W. D. Fitzhugh having
been the earliest leader in the society, and liis
wife the first communicant. The first male
communicant was Israel Catlin. In the fall of
1850 the first ministrations of an Episcopal
clergyman were received in this section. Rev.
Joseph Adderly made a few missionary visits
and held services three times. Again from
December 21, 1851 to July 4, 1852, another
missionary. Rev. Daniel B. Lyon, made occa-
sional appointments, conducting worship in
all alwut a half dozen times. On the 22iid of
January, 1853, Rev. Voltaire SpauUling en-
tered ui>on his duties, giving this field tlie bene-
fit of stated ser\'ices, which were held iqwu
each third Sunday. To defray this expense a
small sum was raised by the congregation, and
the balance was paid by the missionary society.
On the 4th of March, 1854, the parish organi-
zation was formed under the title of "Trinity
Church, Lower Saginaw, Saginaw County,
Michigan." Rev. Mr. Spaulding resigned on
June I, 1858. At this time there were only
five communicants, and the church remained
without a pastor until May, i860. During
this time the work was going steadily forward.
An excellent site was secured on what is now
\\'asliington avenue, and plans were put in
operation for the erection of a church.
Through the liberality of friends at home and
abroad sufficient means w-ere obtained to build
a neat though small edifice, ^\■hich was conse-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
crated to the worship of God on May lo, i860.
The services of a minister were again sectired,
Rev. Edward Magee, of St. John's Protestant
Episcopal Church, Saginaw City, agreeing to
devote one-half of his time to Trinity parish.
He preached here on eacli alternate Sunday
until ilay 25, 1861, when he resigned his
charge in Saginaw City and confined himself
to the church work here. Ill health compelled
him to resign on November 28th of the same
year. The pulpit remained vacant for nearly
a year, and then Rev, Gilbert B. Hayden was
called to the rectorship. The tenn of his min-
istry, which commenced November 24, 1862,
lasted only five months. He performed a good
work for the parish in writing a history of the
church, on which the article from which we get
our information was based. The next rector
was Rev. A, M. Lewis, who entered uiwn his
duties Oct. i, 1863. His earnestness and ac-
tivity did not go unrewarded, for in August,
1864, it was found necessary to enlarge the
chnrcii building. This was accomplished in
two and a half months at a cost of $1,200.
Rev. Mr. Lewis resigned on the 15th Sunday
after Trinity, 1865.
On January 19, 1866, Rev. Fayette Royce,
of Nunda, New York, was called, and assumed
the responsibilities of his new position on the
third Sunday of Lent, 1866, Daring his rec-
torship the building was again found inade-
quate for the increasing congregation, and a
second addition was made. He resigned No-
vember 15, 1868, and in the following Feb-
ruary, Rev. John Wright, D. D., was called to
the rectorship. He preached his first sermon
as rector April 11, 1869. On reaching the
scene of his labors, he found that the church
building had recently vmdergone a third ex-
tension at an expense of $2,387.81. On Janu-
ary 18, 1874, the new organ, which had cost
$3, 1 50 was used for the first time. Dr.
Wright resigned January 25, 1874, and was
succeeded by Rev. George P. Schetky, D. D.,
who became pastor June 21st of the same year.
He remained until April 4, 1877, and was fol-
lowed by Rev. Alfred A. Alford, D. D., who
assumed the duties of the rectorship the same
year, and remained here seven years. During
his incumbency the new stone chapel on Grant
street was erected at a cost of $15,000. It has
a seating capacity for 300 people. It was
completed in 1883, and was occupied as a
church until the present beautiful edifice was
finished in 1887. Including furnishings this
house of worship cost $70,000. It will seat
500 people. The first service was held on
Wednesday in Easter week, April 14, 1887.
After the chapel was completed, the old church
proijerty on Washington avenue was sold to
B. E. Warren and Capt. C, M. Averell.
Rev. A. A. Butler succeeded Dr. Alford as
rector, and he was followed by Rev. Edwin R.
Bishop, who resigned in the fall of 1887 after
five years of earnest labor. The next rector
was Rev. Thomas W. McLean, who remained
with the church until 1901, when he was suc-
ceeded by the present rector. Rev. Amos AVat-
kins. The present membership of the cliurch
is about 500.'
Trinity Church has always Ijeen active in
missionary work. In 1872 a mission was
started at Wenona under the charge of George
A, Cooke as lay leader. On October 20th of
the same year the rector organized Trinity
chapel in the Seventh Ward of Bay City.
Three other missions were organized: at
Banks, McEwanville (now part of Essexville)
and Essexville. On October 12, 1873, Rev.
Lewis L. Rogers entered upon his duties as
missionary at these missions, and continued in
this work nearly a year. The mission in Es-
sexville was continued until 1905, when the
property was sold.
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
Grace Protestant Episcopal Church
(West Side). — In, 1872 a parish in West Bay
City under the name of St. Paul's Protestant
Episcopal Cimrch was organized by Trinity
Cluirch of Bay City. This was placed under
the charge of George A. Cooke as lay reader.
There were two missions, one at Wenona and
the other at Banks. Rev. Lewis L. Rogers was
the first rector. In 1874 a neat house of wor-
ship was built at \\'enona upon lots of land
donated by Mr. and Mrs. Henry W. Sage.
Ill October, 1874, Rev. J, E. Jackson received
an appointment as missionary. He was suc-
ceeded by Rev. Mr. Wilson. After the latter
went away, no regular services were held, al-
though a Sundaj'-schooi was kept up for some
time. The members finally drifted apart and
the society became disbanded. Matters con-
tinued in this shape until February, 1893, ^vheii
Rev. J. E. Ramsdell came to this field and
found a few women who were interested. This
was the beginning of the present Grace Church,
lie began to hold ser\'ices in the basement of
the Birchard Block. The following June, the
old Presbyterian Church, which for some time
had been in use as a school, was rented and
used as a house of worship. Rev. Mr. Rams-
dell went away in November, 1894, and was
succeeded on the ist of the following January
by Rev. Mr. Barr. The Board of Education
alxjut this time wanted the building, and the
society secured meeting rooms in the Moots
Block. Rev. Mr. Barr gave up the work in
May, 1895, leaving in charge Rev. George
^\ ye, whose pastorate covered a j'ear, and then
regular services were given up. The Ladies'
Aid Society, however, still kept together and
at work, and in September, 1898, Rev. G. F.
A. McKelcan came and took hold of the work.
Services were held in the Adventist Church
until December, when arrangements were made
to purchase the old Presbvterian Church, and
as soon as it was put in repair the society moved
in. In the spring of 1899 Rev. Mr. McKelcan
was called to Midland, and the services were
kept up by supplies until January, 1900, when
Rev. W. R. Blachford took charge of the grow-
ing mission. He stayed until May, 1902, and
was followed by the present pastor, Rev. Ed-
ward Jermin. Christmas, 1903, found the debt
on the church building all cleared and many
improvements paid for. The society is grow-
ing rapidly, and has secured three lots on Mid-
land street, where a modern church edifice will
be erected in the near future.
PRESBYTERIAN CIILRCHES.
First Preseyterean Cjiurcii. — In 1855
the population of Lower Saginaw had increased
so much that it was thought advisable to make
a mo\-e towards hiring a Presb}-terian min-
ister. A subscription paper was circulated and
$300 was subscribed towards supporting a
minister for one year, expecting the Home
iMissionary Society would pay the balance of
a necessary salary. The late \\"illiam Jennison,
father of Charles E. Jennison. was the prime
mover in starting the subscription. The first
pastor was Rev. L. I. Root, who commenced
his lalx)rs about the first of May, 1856. On
the 5th of the following September the clnuxh
was formally organized as the First Presby-
terian Church of Lower Saginaw, with eight
charter members. Rev. Mr. Root was in-
stalled by the Presbytery of Saginaw in No-
\-einber. 1858, and continued to ser\-e the
church until February, i860. Rev. E. J. Stew-
art acted as stated supply from June. i86t,
to December, 1863.
During its first years, the church worshipped
in the school house which' stood at the north
end of Washington avenue, where for many
years all public meetings were held. After-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
ward its meetings were in a public liall, and
for a time in the Court House. In 1861 n
church edifice was erected; soon after its dedi-
cation, while the congregation was in the midst
of a communion service, it took fire and was
consumed. The building of a new house of
worship was inime<liately commenced, the dedi-
cation of which occurred December 25, 1863.
The church was constructed of wootl and was
originally 40 by 70 feet in size uiwn the
ground, with sittings for 400 persons.
Rev. Mr. Stewart closed his labors with
the church in September, 1864, In April,
1865, Rev. J. Ambrose Wight, D. D., was
called as pastor and commenced hts lalxirs on
the first Sabbath of the following May. He
was installed by the Presbytery of Saginaw on
No\'ember 23rd of the same year. The bell
was placed in the church tower in August,
1866. Tlie lecture room was built in the au-
tumn of 1868, and the main building was en-
larged with a tier of pews on each side in the
fall of 1872. Dr. Wight's activity as pastor
continued until 188S, when he was made pas-
tor emeritus. To Dr. Wight more than to
any other man Is due the strength and char-
acter and prominence of the church, in all its
civil and ecclesiastical relations.
In 1 886, Rev. Burt Estes Howard was
called as an assistant to Dr. Wight, and was
installed as pastor of the church June 38, 1888.
He remained with the church until October 26,
1890. On the 3rd of the following June, Rev.
William H. Clark, D. D., became the pastor,
and lalwred most faithfully and successfully
until May I, 1896.
During the latter part of the pastorate of
Dr. \\'ight, and during the pastorate of Rev.
Mr. Howard, preparations were made for a
new house of worship. This effort resulted in
the constniction of the present stone edifice,
which was erected at a cost, including the site
and furnishings, of $105,000. It is said to
be one of the largest and handsomest buildings
in the Northwest, The corner-stone was kiid
June 25, 1891, and the dedication took phtce
June 6, 1893.
Following Dr. Clark, the next pastor was
Rev. Otis A. Smith, D. D., who was called on
June 15, 1896 and who entered upon his work
the following July. He was installed by the
Presbytery of Saginaw on the 2nd of October,
1896, and continued with the church until Feb-
ruary, 1902. There was then a long interval,
during which the church was without a settled
pastor. In the summer of 1902, Rev. James
Gale Inglis supplied the pulpit, and then re-
ceived a call to become pastor. This call he
did not accept until the follow^ing year. He was
installed as pastor in March, 1903, and con-
tinued until March 19, 1905, when he resigned
on account of ill health. He was a man be-
loved by the entire community. The church
is at present without a pastor.
Westminster Preseyteri.vn Church
(West Side). — About the first of November,
1863, Rev. D. B. Campbell was sent as a mis-
sionary by the Presbytery of Saginaw to the
lower part of the Saginaw Vaiiey. His field
of lalrar comprised Bangor, Kawkawlin and
Portsmouth townships. Services were held
in the school houses at BanIvS and Wenona for
the convenience of people living in the town-
ship of Bangor. In January. 1S64, after Sage
& McGraw had purchased the site of what was
to become the village of Wenona, Rev, Mr.
Campbell called uimn Henry W. Sage, and
asked a donation of two lots on which to build
a church. The request was promptly granted,
and two lots on Catherine street were given,
and on behalf of the firm Mr. Sage generously
agreed to double any subscriptions that could
be secured for the purpose of building a church.
Early in 1865 a meeting was held at Rev. Mr.
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
Caiiipbeil's house, at which a church society
was organized. At this time the chnrch was
called the First Presbyterian Chnrch of Ban-
gor. The first elders of the church were Ste-
phen Buclianan and J. H. PUun ; the first trus-
tee.^. J. S. Taylor, J, B. Ostrander and John G.
S^veeney.
The efl'orts to rai^e money for a church
edifice were successful and the work of build-
ing was vigorously pushed forward. The cor-
ner-stone was laid on August 23, 1865, and
the house of worship was dedicated on the 3rd
of the following December. The dedicatory
sermon was preached by Rev. J. Ambrose
Wight. D. D., of Bay City. The cost of the
structure was $3,500, and the furnishings cost
S500 more. Of this amount Sage & McGraw
contributed about $2,000. Rev. ilr. Camp-
bell continued with the society until some time
in i8(j8, when he was succeeded by Rev, E.
T. Sanford, of Schenectady, New York. His
pastorate came to a close in January, 1870,
and for about a year the church remained with-
out a pastor. In April, 1S71, a call was ex-
tended to Rev. L. \V. Chapman, who began his
labors with the society soon afterward, and con-
tinued until May i, 1880. The next pastor
was Rev. Donald L. Monroe, who was suc-
ceeded by Rev. Charles Noble Frost. The last
named remained only about a year, and was
followed by Rev. W. P. ililler, who closed his
pastorate in 1892 after three years of faithful
service. The next pastor was Rev. W. F. Ir-
wm, who remained with the chnrch about tliree
years. From the summer of 1896 until Octo-
ber fith of that year the pulpit was supplied by
various preachers, but on the last named date
Kev. E. K. Strong began a pastorate which
extended over a period of six years. He re-
signed August 3. 1902, and on November 9th
of the same year the present pastor. Rev. An-
drew S. Zimmerman, began his labors.
Memori.m. Presbyteri.\n Church. — This
church is the outgrowtli of a mission estab-
lished by the First Presbyterian Church in
1870. It was located at that time on Broadway
near 23rd street. The chapel which was erected
cost $1,500, and was later enlarged and fur-
nished at an expense of $500 more. In 1875
an organ was purchased and other improve-
ments ma<Ie. The work in this localit}* con-
tinued to prosper, and in 1891 the chnrch was
organized. Its first pastor was Rev. Robert
C. H, Sinclair, who remained with them two
years. In 1893, Kev. Peter E. Nichols was
called, and served the church until 1896. Dur-
ing his pastorate the church edifice was re-
moved from the original location to where it
now stands, and was rebuilt in order to accom-
modate larger congregations. Altogether, the
present property is worth about $3,000. This
includes a parsonage which was on the present
site when it was purchased, but which has since
been remodeled. The church will now easily
seat about 350 persons. Following Rev. Mr.
