A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I, Part 29

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


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"On the 12th of October, official information having been received that the draft would take place on the 26th of that month, and that only eleven men were needed to fill up the quota of Grand Traverse county, the board of supervisors appropriated eleven hundred dollars to a fund to be called the military bounty enlistment fund. The chair- man and clerk of the board were authorized to draw orders on this fund for one hundred dollars each in favor of the first eleven men who should enlist and be sworn into the service of the United States prior to the 23d of the month, provided they should be accredited to the county in the coming draft.


During the following winter, additional calls for troops made it necessary to hold out additional inducements for voluntary enlistment. In the month of February a series of war meetings was held in Trav- erse, which resulted in the calling of a special township meeting, to authorize the issuing of bonds for the purpose of raising money to pay bounties to volunteers.


"The efforts at enlisting were successful. On the second day of March, forty-two recruits left Traverse City for the rendezvous at Grand Rapids, constituting the full quotas for Traverse, Peninsula. and Centreville. On the evening previous to their departure, the ladies gave them an entertainment, providing a bountiful supper, at the board- inghouse of Hannah, Lay & Co., at which a large proportion of the population of the village and surrounding country was present. Mr. Hannah presided, brief addresses were made by Hon. Morgan Bates and Rev. J. H. Crumb, and the scene was enlivened by patriotic and soul-stirring music, under the direction of Mr. Charles H. Day.


"The following is a list of the volunteers :


"Traverse-Albert S. Brooks. Earnest Crain, Wm. W. Bradley,


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George L. Smith, Edward Beavis, Aaron Mettes, Myron A. Moody, Paul Gravel, Robert Myhill, James Lynch, Tobias F. Houghtaling, John Suth- erland, Wm. W. Johnson, Henry C. Fuller, Sands Moon, Alonzo F. Hopkins, John Flannery, James Monroe, George W. Hargraves, Wil- son P. Johnson.


"Peninsula-James Birney Lancaster, Charles Lonkey, Columbus Winnie, Richard W. Smith, Abram D. Langworthy, Francis L. Boura- saw, Wm. B. Munn, John M. Allison.


"Centreville-Thomas Harmer, Adam Cook, James Manseau, Isaac Clark, James Mason, Jacob Burger, Clouve Warren, Martin Novotney, Ferdnand Kord, Philip Egler, Albert Norris, Henry Lemmerwell, James Clark, Martin Wachall.


"Several of these men found their way into the Fourteenth regi- ment, and first entered upon active duty at the front in the vicinity of Nashville, Tennessee. Those known to have been in that regiment are Crain, Mettes, Gravel, Lynch, Lancaster, Lonkey, Winnie, R. W. Smith, Langworthy, Bourasaw, and Allison. The names of the regi- ments in which the others served are not known. Myron A. Moody died in hospital at Grand Rapids, March 26, 1864.


"In the summer of 1864, the call for troops taxed to the utmost the patriotism and ability of Grand Traverse, as well as most other sec- tions of the loyal north. On the 10th of June a draft was had, in Grand Rapids, for Whitewater, Elk Rapids, Milton, Centreville, Glen Arbor, and Leelanau. In August the township board of Traverse offered a bounty of two hundred dollars for recruits. On the 30th of the same month a meeting of the enrolled men of the township was held to raise funds to pay an additional bounty. Three thousand dollars was sub- scribed on the spot. With this sum the aggregate of bounties to each volunteer was raised to nearly six hundred dollars. Twenty-three men under the calls of the president, were due from the township. Eight had already been obtained, eight more came forward at this meeting, and the remaining seven were obtained within the next forty-eight hours. The names of all but one are contained in the following list : number joined the One Hundred and Second United States colored Wm. Tracy, Adolphus Payette, Harvey Avery, Ira Chase, Joseph Kunn, Nelson C. Sherman, Edward Morgan, Ora E. Clark, Wm. Sluyter, George Sluyter, Barney Valleau, Zodoc Wilcox, James Mason, John Reynolds, John Falrue, Leander Curtis, Alburn Atwill, Abram Adsit, Marcus Lacore, Michael Gallaghn, Anstin Brinnon, David Sweeney. All of these except Clark went into the Tenth Cavalry, and got their first experience of active war at Strawberry Plains, east Tennessee.


"We close this imperfect war record of the Grand Traverse country with the following melancholy items :


"Daniel Carmichael, of Traverse City, who was a member of a Wis- consin regiment, died in hospital at Lake Providence, May 6, 1863.


