A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I, Part 24

Author: Perry F. Powers
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 597


USA > Michigan > A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I > Part 24


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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Thus was born the Detroit & Mackinac system, as a crude logging railroad running from Tawas City twenty-five miles into the pine for- ests of Ogemaw county.


Within a few years, however, the vigorous management behind the Detroit, Bay City & Alpena Railroad was pushing the line southward from Tawas City to Bay City and northward from Alpena to Cheboy- gan. On September 20, 1886, the first train entered Alpena county over the Ossineke road and ran into a temporary depot about three miles from the village. In August, 1891, the second survey of the line into Presque Isle county was made, and on November 20, 1893, the first regular train run over the Alpena & Northern road. The


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Detroit & Mackinac Railway Company was chartered under state laws in the following year, and the old Detroit, Bay City & Alpena Railroad went out of existence. The new road was a reorganization of the old to acquire by purchase the railroads owned by the latter, running from Alger, Arenac county, to Alpena, 105 miles, in addition to several logging branches aggregating about seventy miles. It acquired these, as well as the railroad known as the Alpena & Northern, twenty-five miles, and all these properties were consolidated, as above mentioned. In 1901 the shore road was built from a point nine miles north of Au Sable to Harrisville, connecting there with the main line. The branch from Alpena west to Hillman, Montmorency county, a distance of twenty-five miles, was opened for traffic in December, 1909.


The main line of the Detroit & Mackinac runs from Bay City to Cheboygan, 196.24 miles, and its branches are: Emery Junction to Rose City, 31.21 miles; Emery Junction to Prescott, 11.85 miles; Omer to Au Gres, 7.95 miles; Lincoln Junction to Lincoln, 14.38 miles and Alabaster Junction to Alabaster, 22.40 miles. These, with the various logging branches (76.11 miles) give the system, which accommodates northeastern Michigan, 364.49 miles of trackage.


The chief stations on the Detroit & Mackinac Railway are: South division-Saganing, Pine River, Omer, Twining and Turner, Arenac county ; Emery Junction, MeIvor, Tawas City, East Tawas and Tawas Beach, Iosco county; Greenbush and Harrisville, Alcona county; Os- sineke and Alpena, Alpena county.


North division-Alpena, Cathro and Bolton, Alpena county ; Posen, Metz, Millersburg and Onaway, Presque Isle county; Tower, Alcha and Cheboygan, Cheboygan county.


Rose City division-Emery Junction and Hale, Iosco county ; Long- lake, Clare county ; Maltby, Lupton and Rose City, Ogemaw county.


Lincoln branch-Mikado, Gustin and Lincoln, Alcona county.


Au Gres branch-Omer and Au Gres, Arenac county.


Prescott division-Emery Junction and Whittemore, Iosco county ; Prescott, Ogemaw county.


Hillman branch-Alpena and Lachine, Alpena county; Emerson, Chippewa county ; Hillman, Montmorency county.


The Au Sable & Northwestern Railway is operated from Au Sable to Comins, Oscoda county (over fifty miles) and Hardy to Curran ( Al- cona county) (seven miles). It was chartered December 26, 1907, as successor to the Au Sable & Northwestern Railroad Company, and continued to be used chiefly as a logging line by H. M. Loud's Sons Company until the time of the sweeping fire of 1911.


GOOD ROADS


By this term is meant, not good railroads but well-built highways for farmers, automobilists, pleasure seekers and travellers generally- roads to accommodate both those who ride in vehicles of any kind and those who prefer nature's mode of locomotion. The Good Roads move- ment has come to stay and grow in Northern Michigan, and in the reform is especially demonstrated the progressive spirit of the rural


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communities. Fine highways radiate from almost every village, and every county seat is certain to be an active center for them. Under the system of state rewards for the building of highways of a fixed standard, hundred of miles of the best roads that clean stone and gravel can make are yearly being added to the systems of each county. Good roads mean almost as much to the farmer as good railroad and boat transportation ; good roads effect an enormous saving in the cost of hauling produce to the nearest loading station, and the farmers of Northern Michigan have shown that they understand the meaning of this economy. Under the law, the state offers a reward for every mile of highway built according to specifications furnished by the state highway commissioner ; that is to say, the state will pay $1,000 per mile for a macadam road built in accord with its instructions, $750 for the highway surfaced with slag from the iron furnaces, and $500 for the road built of gravel. The result is that there has sprung up a keen rivalry between the different townships of the counties, and the prop- osition to vote bonds for the purpose of building good roads almost invariably carries when submitted to the voters. This progressive spirit is exerting a wonderful influence in the settlement of the country; there are sections in this territory where stone or gravel roads have been built through a populous section to the borders of the wilderness, and the result is that settlement is pushing back the frontier so rap- idly that soon Northern Michigan will have no frontier.