Nichols, came Rew Perry V. Jennes, who re-
mained with the church alxiut three years, his
pastorate coming to a close in 1898. Rev.
David B. Greigg next ministered to the church,
the term of his service running from the fall
of 1898 until the spring of 1900. The pulpit
was then supplied by various preachers, Rev.
ilr. Winter coming to them in July. 1900, and
remaining until February, 1901. The present
pastor. Rev. William Br}-ant, took up his work
with this church in March, 1901, and the
church is prospering under his care. The pres-
ent membership of the church is 1S5, while
there are 200 students enrolled in the Sunday-
school.
Covenant Presbyterian Church (West
Side). — In the summer of i88g, Hon. F. W.
Wheeler estabhshed the mission from which
this church has developed. The mission re-
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
maiiied under the direction of the Westminster
Presbyterian Church until the present society
was organized in 1890, Their house of worship
ship was erected in the spring of 1889, and was
dedicated in June of that year. Its dimensions
are 40 by 70 feet with an annex 30 by 40 feet.
It has seating capacity for about 250 people,
and cost $1,500. Rev. L. W. Chapman sup-
plied the pulpit for a season, and was followed
by a student from Princeton Theological Sem-
inary by the name of Sinclair. He conducted,
preaching services on Sunday and a prayer
meeting was held during the week. The Sun-
day-school work was also kept up during this
time. In the fall of 1889 a call was extended
to Rev. A. F. Whitehead. He died the follow-
ing year, and was succeeded by Rev. J. G. Gra-
biel. Under his able ministry the membership
of the church was more than tripled. Rev,
Grabiel's pastorate came to a close after five
and one half years of service, and in the same
year, 1895, ^^^'- Alexander Danskin, now edi-
tor of the Michigan Presbyterian, began a min-
istry that extended over three years. Tlie next
pastor was Rev. George Luther, wbo came
to the church in 1899, and remained about
a year. After his release the pulpit remained
vacant for nearly a year, though the Sunday-
school was held from week to week without in-
terruption. Then, in 1903, an arrangement was
entered into whereby Rev. J. G. Grimmer, pas-
tor of the German Reformed Church, of Salz-
burg, supplied the pulpit once each Sunday for
18 months. He was released in 1904, and the
pulpit is now supplied by Rev. W. L. Meck-
stroth, who is also his successor in the Salz-
burg church. The church started with 13 char-
ter members and has now a membership of 60.
The attendance at the Sunday-school averages
about 125.
MuNGER Presbyteri.'\n Church {Mun-
ger), — Rev, John E. Dawson, who was a pio-
neer Congregationalist in this section, during
his pastorate in Essexvilie came to Munger and
gathered the members of the various denomin-
ations together to hold meetings. He continued
this missionary work at intervals for years.
About 18 years ago a number of these people
came together and organized a Presbyterian
Church. Their first pastor was Rev, Samuel P,
Todd, who served the congregation for se\'en
years. His successor was Rev. H. P. Parker,
who remained several years. Then, after an in-
terval during which the church had no settled
pastor, came Rev, Mr. Austin, who was here
about two years. He was followed by Rev.
Mr. McAllister, whose successor, Rev. Mr.
Daily, is the present pastor,
German Reformed Church (West
Side).— The church was organized September
26, 1880, wiih 27 charter members. At the
meeting which niet for that purpose, in the
home of Jacob Laderach, it was decided to ex-
tend a call to Re\'. E. W. Henschr.i to become
their first pastor. Meetings were held in the
homes of the various members until April 22,
1881, when they purchased their present church
property. This was the original meeting house
of the first Methodist society. Their second
pastor was Rev. R. Kirdiefer, who was called
in December, 18S4, and commenced his labors
at once. His pastorate extended to March,
1886, He was followed by Rev. Isaac Mat-
zinger who assumed his duties in November of
that year and remained until October, 1892.
The next pastor was Rev. Mr, Ruetenik who
ministered to the church until November 26,
1899. Rev. Richard Harnish came to the
church January i, 1900, and remained as pas-
tor until September 30th of the same year. The
church was then without a settled pastor until
July 7, 1901, when Rev. J. G. Grimmer took
charge. He remained until July 31, 1904, and
on the first Sunday in October of that year, the
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
present pastor, Rev, W, L. Meckstroth began
his pastorate. The church now has a member-
ship of loo, and an average attendance at the
Sunday-school of 40. The present parsonage,
which is valued at nearly $1,000, was built
largely by the church's first pastor, who per-
formed much of the labor witli his own hands.
BuoAnvvAY Baptist Church, — The first
Baptist Church in the Saginaw Valley, known
totlay as t!ie Broadway Baptist Church, was
organized in the residence of Jessie N. Braddock
ill the township of Portsmouth, Bay County,
Michigan, June 15, 1858. The name given the
new church was: "The First Baptist Church
of Portsmouth." The following is a list of the
constituent members : Jessie and Mrs. Brad-
dock, Appieton and Mrs. Stevens, Mrs. Susan.
Fraser. Mrs. A. McEwan, Miss Elizabeth Era-
ser, Henry A. Braddock, J. S. Judson, D. C.
Miller, H. D. Braddock, John S. Wilson. Mrs.
Sarah E. Johnson, Mrs. Susan Eddy, and Mrs.
Shelby.
Under the ministry of Rev. S. Cornelius, a
house of worship was built at a cost of $l,2DO.
During Rev. A. Plandy's ministry who served
as pastor from some time in 1859 to April,
1861, the church was received into the Flint
River Association of Baptist Churches. (Au-
gust, i860.)
Re\'. Franklin Johnson, then a young grad-
uate from Hamilton, New York, was ordained
as pastor sometime in 1861 and remained
nearly two j^ears. During his ministry a mis-
sion was established in Birney's Hall, Bay City,
and in July, 1863, 27 members of the Ports-
mouth church were dismissed to form what is
known today as the First Baptist Church of Bay
City. Rev. Mr. Johnson soon afterward re-
signed his charge to become pastor of the new
church. The following ministers have served
as pastors at stated periods from that time until
the present hour; Revs. William W. Robson,
R. E. Whittemore, E. W. Andrews, M. W.
Holmes, C. H. Fraser, A. M. Allyn, J. C.
Rooney, C. Carrol, E. Chesney, N. L. Freeman,
H. A. Smith, C. E. Maxfield, E. S. Willson
and Benjamin H. Thomas.
In 1878 the old house which had become
too small was cnlarge<l and the name changed
to the Fremont Avenue Baptist Church. In
1882 the church was incorporated.
A devastating fire swept through the South
End in 1891 and the church which had never
been so prosperous as then, was left without a
meeting house. For a time they worshiped in
the Sixth Ward School and in Marble Hall. On
August 2, 1892, they decided to build at the
corner of Broadway and 26th street and imme-
diately proceeded to perfect plans for the same.
August 17, 1S92. a large body withdrew
from the church to what is known as the South
Baptist Church on Cass a\-enue. The comer-
stone for the present handsome building was
laid November 23. 1892, and the name was
changed to the Broadway Baptist Church.
The present property including parsonage
is valued at $25,000. The church is an active,
energetic body, organized into the following
departments: Bible School, Ladies' Benevolent
Society, Baptist Young People's Union, Junior
Union, Men's League and Guards. It is espe-
cially active in young people's work.
First Baptist Church. — This church
was organized at Einiey Hall in July, 1863, by
27 members who had withdrawn for that pur-
pose from the societ}' at Portsmouth (now
known as the Broadway Baptist Church), the
population of Lower Saginaw having so in-
creased that they felt inclined to have a church
of their own. At first services were held in the
Court House and at Birnev Hall until August,
Hosted by
Google
296
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
1874, when a neat cluirch edifice was built on
Washington avenue. This was almost entirely
the gift of James Fraser.
The first pastor was Rev. Franklin John-
son, who came -with them from the Portsmouth
society. He resigned in 1864 and was suc-
ceeded by Rev. S. L. Holman, whose brief pas-
torate was succeeded by the ministry of the la-
mented Rev. D. B. Patterson, who labored very
successfully until April, 1869, when failing
health compelled him to leave the ministry. It
was under his eloquent and genial ministrations
that the church entered upon the prosperous ca-
reer it has since known. Rev. J, A, Frost suc-
ceeded Rev. Mr. Patterson, and he was followed
by Rev, Z, Grenell, Jr., in 1873,
The society outgrew the little church on
Washington avenue, and in April, 1867, a com-
mittee was appointed to consider the question
of securing enlarged facilities for worship.
They recommended building a new church.
The old church property was worth about
$7,000, and John I, Fraser who had recently
died had bequeathed the society the sum of
$8,000, It was finally decided to build a new
house of worship, and the corner-stone was laid
in the summer of 1869, and the new church
dedicated February 9, 1873. A litigation, in
which the title to the site was ini-olved, (telayed
its construction. The total cost of the struc-
ture was alwut $75,000. The extreme length
of the building is 140 feet, ami its greatest width
72 feet. The audience room is 54 by 94 feet,
finished in black wahiut and ash. The windows
are of stained glass arranged in highly orna-
mental designs. An organ of nearly 1,400
pipes, above and in the rear of the pulpit, addf-i
greatly to the general good effect, both upon
the eye and ear of the worshiijer. This cost
$6,000, and was the gift of Mrs. James Fraser.
In the rear of the audience room are church
parlors, kitchen, robing rooms and lecture and
Sunday-school rooms. Its two spires rising,
one to a height of 130 feet, the other to a height
of 180 feet, are visible not only from all parts
of the city, but attract the eye from a range of
three or four miles beyond. The trustees who
were charged with the responsibility of the work
were : Rev. D. B. Patterson and C. McDowell
— both of whom died before its completion —
H. A. Gustin, E. B. Denison, C, M. Averill,
William Westover, W. H. Curry, Harry Gris-
wold, D. Culver, Luther Westover and Samuel
Drake. Capt, C. M. Averill had the supervision
of the work. The bell was also the gift of Mrs.
James Fraser, and came as a complete surprise
to the church and community. Captain Averill
succeeded in placing it in position during the
hours of the night, and its joyful peals on the
following morning, which was Sunday, filled
the citizens with astonishment.
The following is a list of the pastors since
Rev. Z, Grenell, Jr., whose pastorate closed in
June, 1879 : Rev. J. W. Ford, February, 1880,
to June, 1884; Rev. G. M. W. Carey, fall of
1884 to the spring of 1885 ; Rev. A. E. Waffle,
1885-1888; Rev. J. S. Hohnes, D. D., 1888-
93; Rev. S. Nelson Glover, 1894-95; Rev. H.
A. Sumrell, 1895-99; 3"<^1 since the latter date
the church has been served by its present pas-
tor, Rev. Julien Avery. Herrick, Ph. D,
Under the pastorate of Dr, Holmes about
$7,OOD was spent on repairs. Again in 1904
about $4,000 was expended on repairs. The
church has now an active working membership
of 435. It has always been a very active church
and the six Baptist churches now here are evi-
dence of its missionary spirit. Since 1863 the
church has raised, exclusive of the $84,000
which the church and furnishings cost, aliont
$150,000 and of this $25,000 has been spent on
benevolences.
In May, 1904, special exercises were held
to commemorate Its 40th anniversary. Fine
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
music, many addresses and a banquet were the
principal features. The opening services were
conducted by Dr. Franklin Johnson, the first
pastor of tlie church.
First B.vptist Church (West Side). —
In 1874, William Currey, a member of the First
Baptist Church of Bay City crossed the river
and organized a Sunday-school, of which he
became superintendent. For six months the in-
fantile society met in an opera house, which has
since been tumed into a merchants' storehouse.
Aflerwanl it found temporary accommodation
in the Protestant Episcopal Church, which was
later remodeled into a public school buil<ling.
This work was \-igorously prosecuted for two
vears. Then the founder of the school was pre^
vented from giving it his attention, and the
school soon dwindlefl away. No further at-
tempt was made tow^ard establishing the Bap-
tist denomination on the West Side until 1882.
In Sqjtember of that year, the Sunday-school
missionary, E. D. Rundell, visited the town
and found a number of Baptist families, and it
was decided to organize a Bible school. This
was done, and the first meetings were held in
the old Presbyterian Church on Catherine
street. As time went on the work prospered,
and the question of having regular preaching
services was discussed and its advisability de-
tennined upon. To this end a subscription was
circulated and received the signatures of 17
persons, and pledges aggregating $425. The
agreement was that "preaching should com-
mence on or before April first, A. D., 1883."
The next natural step was the organization of a
church, and tiiis was effected on ;\Iay 31. 1883.
at the residence of Dr. j\larsh. There were 13
charter members. The first pastor was Rev. D.
T. Firor, who commenced his labors October
10. 1883, the pulpit having been occupied dur-
ing the time intervening between the organiza-
tion and thai date by candidates for the pas-
torate. A council of recognition was called,
and in April, 1884, the church in West Bay
City was didy enrolled among the Baptist
churches of the Saginaw Valley.
All services of the church and Sunday-
school were held in the old Presbyterian
Church until November, 1883, when the hall
in the Fisher Block was obtained. The desir-
ability of having a permanent house of worship
soon became apparent. Lots were secured on
the corner of Ohio and Dean streets. Plans
for a suitable building were adopted and the
contract let on July 31, 1884. Owing to the
limited means of the members, it was deemed
desirable to finish only the lecture room. This
room was available for services early in Febru-
ary, 1885. The church continued to grow in
numbers, and it was decided to complete the
audience room as cjtiickly as jKissible. This was
accomplished June 28, 1885, on which date the
church w-as dedicated with appropriate exer-
cises. The total cost of the lots, buildings, fur-
nishings, etc., was $8,175.65. The property is
now valued at $10,000.
