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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01071 7285
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
http://www.archive.org/details/historyofnorther03sawy
A HISTORY
OF THE
NORTHERN PENINSULA
OF MICHIGAN
AND ITS PEOPLE
ITS MINING, LUMBER AND AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES
By
ALVAH L. SAWYER
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME III.
1911 THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO
1487961
J.CHolden
History of The Northern Peninsula of Michigan
LAWSON C. HOLDEN .- It is the earnest desire of the publishers of this work to offer in its pages a permanent mark of the appreciation due from them to Judge Holden, whose able co-operation has been most courteously accorded in connection with the preparation of the generic historical manuscript that has entered into this compilation. Few resi- dents of the state of Michigan have a wider or more accurate knowledge of its history and its resources, and this fact gives emphasis and value to his contributions to this record concerning the Northern Peninsula. A man of high professional and scholastic attainments, he has long been numbered among the representative members of the bar of the state, and in his chosen vocation his services have been such as to dignify and honor his profession. He long maintained his home in the city of Saginaw and was one of its prominent and influential citizens, there manifesting the same civic loyalty and insistent public spirit that have made him in later years so strong and honored a factor.in connection with social and industrial affairs in the Upper Peninsula, with whose interests he identified himself in the year 1894, when he established his permanent home in the city of Sault Ste. Marie. Judge Holden has never posed as a reformer ; but not one who is in the least familiar with his career can fail to appreciate the great and beneficent work he has accomplished in the matter of reforms and progressive movements that have conserved the general welfare. His versatility and broad mental grasp have led him to exert his energies and influence in many lines extraneous to the work of his profession and he has been especially prominent in his association with interests that have been potent in forwarding the agricultural and stock-growing industries of Chippewa county, in connection with which promotive work no citizen of the county has accomplished so much. Within the prescribed limita- tions of a sketch consonant with the province of this publication it is impossible to offer more than a succinct epitome of the career of Judge Holden, but it is believed that even this brief data will bear both lesson and incentive and offer, without adulation, a tribute to the man and his worthy and definite accomplishment.
Lawson C. Holden, LL. B., was born in New Hudson township, Alle- gany county, New York, on the 11th of October, 1849, and is a son of Thomas C. and Randa D. (Damon) Holden, the former of whom was of Irish and English lineage, the latter being of Scotch and Welsh ancestry.
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THE NORTHERN PENINSULA OF MICHIGAN
Mrs. Holden was a second cousin of Esther A. Damon, who died in Plymouth Union, Vermont, November 11, 1906, and who was the last surviving widow of a soldier of the war of the Revolution-Noah Damon, to whom she was married September 6, 1835. Both the Holden and Damon families were founded in New England in the colonial days and both gave loyal soldiers to the Continental line in the war of the Revolu- tion. Some of the number participated in the historic battle of Bunker Hill, one of them being Capt. Aaron Holden (then "serjeant"). At that historical battle the scabbard and hilt of Captain Holden's sword was in- jured by a British bullet, for which a claim for damages was made, al- lowed and paid. The following autograph order is copied (spelling, punctuation and all) from the Revolutionary records kept in the State House at Boston. Its oddity is sufficient excuse for the reproduction.
"To Henry Gardner Esq Tres Sir pleas To pay to the Barrer Here of John "Mason the money the Court alowed me for my Loss on Bunker hill and his Receit "shall Be your Discharg from me.
. WATERTOWN June ye 21-1776
AARON HOLDEN "
Captain Holden was one of the very few prisoners taken alive at the horrible massacre of Cherry Valley. The British were then paying Indians eight dollars for American scalps, but the distinguished bravery of Captain Holden caused the Indians to forego the prize money for scalps and to preserve his life. An appropriately lettered shaft of granite now marks his last resting place at Barre, Massachu- setts, showing the soldier's service and that he was born January 26, 1731, and died September 30, 1802.
