USA > Michigan > A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I > Part 43
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A large fleet of vessels, wind-bound. lay opposite Canfield's mill, with four tugs, including the three large barges of Tyson and Robin- son and the great steam tug "Bismark." Now commenced a furious effort to remove the vessels and barges. The wild puffing and scream- ing of tugs and hoarse hallooing of sailors, the loud roaring and crack- ing of the flames, the awe-stricken faces of the gathered multitude, luridly lighted, made up a scene never to be forgotten or adequately described. The efforts of the firemen were in vain-the engine became disabled and the flames swept all before them. But now a new source of terror arose. A bright light came up out of the south directly in the rear of the town, and the fierce gale bearing it on directly toward the doomed city. Those who resided in that part of the town rushed to the new scene of danger, the full extent of which few comprehended. The fire had originated two miles south of the city, on the lake shore. It first came upon the farm of L. G. Smith, which it devoured. Eighty rods north the extensive farm and dairy of E. W. Secor shared the same fate, with all its barns and forage. Another quarter of a mile,
and the large farm buildings of R. C. Peters were quickly annihilated. Here the column of fire divided, the left hand branch keeping to the lake shore hills, and coming in at the mouth; the other taking a north- easterly course and coming in directly south of the town, as before de- scribed. Here a small band of determined men, fighting with the energy of despair to protect their homes, kept it at bay till past mid- night. But all was vain-at 12:30 o'clock the gale became a tornado, hurling great clouds of sparks, cinders, burning bark and rotten wood through the air in a terrific, fiery storm.
Every man now fled to his own house. The fire came roaring on
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DICKINSON-BROS
MANISTEE JUST BEFORE THE FIRE OF 1871
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through the dead hemlocks south of the blocks included between Maple and Oak streets in the Second ward. The flames leaped to the summit of the great hemlocks, seventy, eighty or ninety feet high, and threw out great flags of fire against the lurid heavens. The scene was grand and terrible beyond description. To those whose homes and dear ones and all were in the track of fire, it was heart rending. Then came a deluge of fire like that rained on the cities of the plain. The wooden town, the sawdust streets, the stumpy vacant lots, the pine-clad hills north of the river, all burst into a sea of flame, made furious by a most fearful gale of wind.
On toward the river and the lake spread the tempest of fire. Men, women, and children, in night clothes, half clothed or fully clothed- some bareheaded, on foot, in wagons, on horseback, fled for their lives. It was pandemonium on earth. Families were separated, husbands, wives, parents and children. Everything went down before the storm-dwell- ings with their home-treasures, mills with their machinery, stores and their stocks, warehouses and their contents, the fine bridge at the foot of Maple street, vessels and their cargoes, all mingled in common ruin.
From Fifth street, half a mile south of the river, to Cushman & Calkin's mill half a mile north of the bridge, and from the foot of Oak street eastward to Tyson & Robinson's mill at the outlet of Manistee lake, three-fourths of a mile, was one surging sea of fire. The steam fire engine burned in the street where it stood, the men and horses barely escaping with their lives.
About 3 o'clock the wind abated, but the work of ruin was com- plete. When Monday morning's sun glared red and lurid through the heavy masses of smoke, where had stood Manistee it beheld a scene scarcely to be described. In the First ward three buildings remained -the Catholic church, the ward schoolhouse and a small dwelling- and also some small fishing shanties near the mouth of the river. The Third ward was swept clean except a few buildings near Manistee lake. In the Second ward the six platted blocks lying between Oak and Maple streets and about thirty buildings near the mouth were swept away. The Fourth ward escaped nearly untouched, the fine residence of J. L. Taylor, formerly that of M. Englemann, situated in the very corner of the ward, being the only one burned.
The buildings were built mostly of wooden foundations, and their very sites were scarcely distinguishable. Buildings, foundations, fences, sidewalks, trees, shrubbery, everything were mowed close to the surface of the earth, and the grass was burned out by the roots.
"Of the splendid exhibition of sympathy that came in the relief contributions I cannot speak here," says General Cutcheon in narrat- ing the tale, as an eye-witness. "It cheered many a downcast heart to the battle anew, and it was 'the single touch of nature that makes the whole world kin.' The years 1872 and 1873 were chiefly occupied in rebuilding. The larger share of a city had to be reconstructed, and the people addressed themselves to the task with brave hearts."
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AFTER THE FIRE
Like those of Chicago, and other fire-swept cities. the buildings con- structed during the after years were of better material and finer archi- tecture than their predecessors, and Manistee took on a more metro- politan air. Pretty houses were built. shade and fruit trees planted, private grounds made attractive. An iron bridge across the river replaced the one burned and every enterprise seemed to start from a
PRESENT-DAY MANISTEE FROM THE RIVER
more secure foundation. In 1872 telegraphie communication was also established with the outside world-a great step forward.