Rev. Mr. Firor's pastorate came to an end
in October, 18S6, and his successor, Rev. B.
Morley, commenced his labors on No\-emher
loth of the same year. He remained with the
church two years and seven months. In Sep-
tember, 1889, a call was extended to Rev. C. H.
Irving which was accepted, and he commenced
his pastorate at once. During the summer of
1890, $1,000 was expended in repairs on the
church, and by October of that year this sum,
together with the debt of $2,200, had been paid,
leaving the society free from debt. Rev. Mr,
Ir\'ing continued with the church until July 30,
1902. His successor, Rev. George D. Harger,
began his labors in December and continued
with the church until February, 1905. The
church at present is without a pastor. The
church has 246 members; there is an average
Hosted by
Google
298
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
attendance at the Sunday-school o£ over 200.
About 1 886 a mission was started in
Brooks. The work was in charge of W. N.
Fletcher, who afterwards became pastor of the
Patterson Memorial Baptist Church, of Bay
City. The work has prospered.
Patterson Memorial Baptist Church.
— During his pastorate over the First Baptist
Church of Bay City, Rev. D. B. Patterson es-
tablished a mission Sunday-school in the north
part of the city. Members of his church pur-
chased land on VanBuren street between North
Johnson and Shearer streets, and erected a small
building in which the school was held. The of-
ficers of the school and the teachers came from
the church, and as a result of their earnest en-
deavors the work was prospered until the school
had outgrown the capacity of their building.
Then the structure was set farther back on the
lot and an addition was built on in front. This
was about 1884. The work continued to at-
tract the residents of the neighborhood, and
occasionally other services were held until 1892,
when it seemed desirable to organize a church.
The name Patterson Memorial Baptist Church
was adopted to perpetuate and honor the mem-
ory of the founder of the mission, to whose in-
defatigable labors the Baptists of Bay City are
so greatly indebted. An earnest Christian, ^V.
N. Fletcher, of West Bay City, i>ecame pastor
of the church, and a year later was ordained
to the ministry. In 1901 he went to another
field of labor, and the church remained without
a pastor for seven months. Then Rev. Will-
iam P. Lovett was called from Rochester, New
York, where he had just completed a course in
theology. He served the church until April i,
1905. when he accepted a call to a church in
Grand Rapids. In 1896 the house of worship
was moved from the place where the church
"was founded to its present site and was remod-
eled, so that there is now a commodious audi-
torium. At present there are about 70 mem-
bers, the membership having been considerably
dqjleted in constituting the First Baptist Church
at Essexville.
First Baptist Church (Essexville). —
Soon after becoming pastor of the Patterson
Memorial Baptist Church, Rev. W. N. Fletcher
started a mission Sunday-school in Essexville.
At first the school was held in a rented room,
and these quarters were occupied until 1901,
when two lots of land at the corner of Dunbar
and Langstaff streets were purchased, and a
small brick church edifice was erected. At
present the church has about 80 members. They
have never had a settled pastor, but join with
the Patterson Memorial Baptist Church in sup-
porting a minister, who divides his time evenly
Ijetween them.
South Baptist Church. — After the de-
struction of the Broadwaj' Baptist Church by
the great fire which swept the southern portion
of the city, a number of its members deemed it
desirable to locate a church farther south. Ac-
cordingly on September i, 1892, the South Bap-
tist Church was organized with 17 charter
members, who had withdraHii from the Broad-
way Baptist Church for that purpose. At first
services were held in Moran Hall, at the corner
of what is now Cass avenue and Harrison
street. On March 1, 1893. Rev. J. E. Gregory
was called to become their first pastor. About
this time land was purchased on Cass avenue at
the foot of Marsac street, and the erection of
their present house of worship was liegun. The
church building was not completed until the
fall of 1904, although services had been held
in a portion of the edifice for some time prior
to this. On Christmas Day, 1904. the first
services were held in the completed church amid
general rejoicing on the part of the members.
During the first six months of 1895. Allan
McEwan of Bay City, served the church as
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
pastor without remuneration. After that the
church was witliout a pastor until the spring
of 1896, the pulpit in the meantime being sup-
plied by the different Baptist clergymen of Bay
City. On May 6, 1896, Rev. H. E. McGrath
was called for six months. He remained until
April I, 1897, and the church was again with-
out a pastor until August, 1897, when Rev.
George \V. Bates commenced his labors here.
During af! the time the church has been without
a settled pastor, at least one service has been
held each Sunday. Rev. Mr. Bates remained
with the church until October 29, 1899. His
successor was Rev. William P. Squire, who was
called the following September and served the
cliurch until August, 1900. The next pastor
was Rev. Joseph Fox, who received his call the
following October, and remained with the
church until the spring of 1902. During the
following months the members of the church
became scattered and, becoming discouraged in
the struggle to maintain an organization with,
so few members, had instructed the trustees to
sell the property. It was then that Daniel H.
Trombley, one of the charter members who had
Ijcen most inlkientia! in organizing the church,
but, who in the meantime had joined a church on
the West Side, came back and rallied the mem-
bers together, and by a vast amount of personal
work brought about a reorganization. To him
is due great credit for the noble work he has
done. From that time the clmrch began to
prosper, and on March 22, 1904, the present
pastor. Rev. F. W. Kamm, commenced his !a-
Ijors. The church was dedicated on February
12, 1905. At present there are about 40 meni-
Iiers of the church. About 170 scholars are
enrolled m the Sunday-school, which has an
average attendance of 135.
Swedish Baptist Church (West Side).
—This society was organized by 15 Swedish
Baptists in the fall of 1898. The following
year they purchased a private dwelling on the
corner of Dean and Jenny streets and remod-
eled it into a little meeting house. This served
the church until 1904 when it was enlarged to
its present size, giving it a seating capacity for
about 200 people. The property is worth about
$1,500. The church received its first minis-
trations from Rognar Alender, a theological
student, who came to them soon after the or-
ganization of the society ajid remained three
months. He was followed by another student,
John Erickson, who came in the spring of 1899
and remained with the church until the opening
of the fall term in the theological seminary,
iVfter he went away, prayer meetings were held
and (he Sunday-school was maintained, but the
little church remained without regular preach-
ing services until Rev, Peter O. Ekstrom took
charge in the summer of 1903. He was a mis-
sionary and gave only half his time to the
church. Since he went away, the last of De-
cember, 1904, the church has again been with-
out a pastor,
Kawkawlin Baptist Church. — This is
the outgrowth of a mission started by the First
Baptist Ciiurch of West Bay City a few j'ears
ago, A church building has been erected on an
elegant site and fully paid for. The property
is value<L.at $2,000, The present membership
of the church is 34. Rev, Brent Harding be-
came pastor in 1901, and still continues a suc-
cessful work in that section.
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES.
First Congregational Church. — The
first meeting in the interests of a Congregational
Church in Bay City was held in Good Temp-
lars' Hall, June 13, 1875. Rev. J. B. Dawson
preached morning and evening. On the 29th
of June a meeting was held at the residence of
F. H. Blackman to consider the practicability
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
of organizing a Congregational Church and so-
ciety. It was decided to effect snch an organ-
ization and articles of association were adopted
and officers were elected.
Regular Sabbath services were held in Good
Templars' Hall for a month, after which the use
of the Court House was procured, where, on
the 25th of July, 1875, the church was organ-
..ized in due form.
Twenty-five members composed the new
church, five of whom united on profession of
faith, and 20 by letters from other churches.
On the following Sabbath a Sunday-school was
organized under very encouraging auspices.
Church prayer meetings were also appointed,
being held from house to house. In August,
Rev. S. P. Barker, of Ionia, was engaged tem-
porarily as pastor", and at the end of three
months his resignation was accepted.
In October the trustees of the German Lu-
theran Church kindly proffered the vise of their
house of worsiiip on Sabbatlis for one preach-
ing service, and also for Sunday-school. Short-
ly afterwards the Good Templars' Hall was
again secured where the regular church ser\'-
ices were held until t!ie new house of worship
on the corner of Sixth and Van Buren streets
was finished. From November, 1S75, until
February, 1876, the pulpit was supplied tempo-
rarily, much of the time by Dr. Joseph Hooper,
whose ministrations were kindly given, and
were received with much gratitude. His sud-
den illness and death, which occurred Febru-
ary 27, 1876, terminated a useful and devoted
hfe,
A movement was made immediatelj' after
the organization of the church and society to-
ward the erection of a house of worship.
Through the persevering efforts of the board
of trustees, and the liberality of members and
friends, the building committee were enabled to
t)eg!n the work December i, 1875. Tlie church
edifice was completed and dedicated April 20,
1876.
About the first of Feljruary, 1876, the
church and society extended a call to Rev. J.
Homer Parker to become their pastor. The
call was accepted, and Re\'. Mr. Parker entered
upon his ministrations March 13, 1876. At the
expiration of a year he was regularly installed.
On June 28, 1879, Rev. Mr. Parker was
compelled to tender his resignation on account
of ill health. A unanimous call was extended
to Rev. J. G. Leavitt, of New Gloucester,
Elaine, who accepted the same and commenced
his pastorate under very favorable auspices,
December 7, 1879. Failing heaUh, however,
compelled him to tender his resignation in Oc-
tober, 1880, and the church was again without
a pastor. An in-\'itation to the pastorate was
given to Rev. W. W. Lyle, of Duxbury, Mass-
achusetts, which was accepted, and on Jaiuiary
2, 1881, he commenced his labors, which proved
very successful. At that time the membership
was 200. In i8gi he M'as succeeded by the
present pastor. Rev. Charles T. Patchell. The
church has been out of debt for fi\-e or six years
and is active and growing.
Congregational Chl-rch (Essexville).
— In April, 1879, Rev. John B. Dawson came
to Essexville at the request of the Genesee As-
sociation to see what the possibilities were for
establishing a Congregational Church. He
\-isited among the people for a month, during
which time he held meetings in Hudson Hall.
On May 6tli of that year a church was organ-
ized with 30 charter members, and the follow-
ing week the Sunday-school was established.
The first Sunday of the following August the
church commenced holding meetings in what
is now K. O. T. M. Hall, ami worshiped there
for two years and a half. In 1881 they com-
menced building their present house of worship,
and held the first meeting there in February,
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
1S83. The edifice was dedicated the iirst of the
following June, and at that time the chvirch
was out of debt. Rev. Mr. Dawson was called
as pastor as soon as the church was organized.
After six years of service, he was compelled to
resign and to retire from the ministry on ac-
count of failing health, although he has
preached occasionally since that time. Rev. W.
B. King was called in the early summer of 1885,
and remained with the church five years. Then
Rev. Mr. Scott was engaged to supply the pul-
pit for the next six months, and was succeeded
in 1891 by Rev. E. M. Counsellor who minis-
tered to the congregation for two years. At
the close of his pastorate, the milts, in which
jnost of the male members of the church were
eiiiplo)'ed, were destroyed by fire, and the
church remained without a pastor for about a
year and a half, the members feeling that they
could not assume the burden of maintaining a
minister. In 1895, Rev, J. H. Halier, who had
charge of the city mission, began supplying the
pulpit on Sunday mornings, and continued his
labors for a year. Then Rev. Charles T. Pat-
chcll preached to the congregation on Sunday
ei'enings for a year, and for the next 12 months
the church was ministered to by Re-\'. Wr.
Woodruff, a retired clergyman of Saginaw,
From the close of his labors until November,
1901, the church was again without a pastor.
At that time Rev. Charles W. Jones, of Zanes-
ville, Ohio, was called. He was succeeded after
21 months by Rev. O. A. Alexander, who
stayed with the church only 10 months. h\
Novemljer, 1904, Rev. R. S. Hartill was called
from Sprague, Canada. The present member-
s'lip of the church is 51,
EVANGELICAL CHURCHES.
^ ZiON Evangelical Church. — In 1878
this church was organized. Among the original
trustees were Herman Meisel, Henry Meisel,
August Meisel, Max Hildebrand and Fred
Koch, At first a small church building was
erected, but as the society flourished it was
found necessary to build the house of worship
on Monroe street, which they are now using.
The old church was remo\-ed to the rear of the
lot, where it is used as a chapel and for school
pui-poses. The church had 26 cliarter memb^rsr
The first pastor was Rev. F. Hamp, who re-
mained about two years. The next three pas-
tors. Revs, Frederick Schweitzer, Frederick
Mueller and George Halier, each served the
church three years. Then Rev. Frederick
Klump had charge for two years, and was fol-
lowed by Rev. Mr. Krueger, who was pastor
for three years. This brings us to 1892, when
a portion of the society withdrew from the de-
nomination to form the Salem United Evan-
gelical Church.
Soon after this event, a meeting was called
in a hall on Washington avenue to organize a
new society. Rev. N. Wunderlich w-as chair-
man of this meeting and Rev. John Riebel its
secretary. At this meeting about 30 people re-
united with the church of the Evangelical Asso-
ciation. The society that had withdrawn re-
fused to give up the church property for a num-
ber of years. In 189S, however, a decision of
the courts gave the church to its present own-
ers. The new society has now about 50 mem-
bers. Its property is valued at $8,400, The
pastors have been Revs. John Riebel, J. Ham-
mel, N. Wunderlich, A. Halmhuber, J. M. Bitt-
ner and W, M. Sippei, who is the present pas-
tor. The Sunday-schoo! ser\-ices are held
in English. The morning services are in
German and the evening serx'ices are in
English.
Salem United Evangelical Church is.
the name that was chosen by the society that
withdrew from the Evangelical Association in
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
1892. They worshiped in what is now Zion
Evangelical Church until 1898, when they were
compelled by the courts to abandon the prop-
erty, and at that time built their present church
and parsonage at a cost of $10,000. The prop-
erty is located at the comer of Madison avenue
and loth street.