Irene (Caryl) Holden, the paternal grandmother of Judge Holden, was born at Chester, Vermont, and was one hundred and three years of age at the time of her death. It is shown by records extant that the Holden family, in its various branches has been notable for longevity. It was founded in Massachusetts in 1627, and tradition in the family authorizes the statement that seventeen brothers of the name immi- grated to the new world on one vessel. The thriving little city of Holden, Massachusetts, was founded by their descendants. The par- ents of Judge Holden were reared and educated in New England and possessed the sterling traits so typical of the people of that cradle of American history. They were numbered among the pioneers of Alle- gany county, New York, where the father reclaimed a farm from the wilderness in New Hudson township, where both he and his wife con- tinued to reside until their death, when well advanced in years. Their lives were guided and governed by the highest principles of integrity and honor and, though characterized by no spectacular or dramatic incidents, were sincere, true and noble in all relations.
Judge Holden was reared to the sturdy and vitalizing discipline of the pioneer farm and his rudimentary education was secured in a district school. He entered the Genesee Valley Seminary, at Belfast, New York, where he continued his higher academic studies and where he eventually assumed charge of the department of bookkeeping and penmanship and became assistant professor of mathematics. In 1871 he was matriculated in the law department of the University of Mich- igan. in which he completed the prescribed technical course and was graduated as a member of the class of 1873, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He had previously devoted one year to the study of law under the effective preceptorship of Hon. Marshall B. Champlain, who was at that time attorney general of the state of New York. Immediately after his graduation Judge Holden located in the city of East Sagi- naw, and he has thus been a resident of Michigan for two score of
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years,-a period marked by large and worthy accomplishment as one of the world's great army of productive workers. At East Saginaw Judge Holden initiated his professional career by entering the office of the late William Gillett, who was at the time prosecuting attorney of Saginaw county. He soon earned and obtained appointment to the position of assistant prosecuting attorney-the first to hold that office there and of that office he continued incumbent until January, 1877. Concerning his labors and advancement at this period of his career the following statements have been written and are worthy of repro- duction in this sketch :
"During his tenure of the office of assistant prosecutor of Saginaw county he acted for the people in many important criminal cases, one of the most notable of which was the Cargin-Smith murder trial. In 1879 he was elected city attorney and in this position he was enabled to add to his legal reputation by successfully conducting the extensive and important tax litigations which were then pressing for attention. He also secured a fair share of general practice, in both the civil and criminal calendar, and it is worthy of note that during the first quarter of a century of his practice not one of his clients was sentenced to the state prison. He has facetiously reverted to this record by saying that his success during the period noted was due to the fact that he defended only innocent men, wrongfully accused of crimes. He was also identified with a number of heavy chancery suits and this was the initiation of his pecuniary success. In 1884 he was chosen judge of probate for Saginaw county, an office of which he continued incumbent for several years. At that time he was also the owner of an excellent farm of two hundred acres, located near his home city, and in this connection he indulged his taste, acquired in childhood, by breeding fine standard-bred and carriage horses.
"There are but few matters of general interest to his fellow citizens in which Judge Holden does not take an active part. He is essentially a busy man, but he has found time to become identified with many organizations,-social, fraternal, benevolent and political. He was one of the organizers of the Unitarian church in East Saginaw, was one of the incorporators of the People's Building & Loan Association of Sagi- naw county, for which he was attorney, and was a zealous member of the Saginaw County Farmers' Club, having never lost his interest in agricultural affairs.
"A dominating characteristic of Judge Holden is his sympathy for and his belief in the aspirations of the working class, and he has ever been a stanch supporter of the interest and rights of the wage- earners. When Thomas B. Barry was arrested, under the so-called Baker conspiracy act, for inaugurating the strike among the saw-mill operators in the Saginaw valley, claiming ten hours as a full day's labor, Judge Holden became his leading defender, having as his asso- ciates Hon. Frank L. Dodge, of Lansing; Hon, Jerome Turner, of Owosso; and Hon. William D. Fuller, of Newago. Their efforts were successful and the case attracted wide attention on account of the prominence of Mr. Barry in the councils of the Knights of Labor. Prior to this trial Mr. Barry had been elected to the state legislature, and Judge Holden had given him earnest support in his campaign."