FIRST LUMBERING OPERATIONS


The development of the lumber industries of Northern Michigan was the primary force which drew the railroads into that country ; to a large extent the growth of the salt industries also contributed to their extension from Saginaw to Ludington and their construction along the Lake Huron and Michigan shores. Lumber, salt, climate, scenery and fruit were the chief forces contributing to the growth of North- ern Michigan, the first named having almost abandoned the field-and the last being now first.


When the railroads had fairly established themselves in the north- ern country the benefits became mutual. Mills were built; lumbermen came into the regions around Manistee, Ludington, Alpena and Che- boygan in solid companies; camps, villages and cities appeared; gen- eral trade and commerce were founded and expanded, and another civilization was developed from the wilderness. Railroads were built in widely separated sections of the country to assist logging operations and get the first outputs of lumber to the shores of both lakes, whence they were shipped by water to the southern markets. As all the lum- ber industries developed and communities were founded and grew and required better transportation facilities, these old logging roads were absorbed into the various systems which have already been described. The zenith of the lumber industries in Northern Michigan was reached in 1888, since which they have gradually declined, though still pre- senting features of imposing magnitude.


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WAITING FOR THE SAW MILLS


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LUMBERING IN MANISTEE COUNTY


The first sawmill built within what is now Manistee city-the first one of any consequence in the county and the shores of northern Lake Michigan, in the territory with which this work deals, was built by James and Adam Stronach, and was afterward known as the Humble mill, from Joseph Humble, who owned and operated it. Next after this was erected the Joseph Smith mill, soon followed by the Bachelor mill, the latter located on the point at the outlet of Manistee lake on the south side.


As the coming of the Stronachs is coincident with both the first set- tlement of Manistee county and the planting of the lumber industry on the shores of northwestern Michigan, the following account of their coming is reproduced from General B. M. Cutcheon's Centennial ad- dress :


"In the fall of the year 1840 John Stronach of Berrien county, Michigan, accompanied by his brother Joseph Stronach of Muskegon, coasted along this shore in a small sail boat, until they arrived at the mouth of the Manistee. They were met by a party of Chippewas, who treated them cordially, and gave them information of the county.


"Hiring a company of Indians to take them in their canoes, they explored the Manistee until they came to an ancient 'jam' of logs, flood wood and fallen trees, and finding no good place for a dam, they re- turned and explored the 'Little River,' called by the Indians 'Ma- moosa' or 'dog-river.' After locating a point for a millsite they set sail and returned to Muskegon.


"The following spring, about the 13th of April, John Stronach chartered the schooner 'Thornton' of St. Joseph to convey them and their machinery and supplies to the Manistee.


"They arrived at the mouth of the Manistee on the 16th of April, 1841, and from that day dates the actual, permanent, white settlement of Manistee county.


"They found it impossible to enter the river, on account of the shallowness of the water, there being not to exceed three feet on the average between Lake Michigan and Manistee lake.


"Unable to enter the stream, they constructed a pine raft, bound together with cross pieces and wedges.


"This raft they towed with the yawl to and from the vessel, until the cargo except the cattle, was landed; the cattle they threw overboard, and all but one swam safely to the shore.


"They found the yawl boat of the wrecked schooner 'Anadogge' and this they used to tow their raft loaded with machinery and sup- plies to the head of the little lake and up the 'Mamoose' or 'Little- Dog' to the site of Stronach mills. A camp was built, a road cut, a dam constructed, and by the close of 1841 the first saw mill that ever startled the silence of these unbroken forests, was ready for opera- tions."


In 1849, the year during which the Chippewa Indian reservation came into the open market, John Canfield came to Manistee, took up land near the mouth of the river and commenced the erection of a


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steam sawmill on the site of the large plant so well known in later years under the ownership of Canfield & Wheeler.