GENERAL ADVANCE
From that year to the present time the advance has been steady, but so many elements and incidents have contributed to it that they can be but briefly noted. In 1878 Manistee county's courthouse was completed. In 1880 Charles Rietz & Brothers, who at that time operated a sawmill on Manistee lake and had been drilling for oil, put down an experimental salt well on the Rietz mill property. In 1881. after drill- ing to a depth of 2,000 feet, a strata of rock-salt twenty-five feet in thickness was found, which gave assurance that salt could be produced in paying quantities. Thomas Percy came into the rock-salt field a lit- tle later. and Manistee developed into one of the greatest salt-producing cities in the world.
In 1879 a life saving station was established in Manistee and in
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1880 came the telephone exchange. The Flint & Pere Marquette rail- road extended its line to that point in 1881; the Holly system of water works was installed in 1883; in 1886 the Central school building was burned and rebuilt, and in 1888 the fire department became possessors of its present headquarters. It was in 1888 also that Manistee intro- duced the free delivery feature of the postal service, and about the same time the Manistee & Northeastern railroad gave the city additional facilities for transportation and communication. A little later followed the building of the Manistee & Grand Rapids railroad, another enter- prise fostered by local money and local brains.
All lines of business and manufacture have developed continuously, or the railroads would not have been encouraged to make connections. The municipal departments have also shared in the general progress.
CITY AND COUNTY OF THE PRESENT
One of the most pronounced advantages which Manistee presents as a commercial and industrial center is in the excellence of its harbor. As noted by one of the numerous publications put forth by the city's enterprising board of trade: "The city has an essentially romantic and picturesque location between Lake Michigan and Manistee lake, the latter constituting an inner harbor four miles long with a depth from 30 to 60 feet. Here is afforded space for the commerce of a city of a million people. Every foot of the upper harbor and prac- tically all of the channel connecting it with Lake Michigan, is bordered by rails, and both halves of the city are belted by tracks.
"The harbor has at least ten miles of deep water shore line and the railroad trackage adapted to industrial needs in and about the city is approximately twenty miles. The fourteen foot channel is soon to be dredged to admit vessels drawing eighteen feet of water, and the government contemplates spending $700,000 in protecting the entrance to the harbor."
The Manistee Board of Trade is especially organized to furnish the public with reliable local data, and most of the statements which fol- low are based upon its authority.
The vessel tonnage owned in Manistee amounts to 18,887 tons, all in modern steam craft, a larger tonnage than is owned at any other Lake Michigan port except Chicago and Milwaukee. The value of these vessels is $1,030,000. In the year 1908, the latest for which statistics are available, 2,116 vessels entered and cleared the port of Manistee, and their combined tonnage was 1,130,280. These vessels brought to Manistee miscellaneous cargoes amounting to 50,904 tons, and took away 377,180 tons of merchandise, chief of which was salt amounting to 1,653,491 barrels.
Manistee's primary resources are four. First is her inexhaustible supply of brine from pure salt deposits underlying this region. Man- istee produces 2,100,000 barrels of salt per annum, and has been the greatest salt producing center in the country for many years. 1,791 men are employed in the salt and lumber industry. One of Manistee's Vol. 1-25
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salt plants is the largest in the world with a capacity of 4,200 barrels per day.
Brine is the source also of chemicals of value, especially bleaching soda, and with the advent of a cheap and abundant electric current, assured in a short time by the development of the water power of the Manistee river, Manistee is certain to become the greatest chemical center in the country. The reduction of sodium chloride by electricity is a recent discovery, but is fully proved.
Manistee brine is also a truly wonderful remedial agency, effecting cures of rheumatism and all blood diseases far more successfully than any other mineral water. In two establishments treatment is afforded by brine baths-at Mercy sanatorium, a public institution under the
COURT HOUSE, MANISTEE
management of the Sisters of Mercy. and at Briny Inn, which is both a sanatorium of note and a first-class commercial hotel.
In timber Manistee will forever maintain her present ascendency among Michigan cities. There yet remains two billion feet of timber of all kinds available to the great sawmills of Manistee. The fact that the refuse from the timber is employed to produce salt gives the logs a higher value in the Manistee market than elsewhere, and accounts for the construction of railroads for 100 miles and more to bring these forest products to Manistee, where they are converted into lumber. shingles, flooring, furniture, and so forth. The present annual output of lumber and shingles is 138.000,000 feet lumber and 28,000,000 shingles.
A great Manistee resource soon to be added to existing wealth is the power of the Manistee river, which is capable of producing 40,000 horsepower. Half of this stupendous power is controlled by an elec- tric company which has been awarded a franchise for the construction of seven dams in Manistee county under the binding provision that the
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resulting power is to be marketed at a lower price in this county than elsewhere. The first dam is soon to be constructed. The Manistee river is the greatest of Michigan rivers as yet unharnessed.
Manistee is centrally located in the great Western Michigan fruit belt, which is becoming from year to year the most prosperous agricul- tural region between the Rocky mountains and the Appalachian range. The protection afforded fruit by Lake Michigan extends for a number of miles inland. The northern portion of the fruit belt has points of advantage in being held back in the spring when there is danger of injury from frosts. Thirty-four per cent of Manistee county's area was in cultivated farms at the time of the 1904 census and the re- mainder is being taken up speedily. This year 100,000 fruit trees were set out in Manistee county. Daily steamer shipments to the coun- try's great central market, with a trip of but a few hours in a low tem- perature and without dust and vibration, make ideal conditions for the fruit grower.