While he was a resident of Saginaw Judge Holden's services were frequently sought in connection with matters of important legislation. He drafted the famous Barry law, providing that ten hours shall con- stitute the legal limit for a day's labor, and this law, the first providing for such regulation, remains on the statute books of the state at the present time. He also drafted the first free text book law for public
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THE NORTHERN PENINSULA OF MICHIGAN
schools in Michigan, securing this provision under the East Saginaw charter. By appointment of the common councils of the cities of Sagi- naw and East Saginaw, Judge Holden drafted the charter under which the two cities were consolidated (Local Acts, No. 455, Laws of 1889), and thereafter he was chosen attorney of the consolidated city of Sagi- naw to defend in the courts the work he had done in accomplishing the consolidation. Six separate onslaughts were simultaneously made, by some of Michigan's best lawyers, attacking the new charter on consti- tutional grounds, but the charter has successfully withstood all attacks upon its validity. The new city was without ordinances, and Judge Holden not only annotated the new charter that had been drafted by him but he also prepared, annotated and indexed a code of new ordi- nances for the city, publishing the entire work in a volume of four hundred and sixty-six pages. At this period also Judge Holden con- ducted the proceedings that resulted in the expulsion from office, on the score of malfeasance therein, of the city clerk, police judge, and clerk of the municipal court. At the request of Hon. William B. Baum, at that time representative of the Saginaw district in the state legislature. Judge Holden drafted the law which provides that Labor day shall be a legal holiday in Michigan. For Hon. H. W. Robinson he also drafted the existing state law of limitations on execution levies on real estate,-an enactment that has withstood the constitutional test. Since establishing his residence at Sault Ste. Marie, Judge Holden su- pervised, for constitutional purposes, Michigan's first and existing law regulating the practice of medicine, and this important measure has been sustained in every feature by the supreme court of the state. Judge IIolden attacked and defeated, on constitutional grounds, three separate legislative acts for good roads in Saginaw county, and this led to the adoption of a constitutional amendment enabling the pass- age of Michigan's state-wide referendum "good-roads law," which he earnestly advocated. More than fifty streets in the city of Saginaw bear names suggested by Judge Holden, as many changes in street nomenclature were necessary after the consolidation of the two cities, in order to avoid duplication of names. Few, if any, members of the bar of Michigan are more strongly fortified in knowledge of and familiarity with constitutional law than is Judge Holden, and few citizens have exerted greater or more beneficent influence in connection with the legislative affairs from a non-official standpoint. No repre- sentative of the legal profession has labored more earnestly for the conservation of the rights and best interests of the people, and thus it is not strange that Judge Holden has a secure vantage ground in the confidence and esteem of all who are familiar with his life and labors as a true friend of humanity and as a strong. vital and conscientious man.
On the 20th of May, 1893, the city of Saginaw was visited by a most disastrous fire, through which full twenty-five hundred persons were made homeless. The beautiful home, as well as other property of Judge Holden, lay in the wake of the fire, and nearly all of his life's tangible accumulations were destroyed. Added to these losses at this time was the burden of impaired health, and under these depressing circumstances Judge Holden determined to seek a change of climate and a new field of endeavor. Thus, in 1894, he established his home in Sault Ste. Marie,-an action that gave to the Upper Peninsula one of its most able lawyers and most loyal and progressive citizens. He was appointed a member of a committee to which was assigned the revision of the city charter of Sault Ste. Marie, and in this connection he made a proposition to cut off a section one mile in width and assign the same
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to Soo township; to appoint a sealer of weights and measures; to estab- lish a police board and deprive the city council of the direct power of appointing members of the police force; and to provide for free text books in the public schools of the city. These propositions created con- siderable excitement. The first proposition was opposed by city tax- payers; the second by the city merchants; the third by the politicians ; and the fourth by certain religious bodies. The last two reforms have since been adopted, to the satisfaction of all, but Sault Ste. Marie still continues to tax for "city purposes" five thousand acres of farming land, while every dealer still regulates his own scales and yardstick without any supervision. Judge Holden was appointed special city attorney to safeguard the city's interests at the time of the adoption of the general franchise granted by the city council to the great water- power corporation, but he declares he is not proud of the lack of in- fluence he was able to exert in the city's behalf in this connection. Judge Holden was again appointed special city attorney to conduct impeachment proceedings, for malfeasance in office, against a certain mayor, who "resigned under fire" and thus ended the impeachment.