In 1852 the Stronach, Smith, Bachelor and Canfield (two) mills were still in operation. They all used the upright or muley saw-cir- culars were then unknown-and were cutting a few thousand feet of lumber daily.


In the following year (1853) occurred what a few old lumbermen still remember as the timber war. "It happened in this way," says one of them who writes from vivid recollections: "In those days there was a good deal of land in the United States, much of it belonged to the government and of necessity a good deal of it had to be left out of doors nights.


"Now there came to be a general opinion abroad that this was a free country. This opinion was supposed to be derived from the glor- ious Declaration of Independence.


"People reasoned like this: This timber belongs to the Govern- ment. This is a Government of the people, by the people, for the people. "We are the people. Ergo, this timber belongs to us.


"Quod erat demonstrandum! The very thing to be proved! Therefore we will take our timber, and if history can be credited they did.


"Our venerable Uncle Samuel arose in his wrath; he sent out his officials. One Williams was U. S. timber agent, and Durkee was U. S. marshal. All Michigan was one district with seat in Detroit. The marshal came on with his cohorts; he shut down mills; he seized logs; he gobbled shingle bolts; he went on the booms and put U. S. on all the logs; he forbade the sawing of logs until a settlement was effected; the mill men were contumacious, and the war was vigorous. At this time the Hon. Stillman Stubbs was keeping a sort of tavern on the north side, near Shannon's place. The U. S. marshal made his head- quarters there. He was greatly lionized. The hands from the mills on the other side of the river resolved to give him a special display of fireworks. So they prepared large balls of wicking saturated in spirits of turpentine, and after His Excellency had retired for the night, the night being warm and the windows being open, they threw their lighted fireballs into the marshal's windows, and so gave him a grand illumin- ation. To add to the vexation, the marshal's boat was sunk in the lake. Some arrests were made and some refused to stay made. There is a tradition which has come down from that remote period, of one who was sleeping, like the apostle of old, bound between two soldiers, and how he 'slid out' in light marching order! But I am not aware that he ever claimed supernatural deliverance.


"In 1854 the timber war came to a head. The mill men carried 'the war into Africa,' and the marshal, instead of 'seeking new fields to conquer,' was finding all the employment he needed in defending himself. The war ended like most of wars-in a compromise-and I believe that it has never since been renewed. The idea that this is a free country has suffered an eclipse."


Vol I -- 13


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THE GRAND TRAVERSE REGION


As the Manistee river at its mouth was the center of the pioneer lumbering operations on the Michigan shore of the northwestern part of the state, so was the region around Grand Traverse bay the scene of activities of only a little later date.


In 1847 Captain Boardman, a thrifty farmer living near Napier- ville, Illinois, purchased of the United States government a small tract of land at the mouth of the river which bears his name, and furnished means to his son, Horace Boardman, to build a sawmill. The latter with two or three men in his employ, arrived at the river in the early part of June of that year, and immediately commenced the construc- tion of a dwelling. The place selected was on the right bank of the stream, a little way below where it issues from Boardman lake. The exact location of the building was in what is now East street, Traverse City, between the center of the street and its southern boundary, just east of the eastern boundary of Boardman avenue. It was a house of modest pretensions as to size, being only sixteen feet by twenty-four, and one story high. The material for the walls was pine logs hewn square with the broad-ax. In after years, it was known to the inhab- itants of the village as the "old block-house." It was eventually de- stroyed by fire.


On the 20th of June, a week or more after Mr. Boardman's arrival, the "Lady of the Lake," owned by him and sailed by Michael Gay, one of his employers, arrived in the mouth of the river with supplies. There came with Gay a man by the name of Dunham, who, having been in the bay on a previous occasion, acted as pilot. After assisting for a few days in the building of the house, Gay was dispatched with the little vessel to the Maniton Islands, to bring on a party of employes, who, it had been arranged, should come as far as the islands by steamer. Returning, the "Lady" entered the river on the 5th of July. There came in her as passengers Mr. Gay's young wife, then only about fifteen or sixteen years of age, and her four-months' old baby, Mr. and Mrs. Duncan, a hired girl named Ann Van Amburg and several car- penters.