Their pastors, each of whom has served the
church the prescribed limit of four years, have
been Revs. Henry Schneider, Samuel Mueller
and A. Lutz, whose pastorate expired in 1905,
and who was succeeded by the present pastor.
Rev. C. M. Kaufman. The present member-
ship is 126.
The First Universalist Society was
organized in 1864 under the labors of Rev.
William Tompkins, who preached in Bay City
every alternate Sunday for six months of that
year. At first he had called the Universalists
of Bay City together and developed their
strength ; but at the close of his engagement it
was thought the interest was not sufficient to
warrant the continuance of his labors. Thus
matters rested until the summer of 1865, when
Rev. Z. Cook visited the city and preached to
the congregation every Sunday for a month, as
a candidate for settlement. The interest mani-
fested did not seem sufficient to justify his en-
gagement, and nothing more was done until
the early spring of 1866, when Rev. C. P. Nash
came to Bay City, seeking a settlement. He
was assured beforehand that circumstances did
not favor the settlement of any pastor over the
society, but so great and unexpected was the
interest shown upon his first visit that he was
requested to renew it, and in the meantime a
subscription was started to secure his services.
The necessary amount was pledged, and on
the first Sunday in April he entered upon the
discharge of his duties as pastor.
The society, however, from having been so
long without regular meetings, had well-nigh
dissolved; and hence a meeting was called on
April 10, 1866, at which it was legally reor-
ganized, and its organization entered upon the
records of the county according- to law. The
necessity of a church building being apparent
to all, in June the pastor commenced circulating
a subscription to raise the necessary funds.
Work on the building was commenced in Octo-
ber, and it was dedicated on the first Sunday in
January, 1867. Owing to financial troubles,
meetings were suspended from January, 1868,
to the following May, when an engagement
was entered into for preaching half the time.
The Sunday-school, however, did not suffer in-
terruption. After a time, however, the society
recuperated and enjoyed a more prosperous
condition. In 1S77 the building was destroyed
by fire, and the lot was exchanged for one on
the comer of Seventh street and Madison ave-
nue, where the following year a church edifice
was completed. The pastor at that time was
Rev. Amos Crum, who remained with the so-
ciety for several years. After he went away
the pulpit was filled by a number of supplies,
none of whom remained for any considerable
length of time. The next settled pastor was
Rev. S. Crane, who came in 1882. He remainetV
about one and a half years, and then the pulpit
was vacant for a short time until Rev. S. H.
Roblin took charge. He was followed by Rev.
Frank J. Chase, who subsequently seceded from
the denomination, and after that the pulpit was
supplied by different clergymen of the Univer-
salist denomination until Rev. Charles E.
Tucker came to the church about 1893. The
church building was destroyed by fire on March
10, 1895, ^^i"- Tucker at that time being away
on a tour of the Holy Land. Soon after this
second visitation by fire the pastorate was ter-
minated. For about a year the society had no
regular meeting place, and few meetings were
held. Then Rev. Thomas Illman was engaged.
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
ant! services were held in the Ridotto. About
this time a building lot was secured ou Center
aveiuie at the comer of Sherman street, and tha
foundation for a new house of worship was
laid. Rev. Mr. Illman's pastorate covered a
period of two and one-half years. The pulpit
again becoming vacant, ser\ices were held in-
termittently until Rev. George B. Stocking was
secured as pastor. He remained with the
church about a year and a half. Since his resig-
nation in June, 1904, no regular meetings have
been held, the society being kept alive by the
ladies, who hold meetings weekly from house
to house among the members. There are now
only about 40 or 50 families connected with the
society, many former members having become
identified with other churches in the city. Ow-
ing to the weakened condition of the society, it
appears doubtful if the nexv church on Center
avenue will be completed in the immediate fu-
ture.
Church of Christ (Disciples). This
Went Side church was organized about eight
years ago, with six charter members. The first
meeting was held at the house of John Law.
Services were afterward conducted in the houses
of the various members until they came into
possession of their present house of worship.
This was previously owned by the S\\edish Dis-
ciples' Church under the leadership of Rev. Mr.
Hollengrin, who constructed the building with
his own hands. The property is now valued at
$1,500. The present membership of the church
is 36. The following is a list of the pastors to
date: Revs. I. K. Law, September, 1897, to
August, 1899; W. R. Seytone, November,
1899, to February, 1900; C. W. F. Daniels,
May 6, 1900, to September g, 1900; W. P.
Squires, October 14, 1900, to February 28,
1901 ; A. E. Zeller, June 7, igoi, to February
^9. 1905 ; and S. W. Pearcy, the present pastor,
who took charge February 19, 1905.
SWEDISH FREE MISSION CHURCH.
About 1885, S. A. Sanbcck began holding
prayer meetings from house to house among
Swedish Christians in West Bay City. These
meetings were kept up until 1891. During
these years Swedish missionaries made occas-
ional visits, and at such times meetings were
held in various halis. In 1891 the present
church society was organized, and the follow-
ing year their house of worship was erected on
DeWitt street between Jenny and Thomas
streets. It seats about 125 people and is valued
at about $1,000. The church has about 60
members. Their present pastor, Rev. Alberts
Johnson, came in December, 1904.
SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST.
In the "summer of 18S9, Frank Armstrong
began holding Sabbath-schoo! on the ^^^est Side
in tlie home of Mrs. J. B. Stewart. Soon after
that lie began holding ser\'ices in his own house.
During the winter of 1889, Elder D. H, Lam-
son came here, and a hall was rented and gen-
eral church services held, until the spring of
1890. The interest manifested did not seem
sufficient to justify him in staying, but after
he went away the Sabbath-school and prayer
meetings were continued. Later the meetings
were removed to Bay City and held for a time
in the old Lutheran Church at the corner of
Sixth street and Madison avenue. On Feb-
ruary I, 1890, the church was organized with
17 members. Elder Burrill moved his family
liere in the spring and remained with the church
through the summer. Elder Basney came in
the fail of 1890, and served the society until
1895. Their present house of worship on
South Dean street was completed in 1895, and
dedicated on May 12th of that year. The edi-
fice is valued at about $1,500 and seats about
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
150 people. The church now has 6r members.
Their next pastor was Elder Justus Lamsoii,
who had charg-e of the services about two years.
Their next pastor, Elder Conrad Weber, went
away in 1901, and then they were without a
pastor for quite a while. Their present pastor,
Elder A. R. Sanborn, came in February, 1902.
In the fall of 1902, the church opened a paro-
chial school in the church. There are now nine
children in the school. The first teacher was
May Sanborn who had charge of the school for
one jear. Since that time the present teacher,
Louise Krohn, has been in charge.
The Christian Assembly, whose taber-
nacle is located at the corner of Michigan and
Dean streets, on the West Side, was founded
by Elder Walter Sims in 1879. In the fall of
1879 he came to Bay City on a business trip.
One evening with a friend he went to hear a
temperance address in Rouech Hall ; the speaker
did not put in an appearance, and Elder Sims
was recjuested to address the assembled audi-
ence. Up to this time it had always been his
custom to preach the Gospel as opportunity of-
fered, and so he gladly took advantage of the
occasion to deliver a stirring Gospel address,
and by request continued preaching on subse-
quent evenings. These are the peculiar circum-
stances which led to the establishing of this
unique assembly which now numbers between
three and four hundred members, who claim to
gather in accordance with the customs of the
Christian assemblies in the days of the Apos-
tles, without a creed other than the entire Bible.
After a time the meetings were transferred to
West Bay City and held in the old St. Paul's
Protestant Episcopal Church. Services were
conducted in this building until 1880 when
they began holding meetings in a buikling of
their own, which was located opposite their
present site. The building was 126 by ■](> feet
and cost about $2,000. In 1881 a large acad-
emy building w as added to the church property
at a cost of $3,000. The academy was con-
ducted by Elder Sims and its curriculum in-
cluded college preparatory courses, normal
courses for teachers, commercial courses and
other studies which might be selected by the
student. The school prospered until 1892,
when the entire propertj- was destroyed by fire.
For a time, after that misfortune, services
were contlucted in the chapei now used by the
Churcii of Christ. In the meantime the Sal-
\"ation Army barracks were purchased, remod-
eled inside and refitted so that it woukl seat
more than 700 people. Including all improve-
ments, it lias cost up to this time between $5,000
and $6,000. Articles of incorporation as The
Christian Assembly were executed February 12,
1902.
hebrew congreg.vtions.
Anshei Chesed Hebrew Reform Cox-
GREGATiON was Organized in September, 1878.
Ser\-ices were held in a lodge room on Water
street until 1884 when they purchased their
present temple on Adams street from a Ger-
man Lutheran society, which had previously
used it as a house of worship. Origaially the
congregation numl)ered about 25 male, paying
members, but as the number of Jewish famil-
ies in the city increased the membership in-
creased. In 1884 the congregation divided on
questions regarding the manner of conducting
the services, so that now the male paying mem-
bership is only what is was at the beginning.
There are about 50 members of the congrega-
tion. Dr. Wolff Landau was the first rabbi,
and served the congregation until his death,
August 29, 1903, He was succeeded after a
few months by Dr. F. W. Jesselson, who is still
in charge. He resides at Grand Rapids. The
society is free from debt.
Hosted by
Google
AXD REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
SiiAARY Zedek Coxgregation. — 111 1S84
about 12 families who believed in adhering; to
the old forms and methods of conducting He-
bi'cw worship withdrew from the Anshei
Chesed Reform Hebre^\- Congregation. Their
first meetings were held in a hall on Center
avenue. They continued there seven or eight
vears, and then mo^■ed into their present s;"na-
gogue, which was built in 18S9. The edifice
^vill seat about 500 people. They have 45 vot-
ing members, while the congregation numbers
about 500 sonls. In 1904 a private residence
adjoining the synagogue was purchased, and is
to he converted into a Hebrew free school. This
property is worth about ^1,000. The value of
the synagogue, including; furnishings, is at
least $4,000.
In 1882 Rabbi Samuel Levine came to the
congregation. He remained about three years
and was followed by Rabbi Joseph Bernstein,
who sta}-ed two years. Next came Rabbi Jo-
seph Taub, who scr\-ed the congregation about
six years. His successor was Rabbi L. P~risch,
and after him Rabbi A. Rosenthal was here
three years until 1903, when Rabbi Joseph
Taub returned to tiie congregation and has re-
mained since that time.
The association was organized June 19,
1885. with D. C. Smalley as president and W.
1'. Sunley as general secretary. Mr. Smalley
ser\e(l the association two j-ears. Mr. Sunley,
after a much appreciated work, resigned Octo-
ber I, 1886. Mr. Baker acted as general secre-
tary until September i, 1887, when Mr. Hoag
took charge. He was succeeded on May i,
18S8. hy F. Klumpf. and at the same time Hon.
I' . \V. Wheeler became president.
During the incumbency of Mr. Klumpf. the
association received from the philanthropist,
Alexander Folsom, $20,000 for a building and
$10,000 as a library fund. With the money
designated for that purpose the association pur-
chased the bnilding it now occupies on Adams
street, which was originally known as the Wal-
ton Block and remodeled it for its present uses.
Mr, Klumpf resigned March 30, 1890. and
was succeeded by Mr. Black. Then followed a
number of genera! secretaries who ser\-ed one
or two years each. In 1898 the present general
secretary, Charles A. Day, began his work. He
had come here the previous year as physical di-
rector, and still continues to look after both
departments of the association's work.
VOUXG WOMEX'.S CHRISTIAN A.SSOCIATIOX'.
The association was organized in May,
1891, and incorporated the following Decem-
ber. The aim of the work lias been to promote
the interest of young women in spiritual, edu-
cational, physical and social work. At first
meetings were held in the G. A. R. Hall : later,
rooms were secured in the old library building;
from there the association removed to a private
house on \\"ashnigton a\'emie and still later to
a dwelling house on Madison avenue. For the
past fi\'e years the association has occupied
quarters in the Root Block on Center avenue.
There are six rooms, — office, assembly room,
library, rest room, dining room and kitchen.
Following is a list of the secretaries, each of
wlioni held office about a year : Miss Humph-
rey Miss Obernauer, Miss Alice Pierce. Miss
Belle Lemon, Miss Carey, Miss Strong. M.ss
ilarv \ngevine and Miss Myrtle B. Mills, who
took'charge as general secretary in 1904 ^^^ is
still in office. Of these. Misses Ahce Pierce
and Belle Lemon were volunteer workers of the
local association.
In addition to the religions meetuigs. regu-
lar classes are held in the common English
Hosted by
Google
3o6
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
branches and in drawing, plain sewing, shirt-
waist making, millinery, cooking and a limited
amount of gymnasium work. All the best mag-
azines are to be found on the library table, and
on the shelves many standard works of litera-
ture and the best of the late books, of which the
members have free use. During the past year
9,105 lunches were served. The total attend-
ance at the rooms, including classes, Gospel
meetings and calls, was 21,833. The total mem-
bership is now 500. The work is supported by
memberships and subscriptions.
HOSPITALS.
Mehcy Hospital. The stately structure
standing on the corner of r5th and Howard
streets, is one of Bay City's best testimonials
that its citizens, in the hurry and bustle of the
complex life of the present day, have not for-
gotten that "sweet quality of mercy" which
finds expression in tender, solicitous care for the
v.eak, sick and helpless.