Judge Holden was aligned as a supporter of the cause of the Demo- cratie party until the organization of the Greenback party, with which he was actively identified during the period of its existence, and he has since been aligned in the ranks of the Democratic party, of whose basic principles he has ever been a stanch advocate. He has served as dele- gate to the various conventions of his party, one of them being the National Convention at St. Louis which re-nominated President Cleve- land, Judge Holden serving as a delegate-at-large. He has found the demands and exactions of his profession such as to require his entire time and attention and he has never appeared as a candidate for any public office save those in direct line with professional work. He was made the Democratic candidate for the office of prosecuting attorney of Chippewa county, but took no active part in the campaign. His attitude in accepting nomination is clearly shown in the following extracts from an open letter written by him at the time and it should be stated that in no particular did he deviate in the least from the stipulations therein made by him. The letter was addressed to the Democratic county committee and its context was substantially as follows :
"Gentlemen: I have abstained entirely from politics since residing in the Soo. I have not attended caucuses or conventions of any party here, nor tried in any way to influence any person's political opinion; yet the Democratic county con- vention, recently held, nominated me, without my consent or knowledge, as its candidate for prosecuting attorney, and has since refused to permit me to with- draw from such candidacy. I am fully determined to let politics alone now and in the future. Many business men of both parties-Democrats and Republicans alike-learning of my intention not to consent to such candidacy, have urged me to withdraw my objections and permit my name to remain on the ticket. Under these conditions I have concluded to state my position in the matter, and if you, as a committee, after considering it, still wish me to be your candidate, you may so consider me; otherwise you will please leave my name off the ticket. I will not mix in partisan politics or contribute either time or money to any campaign. I will not make political speeches or try to influence any person's political opinion, but still remain, as heretofore, free from political entanglements or partisan pol- ities. I will, however, whether or not I have a place upon the ticket, contribute now or at any future time to a fund to be used exclusively in the detection and punishment of vote-buyers and other political corruptionists, whether of our own party or any other party. I am quite familiar with the duties of prosecuting attorney, and if elected shall devote my personal attention to such duties and dis- charge the same to the best of my ability. I will not, however, consent to treat the position as a political one if I shall occupy it, but rather as a business em- ployment in behalf of the people, regardless of their party affiliations, and no
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man shall have occasion to know from any official or political action of mine, upon which ticket I ran for the office. If my name is to remain on the ticket I advise all persons to vote against me who want the proseenting attorney's office as a part of a political machine or as a protection to vote-buying and other political debauchery. If I am to run for the office I would prefer to be defeated while con- tending for these principles than to be elected on any other conditions."
It should be noted in this connection that the county committee fully endorsed the action of the nominating convention and manifested approval of the manly and courageous stand taken by Judge Holden.
If the subject of this review has any special hobby it is that of pro- moting agricultural and stock-growing in the section of the state in which he has elected to establish his home, and, as already stated, no man has done more to forward these important interests in Chippewa county. He has urged with all of fervor and insistency the demand for "better live-stock and more of it," and has made a careful and exhaustive study of conditions pertaining to this line of enterprise,- one of great moment at the present time, in view of the greatly in- creased cost of living. He has served as president of the Chippewa County Agricultural Society; the Twin Soos Poultry and Pet Stock Association; the Upper Peninsula Agricultural Association; vice-presi- dent of a National Poultry Breeders' Association; a director of the Michigan State Fair Association, where he was superintendent of the horse department; superintendent of the poultry department, and su- perintendent of the educational department in different years. He is a sixth degree member of the Grange and has been active and influential in its affairs for many years. It was through the efforts of Judge Holden that the famous "Brimley cheese," manufactured at Brimley, Chippewa county, was exhibited at the state fair where it won the big score of ninety-eight and one-fourth perfect points-the Michigan state record. He has been indefatigable in his efforts to raise the live-stock and agricultural standard in Chippewa county, and through his direct influence a wonderful progress has been made, including the utiliza- tion of the finest breeds of horses, cattle, sheep, hogs and poultry. He secured at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, held in 1904, in the city of St. Louis, the bronze medal for the best peas there exhibited. He is the owner of a farm in Chippewa county and finds great pleasure in supervising its improvement and in the breeding of the best grades of live-stock.