Only the walls of the house had as yet been erected. The building was without roof, floors, doors or windows. A sort of lean-to, or open shed, with a floor of hewn planks, had been built for a temporary kitchen against one side of the house in which a cook stove had been set up. A tent was now constructed of some spare sails, inside the un- finished building, for the accommodation of the two married couples and the girl. The single men shifted for themselves. The company lived in this manner during the remainder of the summer, as the house was not finished until the sawmill was so far completed as to saw lumber.


It had been Mr. Boardman's intention to throw a dam across the river at some point not far below the lake and build a sawmill on that stream. The convenience of residing near the mill had been the main consideration that determined the location of the blockhouse. After a more thorough exploration of the country, however, and an estimate


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of the probable difficulties in the way of building, he was led to mod- ify his plan. Mill creek, a small stream that has its source in the hills to the south and west of the bay and enters the Boardman at the west- ern angle of its bend, seemed to offer facilities for cheaply building a small mill that should answer existing purposes. He therefore de- termined to build on that stream, with the intention of erecting after- ward a larger and more permanent structure on the Boardman. By that plan he would have the advantage of the smaller mill for making boards, planks, and timbers for the larger, thus avoiding the difficulty of obtaining from a distance the lumber it would be necessary to have before a large mill could be put in a condition for service. There was no place nearer than Manistee where lumber could be obtained, and the "Lady of the Lake" was too small and too unsafe to be relied on for bringing any large quantity such a distance. It was not easy at that time to induce vessel masters to enter the bay, which to them was an unexplored sea.


Immediately after the arrival of the carpenters, all hands were set to work upon the mill. The "Lady of the Lake" made a trip to Man- istee after plank for the flume. When the frame was ready all the white men at Old Mission and several Indians came to help raise it. It took three days to get it up. It was finally got into a condition to be set running about the first of October. Then some of the first boards made were used to complete the blockhouse which up to that time had remained unfinished. It was a long walk from the house to the mill. The path from one to the other ran along the southwestern bank of the Boardman. For convenience of reaching it from the house, a foot- bridge of poles was thrown across the river at the canoe landing. This slight structure was afterward replaced by a broader and firmer bridge, on which wagons could cross. In after years the sawmill was remod- eled and put to a variety of uses. It was known among the inhabitants of the village as the "old planing-mill." All vestiges of the bridge have long since disappeared.


The mill having been completed, and there no longer being suitable employment for the mechanics who had been engaged upon it, it be came necessary to provide for their conveyance home. It was arranged that Mr. Boardman should take them in the "Lady of the Lake" to the Manitous, where they could get passage on one of the steamers that were in the habit of touching there. He would then freight his vessel with supplies, which he expected to find waiting there and return.


The only opening in the forest visible to the party as they landed, was the narrow clearing which had been made for the tramroad. Fol- lowing this, Captain Boardman keeping well in advance, his party soon arrived at the mill. The mill was not running. On entering the house, the hands were all found there, amusing themselves with the game of old sledge. After shaking hands all round, Captain Boardman said to his son, "Horace, how is this, that you are not running the mill ?" The reply was: "Father, it was a little rainy to-day; the boys outside couldn't work very well, and they wanted the men in the mill to make up the number for the game; so I concluded to shut down for a time, in order that they might have a little fun." This easy way of doing


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business did not suit the energetic old farmer, Captain Boardman, who was now more fully convinced that the property had best be sold.


After looking over the premises for a day, a party consisting of Mr. Hannah, Horace Boardman, Mr. Morgan, and a man named Whit- cher, with packs of blankets and provisions, set out to explore the country and examine the timber along the Boardman river. At the end of a week, Mr. Hannah estimated that they had seen at least a hundred million feet of pine on government land open to sale. This was a sufficient inducement to the firm to accept Captain Boardman's proposition to sell them his entire interest in the property, consisting of a sawmill, the cheap buildings that had been erected and about two hundred acres of land, on which the village plat was afterward lo- cated, for $4,500.