Mercy Hospital had its beginning five years
ago, being established first in the old Natlian
B. Bradley private residence, on the present
site. It is entirely under the management of
that noble body of Christian woman known as
the Sisters of Mercy, Sister Hilda being then,
as now, the superior, Michigan, from 1668
when Father Marquette, that great Catholic
missionary, founded the first settlement, has
been indebted to the same religious body for
much of its educational and religious develop-
ment as well as for the carrying on of some of
its greatest charities. With the zeal which has
always characterized the pioneers in establish-
ing their schools and benevolent institutions,
Sister Hilda, ably seconded by her assistants,
so presented the claims of the proposed hospital,
to the business men of Bay City, that a fund of
$7,500 was rapidly raised and the present
property w'as purchased, so that when the hos-
pital was opened, on September 26, 1900, it
was entirely free from indebtedness.
In 1905 an annex was added to the original
structure, a brick building, three stories and
basement, making the accommodations larger
and of more benefit to the public. Tlirough
private contributions and the interest taken in
the work of the hospital by many citizens of
various denominations, as well as the income
derived from those patients able to remunerate
generously for their care, the whole building
has been thoroughly equipped with every mod-
ern convenience and appliance and is recognized
as the leading private hospital in the city. Many
of its 20 private rooms have been furnished by
private individuals or societies. It is, however,
just vx'hat its name implies, — a refuge for the
sick who have no means to procure medical at-
tention. These are never turned away, but the
good Sisters take them in, shelter and cure them
and let them pass out again healed in body and
refreshed in spirit. The charity patients aver-
age about 10 a year, the accommodations be-
ing for 35 patients. The hospital has a private
ambulance. Mercy Hospital keeps 10 nurses
for its work and from its training school has
graduated 12 nurses, making no charge for tui-
tion. Another admirable department of its
work is the finding of homes for waifs. These
are placed where conditions promise that they
will be carefully reared in Christian households.
While this hospital is under the care of the
Sisters of Mercy, it has the full sympathy and
support of all the religious creeds of the city,
for its work is entirely unsectarian and of so
beneficent a character that its great usefulness
can not be ranked too high.
Lewis Hospital. — Dr. LeRoy Lewis,
while looking for a suitable location for a hos-
pital, came in the latter "eighties" to Bay City,
and there being at that time no hospital in either
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
of the cities, he was encouraged by a number of
leading citizens to decide upon Bay City as the
scene of bis future labors. He returned to his
home in New York State to close up his busi-
ness affairs there. This required a little longer
time than he had anticipated, and when, in Sep-
tember, 1900, he arrived in Bay City, he dis-
covered that Mercy Hospital had been estab-
lished. He was not discouraged by this, how-
e\'er, as he felt there was room here for two
such institutions, and it was his hope in time to
make his hospital a public, if not a municipal
institution. He secured what was at that time
one of the most pretentious private dwellings in
Bay City, erected by the late George Lewis at a
cost of many thousands of dollars. Dr. Lewis
furnished this home with every necessary ap-
pliance of the most modern and approved type
for performing surgical operations and every
convenience for the care of the sick and con-
valescent, and on November 16, 1900, the in-
stitution, which had cost Dr. Lewis $10,000,
was formally opened to the public.
The building is situated on a beautiful cor-
ner lot, with ample grounds and an abundance
of sunlight and air. Had the structure been
erected especially for a hospital, it would not
be more appropriate. The building contains
spacious halls, drawing rooms and library, all
elegantly furnished, and these cheerful places
are at the disposal of convalescents. The din-
ing room, kitchen, pantry and other domestic
appointments are those of an elegant home. On
the second floor are two wards, rooms for pri-
vate patients, bath rooms and operating rooms.
The third floor has a ward sufliciently large to
accommodate 25 beds, and there is a maternity
department which is complete in every detail.
The building is heated by steam, and lighted
by its own electric light plant. Dr. Lewis
brought the first ambulance to Bay City, and
this is at the disposal of any physician.
At the time the hospital was established,
there were scarcely any trained nurses in Bay
City, and it became apparent at once that in
order to meet the demand for skilled nurses for
the hospital and for the public, it would be
necessary to establish a school. Accordingly,
on July 25, 1901, the auxiliary board of the
Nurse Association of Lewis Hospital was in-
corporated. In addition to furnishing training
for nurses, the association was formed for
charitable work in furnishing attendance for
and in nursing persons ill or helpless from acci-
dents, who are unable to provide the heavy costs
entailed by such services. This association
controls the charity ward of the hospital and
all funds given for the care of free patients.
Below we give a list of the persons composing
the board of directors, the officers of which con-
stitute the board of trustees of the institution:
Officers and trustees, — president, Mrs. May
Stocking Knaggs ; i st vice-president, Mrs. Min-
nie E. Ruelle; 2nd vice-president, Mrs. W. J.
Daniels ; secretary, Mrs. Fred Asman ; treas-
urer, Mrs. Mae Kenney Lewis. Directors:
Mrs. E. B. Foss, Mrs. Theodore F. Shepard,
Mrs. Mae Kenney Lewis, Mrs. Robert Beutel,
Mrs. S. A. Baldwin, Mrs. M. S. Bird, Mrs.
Anna Foote, DeVere Hall, LeRoy Lewis, John
Daniels, George N. Ewell, Frank \^'aher, A.
W. Herrick, Arthur Boynton and Arthur
Strong. At the beginning of each )"ear a med-
ical staff is formed, comprising four physicians
and four surgeons, each of whom serves three
months of the ensuing year. Besides giving
lectures to nurses, this staff cares for the pa-
tients in the charity ward.
Up to this time, all the profit from the care
of private patients has been expended in main-
taining the public or free ward. Of the money
spent in this way. Dr. Lewis has given $4,921.-
96 and the ladies of the directorate have pro-
vided $1,258.38. This department has cared
Hosted by
Google
3o8
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
for 114 patients, many of them
long periods of time — one patient lias been un-
der treatment for a year. This charity work
had grown to a point where Dr. Lewis felt he
could no longer assume the financial burden of
bearing nearly four-fifths of the expense it in-
volved from his private purse, so early in 1905
he made an appeal to the public-spirited citizens
of Bay City to maintain the free ward as a pub-
lic philanthropy, to be owned and supported by
the general public, thus making the Lewis Hos-
pital, in the strict sense of the term, the only
public hospital in Bay City.
CHARITIES,
Old Ladies' HoME.^The Associated
Charities, a ban<i of noble-hearted women, who
have time and energy to aid those in sor-
row and distress, was first organized by the
ladies of Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church
in 1886. Led by Mrs. Samuel G. M. Gates
and Mrs. Xatlian B. Bradley, they raised $3,-
000 to purchase the property since enlarged
and improved, located on Monroe street and
Fourth avenue, — a spacious, two-story frame
building, with stone foundation and basement.
Nearly $10,000 has been collected and spent
for the laudable purposes of this home in the
last 18 years, during 13 years of which time
Mrs. Gates has been the earnest, able and inde-
fatigable president of this worthy association.
Ill health compelled her to resign in 1899, Mrs.
Sehvyn Eddy assuming the responsibihtles of
the executi\'e office of the association for more
than three years, until ill health also compelled
her retirement. For the last three years Mrs.
Frank Shearer has presided with commendable
devotion over the destinies of Bay City's two
most worthy institutions of sweet charity. The
Old Ladies' Home Is in the nature of a private
boarding house, all the inmates contributing
something toward the maintenance of the
rooms, of which the home has 25 furnished
with all the comforts, but none of the luxuries,
of the modern home. The inmates are there
for life, enjoying tlie eventide of their earthly
journey in congenial and quiet surroundings,
free from care and assured of kindly attendance
to the last. In 1905, 27 inmates are enrolled.
Miss Josephine Albertson is the matron, with
two domestics and a janitor. The Asso-
ciated Charities are ha\'ing their annual rum-
mage sale April 24-29, 1905, the proceeds of
which go into their charity fund, constituting
each year a more liberal and well-earned sum.
Children's Home. — Amid a grove of
giant forest trees, fronting on Columbus ave-
nue, one of Bay City's prettiest and broadest
thoroughfares, stands the pride of the city's
charities,— the handsome, three-story brick
structure, whose roof covers the homeless waifs
of the community. After the Associated Char-
ities had firmly established the Old Ladies'
Home, they turned their attention to tlie poor
little chilren, many of whom are each year left
motherless and homeless, even in this well-
regulated community. The first few years the
children M-ere kept at the Old Ladies' Home,
but this was found inexpedient, and a separate
home was established on Johnson street. After
some years of hard work, without commensu-
rate results, the association concluded to drop
the more burdensome care of the little waifs.
Mrs. Samuel G. M. Gates, however, never lost
faith in the final success of this much needed
home for children, so with the aid of Mrs.
Murray, who for nine years was the devoted
matron of this home, and a few others, she
fitted up one of her houses on loth street for
the children, where for nearly eight years they
received the best of care, though the accom-
modations necessarily limited the number that
could be taken.
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
In 1901 the ladies made anotlior determined
effort to secure a permanent and sufficient home
for these poor children, and a number of busi-
ness men, headed by A. E. Bousfield, raised
about $20,000 that year for the beautiful Chil-
dren's Home, which was occupied by the asso-
ciation March 10, 1902. The home is of ar-
tistic design and architecture, containing a
large dormitory for the girls, another for the
younger boys, and a third for the older boys,
with a roomy nursery for the little mites, of
whom there are always several under that !ios-
pitable roof. The basement contains the steam-
heating plant, and a large children's play room,
for use in winter and during storms, when the
roomy out-door playground is not available.
Airy dining rooms, kitchen, reception room
and living rooms complete the equipment.
Miss Grace Bradley, the present matron, has
been in charge for three years, with four as-
sistants. A kindergarten was taught here until
the public schools took vip this work this year.
On April 25, 1905, there were 52 chilren in
the home, ranging from two weeks to 14 years
in age; 38 attend the public scliools, while 14
are too young, and the older of these receive
their first instruction at the home. Some of
the children are placed here by their parents,
whose employment, or lack of a honie, pre-
vents their taking proper care of them, and
these contribute sometliing toward their main-
tenance. But by far the larger number of the
inmates are wards of charity.
The Associated Charities' officers for 1905
are: Mrs. Frank Shearer, president; Mrs.
Archibald McDonnell, Mrs. E. T. Carrington
and Mrs. D. C. Smalley, vice-presidents ; Miss
Nellie Thompson, financial secretary; Mrs.
George E. Harmon, recording secretary; !Mrs.
Wilfred E. See, treasurer.
Hosted by
Google
CHAPTER XIII.
Public Schools, Libraries and the Press.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Let us then be up and dc iig
With a heart for anj fate
Still ad le g st 11 p rauincc
Learn to lalor and to wait
Bay City, East Side. — The progress and
enlightment of any community, State or na-
tion can best be judged by its schools. And
in the light of that standard Bay County has
from the first taken a creditable place in the
educational field, and in 1905 Bay City ranks
foremost among the cities of its size in that
great field of endeavor in the United States.
Unlike many other frontier settlements, Bay
County's earliest pioneers were mostly people
of education, and among them were citizens
of more than ordinary culture and refinement.
Hence some of the earliest public acts here
pertained to the creation and the support of
schools.
The first school district was organized in
April, 1842, and the first school was held in
the Bonnet house, a one-story frame building,
14 by 20 feet in dimensions, located on the
river front near the foot of Columbus avenue.
Miss Clark taught from June i to September
1, 1842, her class consisting of Daniel Marsac,
Margaret Campbell, Emily Campbell, Perry
and Philenda Olmstead, Richard Trombley and
P. L., H. B. and Esther Rogers. Thomas
Rogers was moderator. Judge Sydney S. Camp-
bell, director, and Cromwell Barney, assessor,
Capt. David Smith assumed charge January
I, 1843, \^'^^li 23 scholars, of whom William
R. McCormick, John Churchfield and Israel
and Dan Marsac were more than 21 years old
proving that the pioneers believed their chil-
dren were never too old to learn.
On January 7, 1845, ^'^^ '^^^w school house,
one-story, 21 by 26 feet in size, was completed
near the foot of Washington avenue, and
Harry Campbell, the joker of early folk-lore
here, taught the young idea how to shoot.
The district extended for more than three miles
along the river front, and the children had to
trudge many weary miles morning and even-
ing. Miss A. E. Robinson taught in 1847-48,
for a salary of $1.50 per week and "boarding
'round !" In season, teacher and pupils paddled
to school in Indian canoes.
By 1854 the township of Hampton re-
quired better school facilities for 160 children
of school age then enrolled and the Adams
street school was built to seat 300 pupils. This
answered the purjwses of the East Side until
1865. This Adams street school of the Sec-
ond Ward was then enlarged to accommodate
500 pupils. In 1884 the writer attended this
school then crowded to its capacity, Miss
Holmes being principal and Miss Lucy Bertch,
Miss Babo, Miss Xewkirk and Miss Rutledge,
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
teachers, several of whom are still on Bay
City's efficient corps of instructors.
In 1866 another school was opened on Mc-
Kinley avenue and Adams street, seating 120,
with every place tilled. That year the Farragut
School i>roperly was bought for High School
puqjoses at a cost of $4,400, and the Sherman
Schooi property cost $2,800.
The union School District of Bay City
was incorporated March 20, 1867. In 186S
George Campbell built the Farragut School
for 567,350, the first session being held in
April, 1869. Additions had to be made that
year to all the existing schools, and Prof. D.
C. Scoville became superintendent. The
schools were graded, thoroughly disciplined
and organized. In 1874 Prof. I. W. Morley
became superintendent, and for nearly 20 years
superintended the growing school system.
Just 30 years ago, in 1875, there were six
school buildings, with 35 teachers and 3,800
school children. In 18S2 the present High
School building was started on Madison ave-
nue and nth street, and despite many additions
is quite inadequate for the use of Greater Bay
City in 1905. In 1885 there were nine schools,
51 teachers and 6,650 pupils. The teachers'
salaries amounted to over $16,000.
