A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I, Part 42

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 42


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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The next county election occurred at the presidential election of 1856, when the following officers were elected: Sheriff, E. W. Secor, 177 votes; clerk and register, D. L. Filer; probate judge, J. F. Chase, 170 votes; treasurer, Joe Smith; prosecuting attorney, H. L. Brown. At this election W. T. Thorp ran against D. L. Filer for clerk and register, receiving 33 votes. For representative Perry Hannah received the whole vote, 194. For state senator, Thos. W. Ferry received 188 votes to one for I. V. Harris. For congress, D. C. Leach received 184 votes to 12 for Flavius J. Littlejohn.


In April, 1855, the first board of supervisors of Manistee county met at the house of Wm. Magill. Andrew C. Sherwood was chairman and Henry S. Udell was clerk.


The county machinery and politics were now in complete working order.


As to the name Manistee, the Centennial address of General B. M. Cutcheon, from which much of the pioneer history is also collated, throws some clear light upon the subject: "The late A. S. Wordsworth, for- merly assistant superintendent of the Michigan Geological Survey, who was one of the first white men to visit the Manistee river, and who was familiar with the Indian tongue, stated that he had it from the early Indians that the name signified 'The spirit of the wood.' Whether this be true or not, we prefer to believe it so. It is stated that this name came to be applied to the stream in the following manner: Upon the


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ORIGINAL SITE OF MANISTEE


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high lands about the sources of the Manistee stands, for ages has stood a dense forest of pines and hemlocks, and the constant sough of the breeze though these forests produces a constant murmur, which the untutored Indians attributed to 'the spirit of the woods,' which they supposed dwelt about the sources of this stream; and hence the name.


"But we fear that the spirit has departed. His realm has at last been invaded by sturdy axe men and lumbering camps, and the scream of the locomotive drowns the voice of 'the spirit of the woods,' and soon no man standing on the banks of the Manistee, shall be able to say, with the poet :


"These are the forests primeval- The whispering pines and the hemlocks."


"But the name will abide when we are sleeping by the side of these ever flowing waters and our sleep will be lulli-byed by the unceas- ing murmur of the 'spirit of the woods.'


"The name Manistee from being applied to the river came in time to be also applied to the territory adjacent, to the lake near its mouth and the city on its banks, so that we have Manistee river, town, county, lake and city.'


PIONEER HISTORY


It is impossible to establish the fact in proof but there is little doubt at the present time that Father Jacques Marquette was the first white man who ever looked upon the pine-clad hills of Manistee or dipped his oar in the waters of the beautiful Manistee river. About two hun- dred and thirty-six years ago, with his Indian guides, he camped on the bank of the pretty stream and the first Christian song and prayer to break the stillness of these primeval solitudes was the morning and evening devotion of Father Marquette.


After the visit of Father Marquette, Manistee was lost sight of for more than a hundred and fifty years. Undoubtedly the Jesuit mis- sionaries occasionally visited here and adventurous fur traders made pilgrimages to it.


The first authentic fact comes down to 1830. About that time one of the Campeau family, a French trader from Grand Rapids, made visits to this point to traffic with the Indians. The Chippewas then chiefly inhabited the Manistee valley. In 1832 a party of men from Massachusetts landed here and with boats proceeded up the river to. section 36, town 22 north of range 14 west, where they commenced to. get out square timber to build a dam and block-house. They had com- pleted their block-house and had the timber for the dam prepared when the Indians assembled and by menaces compelled them to desist.


The party were obliged to abandon the block-house which was very substantially built and was standing until a number of years ago. When John Canfield reached that locality in 1849 it was already known as the "old house" and has born that appellation ever since. The whole.


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region was one vast forest and at a very early day this old block-house was taken possession of by a gang of counterfeiters and there for some time they plied their trade.