The first work done by the new owners was to construct a tramroad from the bend of the Boardman to the mill, so that logs floated down the stream could be hauled out at the bend and transported over land to the mill, whence the lumber, as formerly, could be run down to the slab-wharf for shipment. The next task performed, which proved to be one of no small magnitude was the clearing of the river, so that logs could be floated down from the immense tracts of pine on the upper waters. It was not merely here and there a fallen tree that had to be removed. In some places the stream was so completely covered and hidden with a mass of fallen trees and the vegetation which had so taken root and was flourishing on their decaying trunks that no water could be seen. Ten long miles of the channel had to be cleared before the first pine was reached. With an energy and a steadfastness of purpose that ever after marked the transactions of the firm, the work was pushed on till logs could be run down the stream.


The sawmill had only a single muley saw. Finding from a few months' experience that it was too small and too slow for their pur- poses, Hannah, Lay & Company determined to construct a new one to be run by steam power. A site was selected on the narrow tongue of land lying between the lower part of the river and the bay, where, on one hand, logs could be floated in the stream directly to the mill, and, on the other, the lumber could be loaded on vessels by being con- veyed only a short distance on trucks. The project was executed in 1852, and the next year the mill went into successful operation. About the first work done in the steam mill was to saw up the pine timber on the tract of land now occupied by the city. It was cut into bridge timber for the Illinois Central Railroad Company, which used it for constructing a bridge over the Illinois river at La Salle.


In those days the lumber was all carried across the lake in sail craft. The first vessel that carried for the firm and brought in the boilers of the steam mill was the "Maria Hilliard." No lake surveys had been made in the region of Grand Traverse bay and the masters of vessels were guided more by guess than by charts. Amusing anec- dotes are told of their experiences, one of which we repeat. The "Rich- mond" one very dark night was beating up the bay against a light head-wind. On attempting to tack for some unaccountable reason she would not come in stays, and as she seemed to be fast the captain was


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forced reluctantly to let her remain. When daylight revealed the sit- uation, what was his surprise to find his vessel lying close to a bold, wooded shore with her bow-sprit entangled among the trees.


When the pine in the immediate vicinity of the mill had been worked up, Hannah, Lay & Company commenced the system of lumbering common on the streams of Northern Michigan, even at that day giving employment, summer and winter, to a large number of men.


EAST AND WEST SHORES


In the meantime lumber camps were being established both on the eastern and western shores of Grand Traverse bay and along Lake Michigan in what is now Leelanau county. Antrim county, in the vicinity of Elk Rapids, was a pioneer locality for the building of saw- mills and the founding of the industry. It happened, as was the case in so many other districts of the lumber country, that the pioneer set- tler of Antrim county, Abram S. Wadsworth, was a lumberman and settled therein because of its advantages for mill-building and operat- ing.


Mr. Wadsworth was a native of Durham, Connecticut and came from Rochester, New York, to Michigan at the age of twenty-one years. He spent some time in Monroe and later located lands in Portland, Ionia county, and built the first mill-dam built across the Grand river in that region. That he first visited the Grand Traverse region in 1846, there is no doubt, but as to his movements during the next few years accounts differ. As nearly as we can ascertain, in 1846 he came northward, coasting in a small boat, and voyaging as far as the Pic- tured Rocks in Lake Superior and thence to Mackinaw. Thence he went by steamer to Detroit and thence returned home. The next spring, accompanied by his brother-in-law, Samuel K. Northam, he took his family .to Detroit, where the party embarked on a propeller for Mack- inac. From the latter place they found passage on a schooner as far as Cross village, Emmet county. There, after camping for several days on the beach, waiting for a storm to subside they embarked in a small boat for Old Mission, Grand Traverse county.


At Middle village they again went into camp, and waited two days on account of rain. The next stop was made at Little Traverse (Har- bor Springs) where they hoped to obtain provisions of the Indians. They only succeeded, however, in getting a few potatoes and a single loaf of bread. The party had lived on fish until that food had ceased to tempt the appetite. The children, especially, were suffering for want of their accustomed diet. After leaving Little Traverse they were favored with pleasant weather and got on rapidly. The last day the bay was rough and they had some fears about crossing to Old Mis- sion from the eastern shore, along which they had been coasting. See- ing a smoke on the shore near Elk river they ran to it. Fortunately they found there some Indians with an excellent sea boat, who were about to cross. As a matter of precaution, Mrs. Wadsworth and the children were put into the Indians' boat, which was navigated by Mr. Wadsworth and one of the Indians, while Mr. Northam and the re-




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