"George Leslie, of Traverse township, died in the Shenandoah val- ley, September 22, 1864.


"In the fight before Petersburg, on the 17th of June, 1864, Lieu- tenant G. A. Graverat, a gallant young officer from Little Traverse, laid down his life for his country. He was the second lieutenant of


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Company K, First Michigan Sharpshooters. While fighting by the side of his father in the trenches, he saw his parent shot dead. Bear- ing the body to a safe spot, weeping bitterly, he dug a grave with an old tin pan in the sand, and buried it. Then drying his tears, the devoted son returned to the battle. His rifle told with terrible precision among the rebel officers, till he was disabled, wounded in the left arm. He was brought to Washington, where the arm was amputated at the shoulder, resulting in his death on the 10th of the following month. Lieutenant Graverat was partly of Indian descent. He was but twenty- four years old, was highly educated, being master of several modern languages, besides being a fine portrait and landscape painter and an accomplished musician."


MANISTEE COUNTY IN THE WAR


How Manistee county participated in the War of the Rebellion is well told by General B. M. Cutcheon, in his historical address de- livered at the centennial celebration held at Manistee; it will be re- membered by "old timers" that the general was successively captain, major, and lieutenant colonel in the Twentieth Infantry, colonel of the Twenty-seventh and came home to Ypsilanti as a brevet brigadier general :


"We come now to the war period. Manistee at this time was a spot in the wilderness, but nevertheless the 'shot heard round the world' was heard even here. Communication was slow and infrequent; the mails arrived once a week, brought overland from Grand Haven by John Blanchard. Thursday was universally known as mail day. Here, as everywhere else in the north the fires of patriotism were kindled. Recruiting officers not only from the lower part of this state but from neighboring states, visited Manistee to recruit their companies from the mills and the woods. Many of the first recruits went to Chicago to enlist, and among them Mr. J. H. Shrigley, who enlisted in the Chicago First Light Battery. Many from Manistee entered the old Third Mich- igan Infantry, but the largest number that enlisted in any one organiza- tion entered the Sixth Michigan Cavalry, Company I.


"The adjutant general's report shows that the whole number that enlisted in Michigan organizations from Manistee county was 88-11 from Stronach, 10 from Brown, the rest from Manistee-composed of Manistee town, and city and Filer. But this is no fair criterion of the part Manistee took in the war, for beyond doubt nearly if not quite as many enlisted in other states as our own.


"I wish I had time and space to enroll here the whole list of brave men who answered to their country's call. But I must forbear. Many of them sleep on battlefields; many more sleep at Andersonville and Belle Isle. In that roll of honor in the capitol at Lansing are the names of some Manistee men, the peers of any in patriotism and gallantry. There were two among them of whom I would especially speak, partly because they paid with their lives the full measure of devotion to their country. They are Lieutenant and Adjutant Jacob E. Seibert and Lieutenant and Adjutant James F. McGinley.


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The first, Adjutant Seibert, was my tent-mate at the time he fell, shot through the body at the battle of Poplar Spring's Church, Septem- ber 30, 1864. He was German by birth; served in the Prussian army in the body guard of the Crown Prince. He was every inch a soldier. He enlisted July, 1862, in the Twentieth Michigan as a private in Com- pany A. He had been, and was, I think, at the time, deputy county clerk and register of deeds. He and E. Golden Filer enlisted together. Seibert was a splendid clerk, and they were so anxious to secure his services at brigade headquarters that he lost chances for promotion he might have had. It was my pleasure as commander of the regiment to promote him to sergeant, sergeant major, and finally to first lieu- tenant and adjutant of the regiment. In the first action after he re- ceived his commission he was killed by my side, in an almost hand-to- hand encounter in front of Petersburg. We buried him on a grassy knoll. where he fell, with a cedar tree at his head.


"He lies like a warrior, taking his rest With his martial cloak around him.


" The general commanding named one of the forts in front of Peters- burg in his honor, and that is perhaps his most appropriate monument. "Lieutenant McGinley went out in the old Third. He greatly dis- tinguished himself by his cool daring and marked courage, and was one of the hundred men of Birney's division who received the Kearney Cross of the legion of honor in the French army. This cross he wore with great pride and honor, and after being transferred to the old fighting Fifth, he was promoted to first lieutenant and adjutant for gallantry. I visited him at his quarters and parted from him the even- ing before his death. He fell at the battle of Hatchie's Run, in front of Petersburg, October 27, 1864, while leading his men with his ac- customed gallantry. I hope the' time may yet come when these two brave men, and their comrades who fell, may receive some fitting mem- orial at the hands of the people of Manistee.