JUSTICE WADSWORTH VISITS "MANISTEE"


About 1832 the Manistee Reservation was set apart for the Chippe- was, and in 1836, A. S. Wadsworth, then a justice of the peace hav- ing jurisdiction from Grand Rapids to the British domains, holding his seat of justice at Grand Rapids, visited the Manistee with Campeau, the Indian trader. He found the Indians camped near the mouth of the river holding high carnival upon the occasion of the wedding of one of their distinguished members to one of the belles of the day. A large bough house had been prepared for the wedding dance and a feast of dog for refreshment. It was a very warm night in the sum- mer and the whiskey obtained from the traders flowed freely. Mr. Wadsworth attempted to retire to private life, but was prevented by the mosquitoes which had selected him as their feast. He was advised by an old squaw to annoint his face and hands with rancid sturgeon oil, which he did and in a short time was sleeping serenely, oblivious of song, dance and mosquitoes. After a time he was awakened by something snuffling around his nose and opened his eyes to find that a huge black bear was licking the sturgeon grease from his face. His first alarm was modified on finding that the bear was tame and harm- less.


In the fall of 1840 John Stronach of Berrien county, Michigan, and his brother Joseph Stronach, of Muskegon, coasted along the 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 about the county. Hiring a company of the 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, but find- ing no good place for a dam they returned and explored the Little River called by the Indians "Mamoosa" or "dog river." After locat- ing a point for a mill site they set sail and returned to Muskegon.


The following spring John Stronach with his son Adam chartered the schooner "Thornton" of St. Joe to convey them and their machin- ery supplies to the Manistee, They arrived at the mouth of the river on the 16th of April, 1841, and from that day dates the permanent white settlement of Manistee county. They found it impossible to en- ter 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 shore. They found the yawl boat of the wrecked " Ana- dogge" and this they used to tow their raft loaded with machinery


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and supplies to the head of the little lake, and up the Mamoosa or "Lit- tle Dog" to the site of the Stronach mills. A camp was built, a road cut, a dam constructed, and by the close of 1841, the first sawmill that ever startled the silence of these unbroken forests was ready for opera- tions. With Stronachs came a force of laborers to the number of fifteen and these were the first inhabitants of Manistee county.


When the Chippewas found that the Stronachs had evidently come to stay, they seemed to repent of their former friendliness, and while building operations were progressing on the dam and mill, a party of them made quite hostile demonstrations. The Indians soon discovered


LOGGING IN MANISTEE COUNTY


that the "pale-faced" lumbermen were not easily frightened, so turned about and demanded whiskey. Fortunately, the kegs were buried in the sand at the mouth of the river. The Indians then began war-like demonstrations, when old Mr. Stronach invited them to his boarding shanty, gave them all they could eat and then opened a barrel of pork and divided it among them and so concluded a treaty of peace.


SETTLERS PRIOR TO 1850


Among the earlier settlers that followed the original Stronachs was Joseph Stronach who dammed Portage creek and built a watermill there. The first sawmill built within what is now Manistee City was erected by James and Adam Stronach on lot 2, section 1, town 21 and 17, and was afterward known as the "Humble" mill, from Joseph Humble who owned and operated it. It was burned many years ago. Next after this was the Joseph Smith mill built near the site of the


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old gang mill of Cushman, Calkins & Company, on the north side. Next came the Bachelor mill on the point of the outlet of Manistee lake on the south side.


Soon after 1841 came Joseph Smith and between that and 1849 ar- rived William Ward, John Canfield, Roswell Canfield, Samuel Potter, Owen Finan and brother, Michael Finan, James O'Connell, H. L. Brown, from whom Brown town is named, and who was the first town clerk of Manistee town and the first prosecuting attorney of Manistee county ; together with a few others.


It was in 1849 that John Canfield, with his father Roswell, located at Manistee. They took up land near the mouth of the river and com- menced the erection of a steam mill. At this time the leading busi- ness men were the Stronachs, Joseph Smith, H. L. Brown and Wheeler & Son, by whom Mr. Canfield was employed. In 1852 came H. S. Udell who went into the employ of John Canfield. The mills then in opera- tion were the Stronach mill, Joe Smith's mill, the Bachelor mill and Canfield's two mills at the mouth.