Judge Holden is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, the Order of the Eastern Star, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and holds membership in the Unitarian church. He has honored this state of Michigan through his life and labors, and well merits the high regard in which he is held by all who know him. On September 3, 1877, was solemnized the mar- riage of Judge Holden to Miss Anna I. Stage, of East Saginaw, who was born at North Newbury. Geauga county, Ohio. Mrs. Holden is of artistic culture and in 1903 won the state sweepstakes prize for hand- decorated china. She is a member of the Episcopal church. Judge and Mrs. Holden became the parents of four children, three of whom died in infancy at Saginaw. Their first born was Elsie, and the great loss and bereavement of their lives came when this daughter, a young woman of most beautiful character, was summoned to the life eternal. at the city of Sault Ste. Marie, on the 6th of October, 1896, when but sixteen years of age.
ELEAZER S. INGALLS was a prominent character in Upper Peninsula history from the time he came to Menominee river, in 1859, until his
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death in 1879, and he is still remembered and familiarly spoken of as "Judge Ingalls," or "The Judge." He was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, June 10, 1820. His father was an edge-tool maker, and the son, as a boy, learned much of his father's trade, which stood him in good service in his subsequent life of almost continuous pioneering. In January, 1838, he left his New Hampshire home, then a boy of eighteen, and started for Illinois, whither he went with an ox-team, reaching An- tioch in March, and passing through Chicago, then an unsettled swamp, on this way. His father came west by the water route about the same time, and they located upon and cultivated land at Antioch, and, while so doing, the subject of our sketch read law, and finally entered the prac- tice at that place. He was married, in 1844, to Martha Maria Pearson, who was also a native of Nashua, New Hampshire.
In the spring of 1850, Mr. Ingalls organized a caravan, of which he was the captain, and went overland from Illinois to the newly discovered gold fields of California, traveling most of the way himself on horseback, and directing the caravan of four-horse prairie schooners. Many inter- esting and thrilling experiences of that journey are recorded in his daily journal, which, in his own handwriting (written at the time) is now in the possession of his daughter, Mrs. A. L. Sawyer. He reached Cali- fornia in 1850, and thus, at that early day in the history of our coun- try, he completed the crossing of the entire continent by team. He re- mained in California eighteen months where he was profitably engaged in merchandising, and then returned to Antioch, and at that place and at Waukegan, he practiced law until 1859, except that during that time he made a trip to Pike's Peak at the time of the gold excitement there. In 1859 he came to the Menominee river, driving as far as Pensaukee with a horse and buggy, and coming from there by boat. He first located on the beach, just below the site of Oakwood, on the Wisconsin side, where he built a cabin and was joined by his family in the fall of that year.
In 1862 Judge Ingalls moved to Menominee where he became im- mediately active in public affairs and began the practice of law. His first public act of importance is found in the organization of Menominee county, and from that time on his name is found connected with most of the matters that have gone to make up our county history, and with many that extended beyond and concerned the state. He was very active in securing the construction of the two State Roads from Menominee north, and himself built the Green Bay and Bay du Noc State Road from Menominee to the Delta county line. He established the Menominee Herald in 1863, and published it for a number of years, placing it upon the firm basis that was the foundation of the present prosperous Me- nominee Herald-Leader. He was active in the establishment of the first church, and also in educational matters. He acquired large holdings of timber lands and built and operated two saw-mills, which mills, together with a large part of his timber, were destroyed in the great forest fire of 1871. He was one of the earliest advocates of the mineral wealth of the Menominee Iron range, and organized the first corporation, the Breen Mining Company, to begin the work of developing. To hasten the build- ing of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway to the Iron range, he organ- ized a railroad company, called the Deer Creek and Marble Quarry Rail- road Company, and proposed to construct a railroad from the mining re- gions to the Bay shore, at the mouth of Deer creek. This project he abandoned, on being satisfied of the coming of the Northwestern line. One of the mines, in which he was interested, the Breen, shipped ore the first season that the railroad was built. The Judge was engaged in the
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