"Besides the promptness of the men in enlisting, those who remained at home did their full share in raising subscriptions and voting boun- ties, and assisting those who went. Seventy-seven hundred dollars were raised by subscriptions and voting bounties to the volunteers, and nearly as much more was raised by vote of the town, and this out of a population of only one thousand souls. War meetings were held, speeches made and feeling ran high. Nor were they always particular about the place and manner of holding their meeting. On one occasion a war meeting was called in 'Hans & Ton's' saloon, which stood where A. H. Dunlap's block now stands. The crowd was dense and the atmosphere, or that which served the purpose of an atmosphere, was denser. Among the speakers on this occasion was our excellent fel- low citizen, Dr. Ellis, who mounted on a beer barrel, in an atmosphere so redolent of tobacco smoke and whisky that you could cut it with a cheese knife and shovel it out on a spade, and addressed the assembled crowd.


"What greater evidence could I give of the patriotic fervor of the


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time ? Manistee, the babe in the woods, performed her part well in sav- ing the nation, and it forms an honorable' page in her history."


ALPENA COUNTY


In 1860 the entire population of Alpena county was but 290 and in 1864 it had only increased to 674, but out of this small stock from which to draw men about thirty went to the front and fought with the best. In June, 1864, a special election was held at which it was unanimously voted to raise $100 for each volunteer. As is justly stated by "one who knows," "the enterprise and patriotism of a county that sends nearly one-half its voting population to do a soldier's duty can never be called in question." Greenbacks were first issued in 1862 and in 1864 began to be frequently seen in Alpena county. The sup- ply of pitch and tar from the southern states and articles manufac- tured there being cut off by the blockade brought Norway pine into demand, and tar and turpentine reached fabulous prices. This brought a large number of people to Alpena to look for Norway pine from which to manufacture tar and turpentine; so that the later portion of the Civil war was somewhat of a "boom period" for the Alpena region.


HOME COMING OF MICHIGAN TROOPS


With the fall of the Confederacy in April, 1865, the Michigan troops began to arrive home, under orders from the war department. The Twentieth regiment was the first to arrive in Detroit, reaching that city on the 4th of June, 1865, and being enthusiastically received by the committees of ladies and gentlemen appointed for their recep- tion and by large and enthusiastic crowds of citizens. Others followed in such rapid succession that Governor Crapo issued a general proc- lamation of welcome to the returning Michigan troops.


Under date of June 13, 1865, the war department authorized the chief mustering officer of Michigan to turn over to the governor, at his request, all the colors of Michigan regiments, which provision proved the foundation of the splendid and pathetic collection which is now deposited in the rotunda of the capitol, and which has ever been a source of much pride to the soldiers of Northern Michigan as well as of the entire state.


The reception of troops continued up to June 10, 1866, when the Third and Fourth regiments of infantry reached Detroit, being the last belonging to the state to leave the field.


Before the last of the Michigan soldiers had been welcomed to home soil a movement had been inaugurated in Detroit for the erection of a grand monument, commemorating the valor and self-sacrifice of the soldiers and sailors of the Wolverine state. Several prominent citizens of the Northern Michigan covered by this history took a leading part in the raising of funds and their management for the erection of the grand memorial which now stands in Detroit. Among them may be mentioned Morgan Bates, Hon. James B. Walker and Hon. Perry Han- nah, of Grand Traverse county; William H. Maltby, of Cheboygan ; Vol. 1-16


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J. E. Fisher, of Leelanau; Hon. Delos Filer, of Manistee county; and Hon. Charles Mears, of Mason county.


ROBERTSON'S TRIBUTE TO MICHIGAN SOLDIERS


In completing this unworthy tribute to the faithfulness and bravery of Michigan soldiers we can do no better than quote the following from "Michigan in the War," by Adjutant General John Robertson, who gave the state such invaluable official service from 1861 to 1887: "Mich- igan troops, prominent at the onset of the rebellion, were in at its death. They were among those who, under the command of the brave and lamented Richardson, first opened fire on the rebels, in the vicinity of Bull Run, at Blackburn's Ford. They were with General McClellan in West Virginia, in the first year of the war, and were in South Carolina and Georgia in 1862, and during that year served with the Army of the Potomac on the Peninsula and in Maryland, with General Banks in the Shenandoah valley, in Virginia under General Burnside, in Louisiana under General Butler, and in Missouri with General Pope and Colonel Mulligan.