THE LAST CHIPPEWA CHIEF


In 1849 the Indian reservation in the valley of the Manistee river was thrown open to settlement and its lands placed on sale. It em- braced a fine tract of pine land on both sides of the river, twenty-two miles east and west and six in width, extending as far up the valley as section 4, range 12 west. The story runs that when the surveyors of the early thirties requested instruction from the government as to the shape and extent of the reservation they were told to do as old Kawaxicum, the last chief of the Manistee Chippewas, should direct. The venerable chief's idea in extending it so far east was for the pur- pose of including the "old house."


Although the tribal relations of the Chippewas were thus prac- tically broken up by the treaty of 1849 by their reservation lands were thrown open to the whites, the Indian settlements on the point of land where the Sand's mill is situated and near East lake remained for many years after. Kawaxicum, the Chippewa chief, lived in these localities until his death in the middle nineties. He was born in the Manistee valley and is said to have been one hundred and twenty years old when he died. For years before passing away, wrinkled, feeble and blind, he was led about the streets of Manistee by his few remaining kindred, or lingered in the little Indian settlements which were all left to him of his former wide influence and authority.


GROWTH OF SCHOOL SYSTEM


In 1852 the population of Manistee county numbered but two hun- dred persons, its only settlements being at the mouth of the river, a little hamlet about each of the mills and the settlement at old Stronach. Lumber was then absolute monarch of the region, and naturally the first schools were organized for the benefit of lumbermen's children in the


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vicinity of the sawmills. In 1852 Mrs. Parsons is said to have taught the first school near Canfield's mill, at the mouth of the river, and she was paid chiefly by the liberality of Mr. Canfield himself. In 1854 a schoolhouse was built on the northwest corner of Spruce and First streets, where the first public school was established. It was a plain, unpainted one room building with crude interior furnishings, such as may still be seen in some remote country districts. A row of pine board benches ran along the inner walls with open desks in front. At- tached to these was another row of seats without desks, for the smaller children, who were thus always kept within easy annoying distance of the older pupils occupying the back seats. Movable benches without arms or backs were used for recitation purposes. Some of Manistee's well-known citizens taught in this building. The first teacher of this pioneer public school was a Miss Clark.


But notwithstanding the fact that a private school had meanwhile been established near the present site of A. O. Wheeler's residence, the little schoolhouse at last became inadequate and on May 10, 1865, a public meeting was held for the purpose of selecting a location for a new building. The present site of the Central school was chosen and a four-room brick building ordered built. The contract for its construction was afterward let to T. J. Ramsdell, who completed it in 1866. School opened in the new building in 1867 with D. Carleton as principal. At that time it was thought that this building would accom- modate the children of the entire city for many years, but in 1870 it was necessary to double its capacity by the addition of four more rooms and supplementary schools were established in the First and Third wards. A year later a single room building was erected in the Fourth ward near the foot of Reitz's hill. Charles Hurd was then superin- tendent. The erection of the ward schools followed closely the incor- poration of the city on March 15, 1869.


Manistee school children are now thoroughly accommodated in seven well constructed buildings, the educational system being under the supervision of Superintendent S. W. Baker. The Central building is attended by 239 pupils in the high school courses and 206 in the gram- mar grades. The average attendance at the Union school is 407; First ward, 148; Third ward, 193; Fourth ward, 331; Fifth ward, 190. The total daily average attendance in the Manistee schools is 1,714; number of teachers, 75, and value of school property, $140,000.


1854-5, A GREAT ERA


The years 1854 and 1855 meant much to Manistee county. The sand bar at the mouth of the river had become so obtrusive as to prevent vessels from entering the harbor, and all the lumber distined for ship- ment had first to be loaded on to rafts, which was both a tedious and unbusiness-like process. So the lumbermen got together in 1854 and put the job of cutting the bar into the hands of Samuel Potter. And it was done. under his supervision. A ditch was dug across the spit or tongue of land lving north of the present north pier and on which


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the lighthouse stands and a close row of spiles was driven across the channel of the stream and the water forced into the new channel, which was soon cut to sufficient depth. The same day the schooner, "Gen. Wayne," entered through the new channel and by piering with slabs, a considerable depth of water was obtained. As tugs were un- known at Manistee at that time, even after the bar was removed the lumber vessels to be loaded had to be towed up the river by means of oxen or horses.