In 1877 th^ training school for teachers was
organized, the supply before that coming
largely from abroad, and by 1885 over 40 of
the Jocal teachers had graduated from the High
School, and taught at least one year in the
training department.
In 1883 the school property was \'alued at
Sr,M.548, the bonded intebtedness of $30,000
'ijiil been wiped out and the Board of Educa-
tion of the East Side from that time to this has
managed to keep down its lionded indebted-
"ess. ill encouraging contrast to the indebted-
ness of the West Side school district in 1905.
I'l 1883 Professor Morley reported an enroll-
ment of 2,983 pupils, — 1,494 boys and 1,489
girls; 1,712 were from eight to 14 years old.
The average daily attendance was 2,056.
The school census of the Union School Dis-
trict of Bay City for the school year ending
September 7, 1903, showed a total of 9,488
children of school age; of these, 4,587 were
boys and 4,901, girls. The Eighth Ward con-
tained 3,oog children of school age, nearly one-
third of the total, while the Ninth Ward
showed the smallest number of children, — 322.
Supt. John A, Stewart's report for the year
ending June 30, IQ03, enumerated 11 school
houses, the value of the school proiierty, includ-
ing the Fitzhugh site, being given as $326,500,
without any bonded indebtedness. The amoimt
paid for superintendence and instruction was
$60,380.79, while for current expenses, includ-
ing the amount paid on account of the addi-
tion to the Garfield school, there was paid out
$26,178.65, making the total cost of the schools
,$86,559.44. The taxable property of the city
for the same period was $11,426,135. The
average attendance for the year was 3.675
while the average of pupils enrolled was 3,768,
making the per cent, of attendance 97.52. Of
the 121 regidar teachers, nine were men and 112
women. There were also fixe special teachers.
There were 59 non-resident pupils enrolled.
The following is a statement of finances of
the Union School District of Bay City, for
the year ending June 30, 1903 :
Balance on liaud July r, ig03 $ 9,687 87
Tax collections from levy of r()02 48,707 49
Back tax collections 13,924 g$
Rchiiid from State for School for Deaf 694 58
Primary School Fuud 24,i.S4 ao
Tuition 574 06
Snies 12 50
Total $97,785 12
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
Teachers' wages $6o,j8o 79
Janitors' wages 6,463 00
Secretary 500 00
Text book clerk 240 00
Superintendent's clerk 200 00
Contingent 3,509 38
Printing and stationery 1,027 25
Fuel 3,.1K) S6
Repairs 1,854 18
Building and bnilding supplies 961 2g
Text-books and supplies 5-QoS gg
On account of Garfield addition 2,115 00
Balance on hand July 1, 1903 11,225 68
Total $97,785 12
After deducting $3,115 P^i'J ^n account of
construction of the addition to the Garfield
school, the total cost of the schools for the
year was $&] ,444.44. The above mentioned
cash balance of July i, 1903 does not include
the $9,000 in the bnilding fund.
The different school buildings on the East
Side were built in these years : Farragut, 1868,
valued at $40,000; Sherman, 1874, valued at
$22,000; Fremont and Whittier, both in 1875.
valued at $25,000 and $15,000, respectively;
High School, 1881, valued at $75,000; Dolsen,
1883, valued at $40,000; Woodside, 1884.
valued at $5,000; Garfield, 1886, valued at
$40,000; Lincoln, 1889, valued at $20,000;
Washington, 1895, ^'aHied at $35,000; High
School Annex, 1903, valued at $6,500. All
the buildings are of brick and two stories high,
except the High School Annex and the Wood-
side School, which are one-story frame struc-
tures. The ITigh School, High School Annex
and Dolsen School are heated by steam, while
the others are heated by furnace, except the
Fremont School, which is heated by furnace
and steam. In Bay City's schools there are 87
session rooms and 31 class rooms, with 4,761
sittings.
The public schools of Bay City are organ-
ized into three departments of four years each,
making 12 years in all. Each year is further
subdivided into B and A grades, each grade
covering the work of a half year. In addition,
there is a sub-primary grade for children who
are barely of school age, and for those who at
home speak a foreign language. In the sub-
primary kindergarten methods are largely used.
The primary department proper consists of four
years as does also the grammar department.
Taken together, the eight grades of these two
departments constitute what is known as the
common school course. The school year of 38
weeks is divided into temis or semesters of 19
weeks each. Pupils are regularly promoted at
the end of each semester, whenever in the judg-
ment of the superintendent their qualifications
entitle them to advancement. A pupil is sub-
ject to reclassification at any time, but no one
is placed in a lower grade except by the consent
of the superintendent. No pupil who has been
regular in attendance is required to go over the
same w^ork more than twice. If at the end of
a second semester the pupil is still found de-
ficient, a trial in the next higher class is al-
lowed. During the last week of each of the
(irst four school months in a semester, the
teacher records her estimate of the value of
each pupil's scholarship, and at the close of
the semester an average of these estimates with
the result of the examination, such examina-
tion counting only as one estimate, determines
the promotion. By consent of the superin-
tendent the examination r-.,iy be dispensed with
and tlie promotion made to depend fully upon
the teacher's estimate.
In four of the schools, branch libraries are
in full operation, with books provided from
the Public Library. This plan has proved a
great success as is plainly evident from the
number of books drawn, which are mostly
juvenile but also include some for adults. For
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
the year ending March i, 1904, 6,387 vokimes
were drawn credited as follows: Fremont
School, 3,278; Garfield School, 1,878; Sherman
School, 1,261; Whittier School, 970.
The Bay City High School is in a flourish-
ing condition and forms a fitting cfiniax to the
■work of the city school system. It is indeed a
department of which our citizens may well be
proud, furnishing as it does the finishing
touches to the education of so many of the
graduates of the grammar department and at
the same time giving adequate preparation to
those who wish to continue their studies at
higher institutions of learning. In its equip-
ment it is well prepared to meet all reasonable
demands of the present time. The physical
laboratory is supplied with apparatus, which
has been accumulated gradually from year to
year, sufficient to enable the scholars to pursue
their investigations under the guidance and di-
rection of the instructor. T!ie chemical labor-
atory is equally well fitted to give to each stu-
dent the fullest scope for individual experi-
mentation. The biological laboratory likewise,
while on a smaller scale than the other two la-
boratories, is well fitted for its own special
woi'k in the study of botany and zoology. In
this department the students are thoroughly
trained to the proper use of the microscope, the
laboratory being fully supplied with excellent
instruments. The school is also equipped with
a telescope, an electric stereopticon and with a
collection of several hundred specimens of
rocks and minerals. The commercial depart-
ment has grown to be a very popular feature
of the institution, excellent instruction being
given in bookkeeping, typewriting and stenog-
raphy and the allied branches. The school has
a department of manual training, which is
justly popular and a school library has been
organized that has proved itself to be a useful
feature of the institution. Graduates of the
Bay City High School are entitled to enter the
University of Michigan on diploma as well
as a number of leading colleges both in the
East and in the West. The elective system of
courses has been in vogue for some years past.
The teachers employed in the High School,
19 in number, are almost without exception
college graduates, with an average teaching
experience of more than 10 years. Even with
the Annex, which became so imperative as a
means of relieving the congested condition of
the High School, every part is now occupied
and the question of additional room will again
soon have to be met and settled. Indeed it
cannot be many years before a new and modern
High School, suited to the needs of a large
and growing city, will have to be constructed.
The training school, which within its hmi-
tations has so greatly assisted toward infusing
into the teachers of the Bay City schools a spirit
of love for the work and Io\'e for the children,
has wrought a complete change in the atmos-
phere of the school room. In a large measure
the feeling of fear has been eliminated from
the schools and the feeling of respect for and
confidence in the teacher has taken its place.
For this change great credit is due the training^
which the young teachers receive in this school.
For the last 15 years or more, it has been the
custom to put teachers of the higher classes in
charge of the several rooms and to provide each
teacher with an assistant from a lower class.
The two teacliers in each room hear their
classes alternately and while one conducts a
recitation the other renders individual assist-
ance to the pupils under her special charge.
This arrangement enables the teacher who-
knows most about the pupils and their work
to give such assistance as may be deemed ad-
visable.
The Bay City Oral School for the Deaf,
conducted in the Washington School, has been
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
an unqualified success and is doing a work that
would largely have been neglected but for this
school. It may well be considered as comple-
mentary and not in opposition to the State in-
stitution at Flint. The pupils, with very few
exceptions, could hardly have been sent from
their homes and must have gone with little or
no training, where now they receive the very
best that can be given. This schoo! has been
hampered by the State departments, both edu-
cational and financial, who have read into the
law what the supporters of the local institution
fail to find, and who have gone out of their
way to make seemingly unfriendly rulings.
Bay City, West Side. — Capt. B. F. Pierce
gave the land for the first school house on the
West Side, then the township of Bangor. It
was situated on the high ground, a quarter of
a mile from the river bank, where Michigan
and Litchfield streets now intersect. The
sovereign people of Bangor gatliered there to
vote in those early days, and the zealous mis-
sionary assembled the pioneers within its walls
to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation. The
village of Banks also established a school in a
diminutive shanty about this time, and from
1863 to 1868 school was held in the Town
Hall. Salzburg had a little district school of
its own, when Wenona bloomed forth on the
shaded oak ridge in 1864. James A. Mc-
Knight, in 1905 still hale and hearty,' was the
father of the first permanent school house in
Wenona, negotiating the $10,000 issue of
bonds voted for that purpose. George Camp-
bell built the Central School for $9,500, while
the school furniture cost $1,200, an ex-
travagant outlay in the minds of many sturdy
pioneers, for the sum was a large one accord-
ing to the standard of those days of self-denial
and hard work. Out of 300 enrolled children
of school age, 180 attended on January 27,
i858, when A. L. Cummings began his labors
as superintendent. In 1868 Banks built a com-
modious school, which was destroyed by fire
in November, 1877, and the present two-story
brick school replaced it, at a cost of $8,000.
In 1880 the West Side had three school
districts, with the following trustees : First
District, Frederick W. Bradfield, moderator;
Robert Long, director; Bernard Lourim, as-
sessor; Second District : Theodore F. Shepard,
moderator ; James A, McKmght, director ; La-
feyette Roundsville, assessor; Spencer O.
Fisher, W. M. Green and J. H. Plum, trustees;
Third District ; B. Staudacher, director ;
Charles Anderson, moderator; Rudolph La-
derach, assessor. The late F. W. Lankenau
was superintendait, and among his well-known
corps of teachers a quarter of a century ago
were Mrs. C. C. Faxon, F. C. Thompson, Affa
Weatherby and Mrs. C. A. Thomas. The to-
tal number of school children was 2,531.
Since then new schools have been erected
as follows : Dennison School, Sixth Ward ;
Corbin School, Second Ward; Jenny School,
Fourth Ward, presided over by Afifa Weather-
by, a veteran teacher of 1 880 ; Kolb
School, Fifth Ward, and Park School, Second
Ward, both handsome and substantia! two-
story brick structures ; and Ricgel School, Fifth
Ward.
The oflicers of the Board of Education of
the West Side for the year 1903-04 were as fol-
lows : President, George L. Lusk ; vice-presi-
dent, Jesse W. Coles ; secretary, John M. Roy ;
treasurer, William E. Magill. E. D. Palmer
was superintendent of the schools. There were
seven teachers in the High School, fi\'e in Cen-
tra! School, 10 in Trombley School. 10 in Park
School, 10 in Kolb School, six in Riegel School,
six in Jenny School, four in Dennison School
and four in Corbin School; these with the su-
pervisor of music made up the teaching force
of 63 members, of whom seven were men and
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
56 were women. In addition to these regular
teachers, there were four substitutes.
Townships and Villages. — The same
commendable spirit that brought the puhlio
school system of Bay City to its present high
state of perfection brought the little country
school to every nook and corner of Bay County,
the pioneers usually having a school in opera-
tion long before a store or other public utility
graced their little settlement.
Portsmouth township had the first school
in Bay County, a block-house on the river
front, at the foot of Freinont avenue, being
fitted up about 1838, which school was taught
by Judge Albert Miller. A larger building
was erected in 1850, which served as a school
and meeting house for many years. The town-
ship has three school districts at the present
time.
There were four school houses in Hampton
township 25 years ago, with Ralph Pratt, su-
perintendent; J. H. Sliarpe, school inspector;
A\'illiam Felker, clerk. In 1904 another hand-
some brick school house was completed on the
Center avenue road, whose equipment will
compare favorably with that of the best district
schools in the country. The children in Essex-
ville attended the little log school house a mile
east of the settlement from i860 to 1870, when
the village built its own frame school building.
This was destroyed by fire in 1879, and was
at once .replaced with the present substantia!
two-story brick school house. A quarter of
a century ago, F. N. Turner was principal ;
Miss Jennie Fry and Miss Mary Felker, teach-
ers ; Joseph Hudson, moderator ; Henry F.
Emery, director. In 1905, Walter L. Snyder
IS principal; Misses Heminway, Warren, Robi-
son and St. Clair, teachers; William Felker,
director ; and A. E. Harris, moderator. There
are seven school districts in the township.
The first school in Williams township was
established in Charles Bradford's farm-house,
with Mrs. Charles Fitch, teacher. The town-
ship has now six school districts, each having
its own school.
Bangor's early school history is that of
Banks and Wenona, This township has three
school districts.
Frankenlust township, for some years after
its settlement in 1848, depended upon its
German parochial schools for the advancement
in knowledge of its youth, and Amelith had a
similar school for some years after 1851. In
the course of time, however, this township also
secured its quota of district schools, and in
1905 has two school districts, well supplied
with resources and teachers.
The Indian Mission at Kawkawlin. built
in 1847, served for some years as school for
the early settlers of that vicinity and the more
ambitious of the red children of the forest.