"In 1863 they bore a conspicuous and gallant part in the ever memorable campaigns under General Hooker in Virginia, and General Meade in Pennsylvania, at the defense of Knoxville by General Burn- side, at the capture of Vicksburg by General Grant, and on the cele- brated Kilpatrick raid against Richmond. They were also engaged in the campaign of General Rosecrans against Chattanooga, and were ac- tively employed in the field at various points in Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky and Louisiana, under other generals.


"In 1864-5 they were with General Grant on his great march against Richmond and bravely participated in most of the hard fought battles of that eventful campaign. They were also with General Sherman on his remarkable march from Chattanooga to the sea, and were prom- inently engaged in most of his memorable and successful battles, and with General Sheridan in his matchless encounters with the enemy in the valley of the Shenandoah, where their sabres flashed in every bat- tle. They took part in the gallant defense of Nashville by General Thomas, and were with Generals Stoneman and Wilson on their raids into North Carolina and Georgia. They were also at the capture of Mobile, and served in Texas and Utah territory during a part of 1865-6.


"Michigan was well represented at the surrender of Lee and Johns- ton-the termination and death of the rebellion, and a Michigan regi- ment captured the president of the so-called Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, in his inglorious flight to escape deserved punishment for his infamous treason and rebellion.


"Michigan troops in all the campaigns and battles in which they participated, were most reliable, conspicuously brave and gallant. In every position in which they were placed, they were true, self-sacrific- ing, patient under hardship, murmuring not, meeting death by exposure, starvation and cruel treatment in rebel prisons, and many more by rebel bullets in sanguinary strife.


"Aside from their acknowleded bravery and efficiency in battle,


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they were in a most remarkable manner entrusted with posts of honor and great responsibility, which could scarcely have been accidental, but with a purpose.


"From the beginning of the war until its end, Michigan soldiers evinced a most persistent determination to fight on, until all rebels in arms against the government should be conquered and subdued, and if needs be, utterly destroyed, so that their country might live. That determination they most successfully carried out; they met the enemy in his 'last ditch,' and he was theirs; they compelled him to lay down his rebellious arms, to beg for quarter, peace, and even for bread, and submit, unconditionally, to the terms of their dictation. Having done that, the troops of Michigan returned to their homes, As the conquerors of the enemies of their country, the preservers of their nation, receiving the plaudits and gratitude of their fellow countrymen, and of every friend of freedom and humanity throughout the world."


SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR


Northern Michigan furnished its full quota of troops, both among the infantry and the naval reserves, during the short but nevertheless trying campaign against the Spaniards in Cuba and Porto Rico. They were distributed among the five regiments which were raised in the state and among the Michigan naval reserves. The Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Michigan regiments formed part of the expedition un- der command of General Shafter against Santiago. The reserves were detailed on the auxiliary cruiser "Yosemite," and saw service at Havana, Santiago, Guantanamo, and San Juan de Puerto Rico. The Thirty-first regiment served at garrison duty for a time in Cuba, and . the Thirty-second and Thirty-fifth regiments which were quartered in southern camps on American soil. These commands did not see active service because of the sudden termination of the war, but whatever their duties, whether in garrison or on the field of battle, Michigan troops could always be relied upon; and this second generation of sol- diers well upheld the prestige of the Civil war veterans.


THIRD REGIMENT, M. N. G.


The Michigan National Guard is a splendid organization consist- ing of a full brigade of three regiments, commanded by General P. L. Abbey, of Kalamazoo. The twelve companies comprising the Third In- fantry are distributed over Northern Michigan, its lieutenant colonel, John B. Boucher, being a resident of Cheboygan. William T. Conboy, captain of Company K is also a citizen of Cheboygan, which is the head- quarters of his command. Company D is stationed at Alpena, with Harry V. Knight as captain, and Company I is at Manistee in com- mand of Charles Koch.