The great event of 1855 was the coming of the first mails to Manistee. Previous to that year all mail matter was directed to Grand Haven and brought to Manistee by vessels which might be sailing to that point; or letters were even sent first to Milwaukee before securing trans- portation to Manistee. But as better mail service was established about the time that the county was organized in 1855.


MANISTEE CHURCHES


In 1860 the Methodists founded the first Protestant church so- ciety in Manistee, although there had been preaching for nearly two years. In the year named Rev. N. M. Steele established the First Methodist Episcopal church with five members, but a building was not completed until 1863, under the pastorate of Rev. H. H. Bement. The present edifice was erected in the early eighties.


The First Congregational church was organized with ten members, in an old schoolhouse, on July 20, 1862, under the direction of Rev. George Thompson, a missionary lately returned from the west coast of Africa. Rev. J. M. McLain was the first regular pastor. The first church building was completed in the autumn of 1866, and the present structure in December, 1892.


The German Evangelical Lutheran church was organized in 1867 and the Danish Lutheran in 1869.


St. Mary's Catholic church was originally composed of all the Catholics of Manistee, but as its congregation increased it was separated into organizations comprising the Poles, Irish and Germans. The first St. Mary's church was a little frame building on the north side of the river. and the first resident pastor Rev. Henry H. Meuffels, who had been sent by Bishop Borgess to found the society. Father Meuffels was succeeded in 1873 by Rev. M. Willigan, under whose leadership the church edifice, which was burned in 1911, was erected.


In September, 1881, Rev. Father Callaert was appointed to suc- ceed Father Willigan. The Catholic congregation had now grown to such proportions that St. Mary's church could not accommodate all who came to worship, and in 1884 a separation of the Polish people was granted by Bishop Richter, resulting in the founding of St. Joseph's Polish Catholic church.


Again after a few years the St. Mary's congregation had outgrown the capacity of the church, and after repeated urgent requests another separation was granted, and on Tuesday, January 24, 1888, the papers formally dividing the congregation were signed by the committees ap-


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pointed for the purpose. This division gave birth to the Church of the Guardian Angels, the corner stone of whose new church was laid in September, 1890.


There are several strong Lutheran churches in Manistee, and most of them long-established. The German Evangelical Lutheran church was organized in 1867; Danish Lutheran in 1869; Norwegian Lutheran, 1874; St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran, 1881; Swedish Lutheran, 1884 and St. Petri German Evangelical Lutheran in 1898. A Scandinavian M. E. church was established in 1878 and Swedish Mission in 1882.


The Unitarians organized a church in 1884, and erected a building in 1886.


Of the twenty churches now in Manistee the Lutherans support six, the Congregationalists four, Roman Catholics three and Methodists two; the other denominations represented are: Episcopalians, Unitarians and Christian Scientists, and there are churches designated as North Side Mission and Swedish Evangelical Mission.


MANISTEE IN THE SIXTIES


Soon after Manistee gave birth to her first churches, she was stirred by the upheaval of the Civil war, and the noble part played by the county therein has already been described. In 1864, while the war was at its height, Manistee was visited by her first great fire, which came out of the woods just south of the village and burned through to the river, destroying thousands of dollars worth of property. On the same day the fire caught in the upper part of the village and the old county jail was burned to the ground.


At the close of the war there were only the three original town- ships in the county-Manistee, Stronach and Brown. In 1865 Bear Lake was added; in 1867 Onekama and Pleasanton; in 1869 Manistee City, Filer and Marilla; in 1870 Springdale and Arcadia. Those were flush times in Manistee. Lumber brought high prices. The influx of population was immense. The demand for labor was correspondingly great.


Three hundred buildings of various grades went up in Manistee in the year 1867. The population doubled twice between 1866 and 1870, and this prosperity continued almost unabated until the great fire of 1871.