By ^857 James Fraser and Frederick A. Kaiser
furnished accommodations for the children of
the settlement on the Kawkawlin. In 1861
Miss Carrie Chilson (now Mrs. C. C. Faxon)
taught in the primitive little school, which was
replaced by a more commodious and modern
structure in 1873. In 1885 there were six
schools in the township, with an attendance
that taxed their cajjacity. At the present time
there are eight school districts.
In 1855 some of the German settlers in the
soulhwestern partion of Monitor township
established the first school. In 1885 Monitor
township had four schools, with 168 scholars,
out of 274 of school age. These schools were
also meeting places for worship on the Sabbath
for many years. There are now six school
districts in the township.
Beaver township, which now has six
.schools, had three schools 25 years ago, with
Hosted by
Google
^i6
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
145 scholars, and the little red school houses
were used for Si\nday-scliooIs and for preach-
ing on the Sabbath,
The first school at Pinconning was taught
for the children of a few fishermen and Indians
in the old mission church at the mouth of the
Pinconning River. In 1869 a small frame
building became the village school house. A
more commodious and modern school building
replaced it in 1875, when M. R. Hartwell be-
gan his duties, which extended over more than
a quarter of a century in the same school. In
1904 the village school was destroyed by fire,
and is being replaced tliis year by a modem
stone and brick structure, two-story and base-
ment, capable of seating 250 pupils. At the
present date the township has six schools dis-
tricts.
One of the main objections to the separa-
tion of a part of Portsmouth township and set-
ting it tip as iUerritt township was the division
of the Union school District. However, tlie
sturdy people of Merritt townsliip were not
long in supplying their neighborhood with
good schools, the first one being opened in
1874, and much more centrally located than
formerly. At the present time the township
has six school districts, with a large attendance
and intelligent luanagement. County School
Commissioner John B. Laing came fron) the
Rlerritt schools to his present position in 1903.
Fraser township is divided into five school
districts, each having ample school facilities.
The latest organized townships — Garfield,
Mount Forest and Gibson, which have, re-
spectively, five, four and six school districts-
sustained the record of the earlier organized
townships by giving their verj' first attention
to the educational facilities of their communi-
ties, in the wilds of the primeval forest. In
1905 each has well-organized and thoroughly
■equipped district schools.
According to County School Commissioner
J. B. Laing's oflicial data just entered, the at-
tendance in Bay County's district schools for
the first quarter of 1905 was 4,101.
On September 5, 1904, the list of legally
qualified teaciiers in Bay County contained 114
names, classified as follows: Life certificates,
four; Central Normal School certificates, three;
County Normal Training Class certificates,
one; approved ist grade certificates, four; 2nd
grade certificates, 68; ist year 3rd grade cer-
tificates, 16; 2nd year 3rd grade certificates,
seven; 3rd year 3rd grade certificates, 10;
speciai teacher in music, one.
The low average of persons of school age
still unable to read or write in all Bay County
as revealed in tlie Federal census of 1900 is
the best evidence of the good work done for
the little red school house in this county, and is
the best reward for devoted attention by the
earliest settlers and their successors in the line
of duty to this day. Intelligence and progress,
education and prosperity, are all handmaidens,
whose mutual advantages can never be over-
estimated.
B.\y City Public LiBR.\RY. — Xear the
ckise of iS6g a number of citizens, under the
lead and inspiration of B. E. Warren and
Aaron J. Cooke, concei\-ed the i<lea of a circu-
lating library for Bay City, and on the 4th of
December of that year articles of association
to that end were filed in the clerk's office. A
\-ery energetic organization followed, and diu'-
ing the next two years a sufficient fund had
been raised to purchase and maintain a well-
selected library of 3,000 volumes, at a cost in-
cluding the necessary furniture of 85,000.
This was accomplished chiefly by the creation
of perpetual and life memberships. There was
besides a considerable list of annual members.
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
whose fees helped to swell the funds of the as-
sociation. Of course under this plan access to
the books was confined to paying members.
Under the constitution of Michigan, all
fines and penalties for infraction of State laws
are set apart for the benefit of the school dis-
trict Hbrarics. Prior to 1874 no use had been
made of this fund in Bay County, and a con-
siderable sum had accumulated in the county
treasuiy. To the greater jjart of this fund
Bay City was entitled on account of its large
school population. In addition to this, the city
had been required to raise annually by taxation
the sum of $200 for library purposes. From
these sources there had been placed to the credit
of the library fund of Bay City, prior to March
2. 1874, the sum of $2,899.25, which was then
subject to the dis^rosal of the Board of Educa-
tion for library purposes. While such an
amount was wholly inadequate to the purchase
and maintenance of a considerable and inde-
pendent public libi-arj', it would, if added to
uliat had already been raised and expended by
the Library Association, constitute one highly
respectable in point of size, and capable of im-
mensely beneficial influence in the cause of
public education. The Library Association was
first to perceive this, and with characteristic
liberality made overtures to the Board of Edu-
cation looking to a surrender of their library to
the public, tile only condition exacted in return
being that the Board of Education should
maintain the library for public use. and add to
it Ijy the immediate expenditure of the fund in
hand for additional books, and continue to
make such additions as fast as means should be
placed at its disposal for the purpose. This
proposition was received favorably by the
Board of Education, and was immediately car-
ried into effect. At this time a surplus of $500
was also given hy the Library Association w^ith
the condition that it should be used in the pur-
chase of "Americana," for it was early decided
by the trustees of the old association to make
the "Story of our Country" its specialty.
On March 4, 1874, ilr. Fowler, a member
of the Board of Education, reported that "the
consolidated library is now open to the public,"
and moved that the fact be ad\-evtised, which
v\-as done. By this arrangement the manage-
ment of the joint library was entrusted to a
committee of six: three from the Board of
Education, and three of the directors of the
association. When the first board of trustees,
thus fomied, took charge, tlie library contained
6,005 volumes.
In the year 1877 it appeared to the friends
of the Public Library that the interests involved
in it were sufficient to justify and require the
care of a special board, so an act was secured
from the Legislature requiring the Board of
Education to appoint six trustees, two of whom
were to go out of office annually. By this act
the boai^d of trustees became a corporation and
vested with all the property and funds of the
Public Library. They cannot, however, con-
tract debt without the assent of the Common
Council, which at that time was required to
raise not less than $200 nor more than $1,200
annually for the library. This requirement has
since been changed, and the Council now has
authority to appropriate such sums as may be
considered necessary and wise. For several
years past the sum of $3,000 has been appro-
priated annually.
The first board of trustees constituted under
the act above referred to, entered upon its du-
ties May 26, 1877. The members w ere : Archi-
bald McDonnell, James Shearer, H. M. Fitz-
hugh, James Watrous, \A'ilIiam Daglish and
A. J. Cooke. The mayor of the city is ex
ofUcio chairman of the board of trustees. The
old Association Library was housed in the
Court House temporarily. At the time of the
Hosted by
Google
3iS
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
consolidation it was housed in the second story
of the Averell Building. From there the li-
brary was removed to a building- erected
especially for it on the south side of Washing-
ton avenue, 200 feet from Center avenue.
Early in the fall of 1887 the library was re-
moved to the southwest corner of Sixth and
Aadms streets, where it was opened to the pub-
lic on October 12th of that year. In the spring
of 1898 it was removed to its present perman-
ent quarters in the City Hall, and was opened
to the public on April loth of that year.
Henry Braddock was the first librarian of
the old Bay City Library Association. He was
succeeded by Mrs. Ferris, who later became
Mrs. Benjamin Whipple. She remained in
charge of the library until the Public Library
was organized in 1877. In June of that year
Miss Jennie Gilbert became librarian and held
the offite until she was succeeded by Miss Julia
A. Robinson in 1884. In October, 1888, Mrs.
Annie F. Parsons, now the widow of Archibald
McDonnell, became librarian and served ten
years, being succeeded by the present librarian,
A. J. Cooke, in August, i8g8. Mr. Cooke
has been identified with the library since the
formation of the old association, serving con-
tinuously on the board of trustees, of which he
is now secretary. The library is greatly in-
debted to him for his liberal gifts of time,
money and books.
In 1876 the library was made a depository
of United States and State documents, and
from that date has been supplied regulaily
with such documents as the law authorizes to
be sent to depositories. In 1877-78 with 6,005
volumes it issued 20,982; in 1901-02 with 21,-
688 volumes, it issued 69,037. The total issue
for the first 25 years was 957,362 volumes, an
average of 38,299 volumes a year. The largest
circulation of any year was in 1902-03 when
more than 79,000 volumes were issued. In ]
1904-05 the librarian required the services of
three assistants, the total circulation for that
year being 74,344 volumes, with 25,549 vol-
umes in the library. The following gentlemen
compose the present board of trustees : Edgar
Yl. Sharp, president of the Board of Educators,
chairman ex officio; Hon. Chester L. Collins,
John A. Stewart, Byron E. Warren, William.
L. Clements, C. B. Curtis and Hon. Hamilton
M. Wright.
Sage Public Libeary. — The idea of pro-
vidingWest Bay City with a free public library
and reading room was considered by Henry W.
Sage for several years before he gave it definite
shape in 1881. In speaking of his purpose to
scm.e of the citizens, he emphasized his desire
to supply the means whereby young men might
gain greater facility in public speaking. The
plan in his mind comprehended not only a
library and reading room, but a debating
school, where young men could learn to think
and talk upon their feet. The plans for the
building reached West Bay City in April, 1882,
and on January 16, 1884, it was dedicated by
fitting public exercises held in the Westminster
Presbyterian Church. An eloquent oration
was delivered by Prof. Moses Coit Tyler, of
Cornell University, which has been preserved
in the catalogue of the library, together with
the presentation address by Mr. Sage and the
speech of acceptance by Hon. Spencer O.
Fisher, then mayor of the city.
The extreme dimensions of the building
are 56 by 90 feet, two and a Iialf stories high.
The style is of that bewildering mixture of
many styles termed modern architecture. Its
beauty is acknowledged by everyone. The
front is relieved by an octagon projection con-
taining a niche for the imported terra cotta
statue representing literature and science, the
projection being finished into a bay window
for the reading room in the second story. There
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
is also a square extension of lo feet near the
west side for the vestibule of the Midland street
entrance and stairway. The building; is of red
brick with black and buff brick and Amherst
blue stone trimmings. The gothic roof is
slated and nothing which could add to the
beauty or convenience of (he structure was
omitted. The whole interior is finished in
black ash, including the ceilings. The original
cost of the building, land, library, furnishings
and heating apimratus amounts to a sum not
far short of $50,000, The gift of the donor
incUtded about 8,000 volumes selected with
great care and excellent judgment. There are
now on the shelves 28,860 books.
In his presentation speech, Mr. Sage made
the following statement regarding the manage-
ment of the library: "Its permanent ex officio
trustees will be the ministers of all evangelical
churches, resident and in charge of parishes
here, the principal of the public school of the
Second Ward, the chairman of the board of
trustees of School District No. 2, the mayor of
the city and five other citizeits of the city to
be designated by me. These last named to
hold their offices for five years, and thereafter
vacancies to be filled according to the terms of
the act. In pursuance of this act I have ap-
pointed as the trustees to be designated by me,
S. O. Fisher, T. F. Shepard, E. T. Carrington,
J. H. Plum and H. S. Ingersol, and S. O.
Fisher, chairman of the board of trustees.
This gives you a completely organized es-
tablishment prepared for work and use. It is
my earnest hope that each and every one of the
trustees, and especially the resident ministers,
may take an interest in the work allotted to
them, and so far as they can to Jead the young
men of the city to avoid all the less worthy re-
sorts for pleasure and amusement and learn to
come here for their own improvement and cul-
tivation. It is for them and for them largely
that this gift is made, that they may obtain
knowledge, and through it wisdom, and the
power which belongs to both."
The library was incorporated by an act of
the Legislature, passed March 13, 1883. Of
the present board of trustees, the following
members are the successors of those appointed
by Mr. Sage : Hon. Spencer O. Fisher, who
has been president of the board continuously
since its organization^ Hon. Theodore F. Shep-
ard, H. H. Norrington, I. B. Richardson and
George L. Lnsk. The first librarian was Mrs.
M. F, Ostrander, who was succeeded in Jan-
uary, 1899, by Miss Phebe Parker, M. B., who
is the present incumbent. Under Miss Parker's
able direction, the library has reached its pres-
ent high standard of efficiency. A card index
has been installed which is arranged on the
dictionary plan, making the resources of the
library immediately available to those of the
most limited education as well as to scholars
familiar with library methods.
THE PRESS.
If we have whimpered Truth,
Whisper no longer;
Speak as the tempest docs,
Sterner and stronger; ■
Still be the tones of Truth,
Louder and firmer!
—U'liillicr.
The public press ! What a wonderful agent
for progress in any community and any coun-
try, where its powers are exerted in the inter-
est of the public good! And in these opening
days of the 20th century that power is almost
paramount in this great country. Public opin-
ion, the beacon-light of our national life and
government, has no greater inspiration than
the press. Pulpit and forum are no longer the
great and preeminent molders of public opin-
ion they once were. For the spoken word is
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
heard, its echo lingers for a moment and then
dies away, but the dictum of pen and type lives
on forever.
The remotest corners of our land are now
reached by the daily i>ress through the rural
free delivery routes, and the townspeople no
longer monopolize this field of information
and education. This is particularly true in Bay
County, where a tine school system has for
half a century been busy inculcating a desire
for knowledge and information, and where a
fine road sj'Stem makes the delivery of the
daiJy newspaper to the remotest settler a com-
paratively easy matter.
Yet it was not always thus! About 1885
the writer was a carrier for the Evening Press
and Morning Tribune, and liis customers in
the lower end of Bay City were widely scat-
tered. Apparently few in that section of the
booming lumber town read the daily press of
that day. But it was no fault of those editions,
for they were strictly up-to-date, then as now.