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CHAPTER IX


GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY


TRAVERSE CITY AND VILLAGES-PRODUCTS OF THE SOIL-TWENTY YEARS' GROWTH-STEPS IN ORGANIC LIFE-OLD MISSION FOUNDED-FIRST SCHOOL-FIRST SHIPBUILDING-THE MISSION AND OLD MISSION- FOUNDING OF TRAVERSE CITY-LAND OFFICE TRANSACTIONS- TRAVERSE CITY INCORPORATED-PUBLIC SCHOOLS-TRAVERSE CITY CHURCHES-LIBRARIES-BOARD OF TRADE-THE BANKS-NORTHERN MICHIGAN INSANE ASYLUM-COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY-VILLAGE AND TOWN HISTORY.


Grand Traverse county, with an area of 317,440 acres of which nearly one-half is now given over to horticulture and agriculture, lies south of the bay for which it is named and forms the base of the rich and beautiful country around its shores popularly known as the Grand Traverse region. La Grande Traverse, as the bay was designated by the early French voyageurs, stretches from forty-four degrees and forty-five minutes to forty-five degrees and fifteen minutes north, be- ing nearly thirty-five miles in length and eleven in width, with a coast line of about one hundred and thirteen miles. The southern portion is divided into the east and west arms by a belt of land from one to two miles in width and about seventeen miles in length known as the Peninsula. The east arm has an average width of about four and one- half miles; the west arm is somewhat wider. The height of the bay and of Lake Michigan, above the level of the sea, is five hundred and seventy- eight feet. The depth of water in the bay is generally from twenty to seventy fathoms. The east arm attains the greatest depth, being about a hundred fathoms at a point opposite Old Mission, and thence as far as Petobego lake. The maximum depth is six hundred and eighteen feet, and is found opposite Birch lake, and on a line between Old Mis- sion and the north end of Elk lake. The entire bay constitutes a har- bor secure from all except northerly winds; while the two arms of the bay are not seriously disturbed by storms from any direction. The shores of the bay, however, present a number of harbors, in which ves- sels may at all times lie with the utmost security.


These brief facts convey no idea of the beauty and grandeur of this northeastern projection of Lake Michigan. Its upper reaches which gradually merge into the long finger thrust into Charlevoix and Em- met counties represent the ideal waters for the summer tourist. Grand Traverse county and Traverse City, possessing every charm of climate


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and scenery enjoyed by the region further north, are rapidly develop- ing in commerce, agriculture, fruit-raising and diversified industries.


TRAVERSE CITY AND VILLAGES


The metropolis of the Grand Traverse region is now a city of more then twelve thousand people and has increased in population three- fold within twenty years. Traverse is a well-built, progressive city of sound banks, large stores and varied manufactures, and has complete transportation facilities both by land and water; the railroads which give her access to all the markets of the south and north are the Grand Rapids & Indiana, Pere Marquette and Manistee & Northeastern. Trav- erse City has some ten miles of paved streets and forty-five miles of cement sidewalks; seven good school buildings, twenty churches and three substantial banks. Its public utilities include a municipal water plant and an electric light and power plant-the latter controled by a private corporation. No city in Northern Michigan is more intelligently, energetically or fairly exploited than Traverse City through its young and virile board of trade.


Traverse City's exceptional transportation facilities make it a fa- vorite center for excursionists bent upon getting the most enjoyment out of the Grand Traverse region. Partly within the city limits is Boardman lake which affords excellent fishing for pike, black bass and perch.


Via Pere Marquette, there are pleasant trips to Duck lake (Inter- lochen) and Green lake, and trout fishing at Henry, State Road or Kaleva (fishing in Bear creek) and at Beitner on the Boardman.


The Grand Rapids & Indiana runs convenient trains touching Sut- ton's bay, Omena and Northport. Fine trouting trips are conveniently made to points on the Boardman river over this line, also.


On the Manistee & Northeastern trips are taken to Fouch, Solon, Provement, Lake Ann and the fine trout fishing on the Platte river. In connection with steamer on Lake Leelanau, Fountain Point, Bingham, Leland and the resorts and cottages on that pretty body of water are reached.


Around the head of East bay are popular cottage communities; two miles northeast of Traverse City on the west shore of the peninsula is Edgewood. Near the end of the peninsula famous for its fruit orchards and overlooking the beautiful harbor of Old Mission, is the village and resort of the same name. Old Mission is one of the very first settle- ments in all the north country and for thirty years has been renowned as a quiet summering place, so that each season finds it gay with a merry throng of recreation seekers.




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