The first serious drawback was by the fire of 1869. Christmas night that year, the Tyson House, the finest hotel Manistee ever had was burned and all the rest of the block, from what is now the city bank to the old Tyson & Sweet store. The loss was about $100,000; the place of the Tyson House has never been filled, and that fire was a seri- ous, and permanent drawback to the prosperity of the young city.


NOTED VANDERPOOL-FIELD CASE


Another notable event of that year was the Vanderpool-Field trag- edy. These two young men came to Manistee in the fall of 1868 and


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started a little banking house. On Sunday, September 5, 1869, they settled and went into the bank together. Field was never seen again. Thirteen days later his body was cast ashore at Frankfort, with two ghastly wounds in the head. Vanderpool was arrested, tried by a jury of his peers and convicted after a month's trial, sentenced to state prison for life, conveyed to Jackson and incarcerated. No sooner was the prison door closed upon him than from some source there went forth an influence to agitate the question of his release and a new trial.


Says General Cutcheon in this connection: "In every city, town, and hamlet, on every corners, in every schoolhouse and church, in corner groceries and barrooms they were retrying Vanderpool. The press teemed with it; it was talked at weddings, funerals and on the cars. Never did such a mania seize the people of the entire state of Michigan as the Vanderpool case. The prison door swung open and a new trial was granted, which resulted in the disagreement of the jury. Still another trial was given, this time in Barry county, and a jury was found that turned him out into the larger prison of the world. The Vanderpool case became the most celebrated nisi prius case ever tried in the state of Michigan and lived long in the memory of the people of Manistee."


*THE FIRE OF 1871


Before the excitement and notoriety attending the Vanderpool trial had fully subsided another event occurred at once more momentous and more terrible, which made the name of Manistee familiar not only through the United States but even brought it to the attention of people on the other side of the Atlantic. It was the great fire of 1871. This has become the great date in Manistee, and all events are divided into two classes, as they long were in Chicago-"before the fire" and "after the fire."


The summer of 1871 had been fearfully dry and hot and the woods were like a mass of tinder. The wooden buildings and sawdust streets of Manistee were as combustible as a powder magazine. Sunday, October 8th, came, with a strong. dry, hot wind out of the south, and a breath- less oppression was in the air.


On the fatal Sunday the fire alarm sounded at about 9 A. M., and the fire department hastened with the steamer to the vicinity of Gif- ford and Ruddock's mills in the Fourth ward, where an old chopping was burning furiously and threatening destruction to that part of the town. By the most unwearied efforts, continued all day, the fire was subdued and that part of the town was saved.


About dark the engine returned to its quarters. It was scarcely housed, however, when the wind which had been blowing heavy all day rose to a gale. At about 2 o'clock P. M., while the fire in the Fourth ward was raging. an alarm whistle was heard from the east side of Manistee lake and through the thick smoke it was discovered that the


*This account was taken from General Cutcheon's centennial address.


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large steam mill of Magill & Canfield. on Blackbird island, was in flames. In an incredibly short space of time, mill, boarding house, stables, shops, docks and lumber were consumed.


As soon as darkness began to close in a lurid light appeared in the southwest on the shore of Lake Michigan, showing that the pine woods that line the shore were on fire. About 9:30 P. M. just as people were returning from evening services the fire alarm again sounded, and every one now was on the alert, for the wind was blowing a fierce gale. Instantly a red angry glare lighted up the western sky near the mouth of the river. The fire department rushed to the rescue. At the mouth were located the large mills and tug interests of John Canfield, with boarding-house and about twenty-five or thirty dwellings. On the beach several acres were covered with pine sawdust highly inflammable. Along the river near the piers were piled several hundred cords of dry pine slabs-fuel for tugs.


Down from the circling hills on the lake shore swept the flames, and the burning sawdust whirled by the gale in fiery clouds filled the air. Hundreds of cords of dry, pitchy slabs sent up great columns of red flames that swayed in the air lake mighty banners of fire, swept across the Manistee two hundred feet wide and almost instantly licked up the government lighthouse situated one hundred and fifty feet from the north bank of the river.




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