From the time of the first attempt at print-
ing a local paper in 1856, when Hon. James
Birnej' edited the B<iy City Press, down to our
modern-day dailies, the residents of Bay
County have been exceedingly well served by
the local press. To judge by the checkered and
strenuous careers of these dispensers of pub-
lic news, they were always rather ahead of
their times and vicinity. The cultured citizens
demanded telegraph and news service of a
character that the financial support of the
frontier community hardly warranted.
The first enduring newspaper was the Press
and Times, published by AVilliara Bryce from
1859 to 1864, when the Bay City Journal, John
Culbert, editor, took its place. In 1871 this
ambitious sheet appeared as the first daily, but
by February, 1873, it had run its course. Hon.
James Bimey resuscitated it as the Daily and
JVeckly Chronicle, the daily section lasting un-
til 1875. When Judge Bimey went to The
Hague as United States ^linister, his son, Ar-
thur M. Birney, continued the Weekly Chron-
icle until 1879, when it was merged with the
Tribune.
In 1872 Henry S. Dow, publisher of the
first authentic history of Bay City, established
the Liunbcrnian's Gazette, which proved a
prosperous publication until the lumber indus-
trj' declined in these parts. It was remo\'ed to
Chicago in 1887 and is the oldest lumber jour-
nal in the world.
In 1905 the triumvirate which established
the Bay City Tribune m 1873,— Chief T. K.
Harding of the Fire Department, Aid. Ed.
Ivroencke, bookbinder, and Griffin Lewis, job
printer, — are still active in their respective
fields of usefulness, John Culbert was the first
editor. Later Henrj- S. Do^\■ purchased the
paper, discontinuing the weekly in 1875, and
in 1881 a stock company secured control.
From that day to this, the Tribune has had
the morning field practically to itself, being the
official organ of the Republican party. In
1904 I. W. Snyder retired from the company,
and Editor E. D. Cowles i-esumed the chair in
the editorial sanctum he had occupied some 20
years previous. James C. McCabe is the busi-
ness manager, \V. H. Sheward, Jr., city edi-
tor, and J. H. Dunnewind, staff reporter. The
Tribune has all the latest equipment in press
and t}ijesetting machinerj-, and its Sunday Tri-
bune is an edition unsurpassed in Michigan.
The Tribune was burned out while located in
the Marston Building on Saginaw street in
1878, but in less than two weeks reappeared
in a new dress of type.
The evening field has witnessed more
numerous changes. The Evening Press was
established in 1879 by Moran & Hardwick
and later purchased by E. T. Bennett. In 1881
D, M. Carey was taken in as editor and part
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
owner, and his crisp reminiscences of his ex-
periences ill this biistHng lumber town are
aniusing readers all over the country in 1905.
Tlie Press was an independent paper, witli a
large circulation.
The Frcic Prcssc, an independent German
weekly, was started by G. Reuther in 1878,
and through many vicissitudes is still active
and prosperous under the able management of
August Lankcnau, with David Koch as city
editor.
Then as now, the Democrats have found
it <lifficult to sustain an official organ, for in
April, 1881, they put the Morning Call into the
field, with Bert Moran as chief typo, Leonard
Cline, manager, and C. S. Wilson, city editor,
III May of that year, George F. Lewis, a prac-
tical and experienced editorial writer, took
charge. But three years of hard work merely
demonstrated the fact that there was room for
only two dailies, and the Inst Call came, in
18S4.
The Signal, a Democratic weekly, existed
from 1867 to 1870; the Leader in the same
line lasted less than a year, and the IVccklv
Obscn'cr was established by the Jate lamented
A. McMillan and Ed Forsyth in 1876. In
1878 J. W. Griffith came fresh from the greens
of Greenville, Michigan, took charge of the
daily, found to his sorrow that running a daiiy
and running a newspaper were two vastly dif-
ferent propositions, and in 1880 the Observer
ceased to obser\'e.
Meanwhile the West Side had not been
neglected, even if results indicated little appre-
ciation. As early as 1869 E. D. Cowles, the
veteran editor of the Tribune in 1905, with
Dan P. McMullen. now ex-State Senator and
postmaster of Cheboygan, started the Weekly
Herald, which was moved to Bay City in 1872
and sold to C. S. Wilson, as the Weekly
Leader, which did not long lead. The Wcnona
Herald o\\ned liy S. H. Egabroad entered the
West Side field in 1872, W. J. Ward pur-
chased it in 1873, and by 1879 he was satisfied
there were brighter pastures at Dowagiac,
wliither he moved the plant. The Weehly E.v-
aniincr was started by M. A. Dowling and
Charles R. Stuart, in 1879, and shortly after
becoming a daily, in 1881, the plant was wiped
out by the big fire, and never replaced. The
West Bay City Times died an infant of three
months in 1886. The Miehigan Odd FcUtnv,
de\oted to the interests of that order, was es-
tablished in 1874 by Dr. Joseph Hooper, Ed-
ward Newkirk, and Charles C. Gustin, ap-
peared semi-monthly for nearly four }'ears and
then vanished.
As we look o\'er the journalistic gra\eyard
we find the Red Ribbon, 1877; Morning Neivs,
a single sheet, 1877-82; Echo, 1878: Penny
Post, 1879. Tlie West Bay City Times, 1887-
89, laid the foundation for the Bay City Times,
which in 1905 is an eloquent evidence of the
Jaw of the survival of the fittest! The National
Globe s\vept in on the Greenback tidal wave in
1880. Colonel Roberts master of ceremonies.
In 1882 the Globe died. As we wander down
the lane of time we find more tombstones :
Bo::, a society sheet, 1881 : Daily World, 1885 ;
Daily Star, Knights of Labor organ, began
life November 25, 1885. iDOomed for a while
and then sank beneath the horizon, Garrie C.
Laing, in 1905 the city encyclopedia of the
Evening Times, was one of the luminaries of
that Star. The JVeekly Sun, 1886, soon struck
an eclipse and was seen no more. Catholic
Chronicle, 1882-84; German Journal. 1884:
French Souvenir, 1883; L'Entard National,
1884 ; such in a few short months was the ar-
ray of journalistic entries and exits.
Some of the older pioneers recall, with
something of a shudder, Dan. R. Curry's
Weekly Groider, whose chief mission in life
Hosted by
Google
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
was to make some people's lives miserable with
sensational matter, and just to prove that cer-
tain elements in any community will support
the sensational, the Growler growled from
1869 to 1873; and from 1875 to 1880, when
its slock of invectives and vituperation gave
out, and the exasperating growls were heard
no more. Bert Moran's Tozifii Talk in after
years was an imitation of the same school.
The Labor Vindicator, started in 1S84 by a
fire-eater, named D. C. BHnn, printed highly
inflammable matter, suggestive of the an-
archistic sheets of later days, and after taking a
leading part in the big strike among the saw-
mill employees, he thought it best to join the
big colony in Canada, without awaiting per-
sonal "vindication."
From amid all these journalistic flash-
lights, the one strong, enduring combination of
literary ability and soimd business manage-
ment on the evening paper field appears with
the Penny Press in 1879, started by Moran &
Hardwicke, then taken over by Fred M. Van-
CamjDen and Ed. Forsyth. In 1880 E. T. Ben-
nett, took charge and named tt the Evening
Press. David M. Carey served on the editorial
staff from 1881 to 1884; while Armstrong &
Rasmussen of Chicago bought it in 1886. On
January i, 1887, Archibald McMillan began
his 15 years of devoted work on the city's lead-
ing evening daily, years of usefulness to the
community, not soon to be forgotten. He was
a veteran of the Civil war and began his news-
paper career with the Detroit Free Press, being
compositor, reirorter and editor in turn ; at his
death in 1902 he was the dean of the press
here.
In December, 1889, W. H. Gustin, the able
and influential editor of the Evening Times
in 1905, appears upon the local journalistic
field in his first responsible endeavor. In the or-
ganization of the Bay City Times, with L. L.
Cline and F. M. VanCampen. In December,
1890 the venerable Archibald McMillan allied
himself with the younger daily, and no stronger
combination ever existed on the local field of
pen and type, than Editor McMillan, and Re-
porter "Bert" Gustin, as he is popularly known
tliroughout Michigan. The Bay City Times
Publishing Company was organized in 1891,
and the Evening Times consolidated with the
Evening Press. For the last 14 years, the Times
has been the sole local supply of the evening
field, as the Tribune is of the morning field.
The stockholders in the Bay City Times Pub-
lishing Company have changed from time to
time, imtil in 1903 the Scripps syndicate of
Detroit bought the splendidly equipped plant.
B. M. Wynkoop is now the general manager,
George G. Booth, president; W. Herbert Gus-
tin, managing editor; W. A. Clarke, chief
typo ; J. D. Jones, pressman ; Garrie C. Laing,
city editor. Since 1903 the political gyrations
of the Times have ceased, and it is now one of
Michigan's leading independent dailies. Dur-
ing the month of March, 1905, the Evening
Times had a bona fide paid circulation of 8,-
462 copies daily. Under the able and con-
scientious editorial management of Mr. Gustin,
the Times has become a power for good in the
comnumity. And above all, it works unceas-
ingly for the intellectual and material growth
and development of the city and county. Much
of the success of the consolidation movement
is due to its earnest and undeviating support of
a union, decreed by Nature but long frustrated
by trivialities. Editor Archibald McMillan
died in the harness, but his mantle has fallen
on able shoulders. One need but peruse its
pithy columns, and particularly the untram-
meled editorial page, to appreciate the worth
of this vigorous independent daily, so dear to
many homes in Bay County.
So in 1905 Bay County has reason to feel
Hosted by
Google
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
proud and satisfied with its local representa-
tives of the daily press. Both the morning and
evening publications have special wire com-
munication with all parts of the globe, and
nothing happens in the farthest ends of the
earth, that is not promptly served to a discern-
ing and appreciative community. Time and
again the local papers have "scooped" the great
dailies of Michigan's metropolis, particularly
in some of the stirring events in the Russo-
Japanese campaign in Korea and Manchuria,
1904-05. Naturally the local press has four
hours the better of the Detroit dailies, and
this difference in wire delivery of news and
railroad delivery of newspapers works to the
everlasting advantage of equally well-served
Associated Press representatives in Bay City.
The Tribune occupies two floors and base-
ment of the Watson Block, with nicely fur-
nished offices and airy editorial and reporting
rooms, while the Evening Times owns and
occupies the modern Times Building jnst south,
at No. 709 Water street, also two stories and
basement. Both plants have all the latest in-
ventions throughout, and the many special edi-
tions put out on the main events of the last
year have amply demonstrated their ability to
meet any emergency. Tlie Times this year in-
augurated several innovations, doing away
with the Sunday issue, and publishing, instead,
three issues daily, beginning at noon. This
latter feature commends itseif, especially to the
communities tributary to Bay City on the north
and west.
Bay City also has several thriving weeklies
in addition to the older publications enumer-
ated. The Sugar Beet Cuiturist, D. T. Cutting,
editor, S, O. Burgdorf, manager, and I'^rank
Zagelmeyer, treasurer, has a national reputa-
tion for good work done for the infant beet
sugar industry, and its career dates from the
building of the first beet sugar factory in Bay
City in 1898. In 1905 we find it branching
out, so as to cover the entire field of farm jour-
nalism. The success of its publishers is well
merited.
The Bay City Democrat is a weekly, owned
and published by George Washington, the vet-
eran leader of that party, whose cause his pub-
lication espouses. He also issues the Indus-
trial Herald, the sole local representative of
the labor field, from the joint plant on Ninth
street.
The Praivda, W. V. Prybeski, publisher,
is the only PolisFi weekly still in existence, and
dates from 1885. It has a wide and growing
field.
Lc Patriot, H. A. Beaudin, publisher, is a
weekly de\-oted to the iiiterests of our French
fellow-citizens, and under his energetic leader-
ship should regain the prominent place in the
specialty field of our cosmopolitan population
held by this publication in years past.
The Modern Archer is a monthly publica-
tion devoted to the interests of the M. A.
A., Bay City's promising fraternal insur-
ance society, with headquarters in the Crapo
Block.
Hosted by
Google
CHAPTER XIV.
Fraternal, Benevolent and Labor Organizations.
Bay City Lodge, No. 129, F. & A. M.—
As eariy as 1858 a meeting of Masons was held
in the second story of the Jennison store, which
was attended by Nathan B. Bradley, H. M.
Bradley. James J. McCormick, William R.
McCormick, C. B. Cottrell, John F. Coltre!!, J.
H, Little and Clark Moulthrop; but no organ-
ization was effected until October, i860, when
a dispensation was granted by the grand master
of the State of Michigan to William R. Mc-
Cormick as worshipful master, and William A.
Bryce and Nathan B. Bradley as wardens, with
power to organize a lodge of Free and Accepted
Masons in Bay City. Accordingly Bay City
Lodge, No. 129, F. & A. M., was organized
with the following officers : William R. Mc-
Cormick, W. M. ; William A. Bryce, S. W. ;
Nathan B. Bradley, J. W. ; John F. Cottrell,
secretary pro tern. ; George C. Fray, S. D. pro
tcin; Thomas Hargrave, J. D., pro icm.; C. L.
Fisher, tyler pro tciii. Upon the lodge receiv-
ing its charter in 1861, William A. Bryce was
elected master. The lodge has always pros-
pered and at present has 348 members. It has
numbered among its members many of the lead-
ing men of Bay City. The present officers are ;
W. D. Parks, W. M. ; W. G. Kelly, S. W. ;
William Kerr, J. W. ; A. L. Stewart, treasurer ;
J, W. Mount, secretary; James ^L Laing. chap-
lain; R. A. Bulla, S. D.; Stanley Warfield, J.
D. ; E. J. James and C. Wanless, stewards;.
James P. Warfield, marshal ; A. Smith, t 