Manistee's manufactures at present embrace salt, lumber, shingles, furniture, machinery of all kinds, railroad equipment, shoes, saws, candy, cooperage machinery, flour, brick, tanned hides, beer, wagons, logging wheels, watches, shirts, oils, tower clocks, steam pumps, salt-making machinery, boilers, sawmill machinery and equipment, and so forth.
Three banks do business in Manistee, the national, state savings, and private systems of banking being exemplified. Their combined resources as shown by recent official reports are $3,686,670.67 and their deposits are $2,693,383.11. Savings deposits alone amount to $725,000. The First National Bank, of which Thomas J. Ramsdell is president and George A. Dunham vice-president and cashier, was organized in 1882 and has a capital of $100,000 and a surplus of $50,000. The Manistee County Savings Bank was organized in 1891, has a capital of $50,000, surplus and undivided profits amounting to $65,000, and the following officers: E. G. Filer, president; Joseph Kirster, vice-presi- dent and W. J. Gregory, cashier.
Manistee, while pre-eminently an industrial city, is at the same time a natural resort city, and the center of a beautiful and enticing region, one of exquisite lakes and lovely rivers, one where the Northern Mich- igan summer makes a veritable paradise. In Manistee county are a number of beautiful and well equipped resorts-Onekama, Bear Lake, Arcadia, and others. Citizens of Milwaukee and Chicago can send their families to Manistee and Onekama and spend Sunday with them, returning to Milwaukee and Chicago in time for business on Monday morning, these being the farthest points north where this can be done.
The fourth great primary resource of Manistee is her thrifty, law abiding, orderly, intelligent citizenship. Manistee is a hive of work- ers. Every laboring man owns his home. In no other American city is there so small a percentage of rented houses. In no other city is there more respect for law and order. Strikes are unknown. There is less need for policing than in other cities and the same may be said for Manistee county, which has not had a murder trial in a dozen years, and averages but four or five divorces per annum.
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Of public institutions the federal building now under construction will soon stand first. It is to cost $90,000 and is of renaissance type and of perfect proportions .. It will be completed toward the close of the year 1910.
The handsome city library is rightly a source of pride. It cost $35,000 for the building alone. The city appropriates $4,500 annually for its maintenance, and it has been the recipient of numerous gifts, the greatest being one of $5,000 cash.
Manistee's pavements are far better than those of most cities of twice her size. There 4.04 miles of bitulithic pavement, 3.5 miles of macadam and 1.25 miles of tarviated macadam. There is a trunk line of pavement from one end of the city to the other, and unpaved streets are kept in model condition at all times.
Manistee county has been a leader among Michigan counties in road construction, the truest index to progress in civilization. It now has over 50 miles of stone and gravel roads reaching from the city to the best farming lands and all the villages and trading centers.
Transportation in the city and from the city to three contiguous suburbs is by electric railroad, and by ferry lines to another suburb.
The city maintains a professional fire department, housed in a hand- some and well equipped building, with two outlying hose stations. At the central station is a new $5.000 steam fire engine, a modern chem- ical engine, and all other needed apparatus.
Manistee's water supply is from wells. It is healthful and adequate to fire protection. Under municipal ownership Manistee's water depart- ment has paid all but $30,000 of the $130,000 original cost, has extended the mains, bettered the service, increased the number of wells, and materially reduced the price of water to private consumers. Manistee people appreciate this success, and while very few meters are used, the consumption per capita is about half what prevails in other cities, the people being educated to an economical use of water, something which is impossible except under municipal ownership.
The city government embraces some of the advantages of recent experience in municipal work. Civil service rules obtain among the city employes, and the fire and police departments are controlled by a citizen board acting without pay. A board of five members without salaries controls the city library. A board of five ladies supervise the city's parks and exert a helpful influence toward the artistic movement of the city. Five citizens manage the water department, and three salaried officials do the assessing. The city employs a physician as health officer and provides him with a sanitary inspector. A veteri- narian serves the city as milk inspector, having jurisdiction over all the herds. wherever located, that contribute to Manistee's milk supply.
Manistee also enjoys the advantages of a good Carnegie library, es- tablished in 1903.
Every well known fraternal order is represented in Manistee, there being over forty lodges. The Elks have a large building representing an investment of more than $40,000. the Knights of Pythias have the
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finest quarters in Michigan, and a Masonic Temple has just been com- pleted (1911) at a cost of $40,000.
Among the city's social advantages should be mentioned Orchard Beach, a park located on beautiful hills bordering Lake Michigan, from which the coast line is visible for twenty miles both north and south. This park is considered the most charming on Lake Michigan.
Another park of nine acres overlooks the upper harbor. The city is spending money liberally to make this park worthy and to enhance its great natural attractiveness.
COPEMISH, BEAR LAKE AND ONEKAMA
The only incorporated villages of the county are Copemish, Bear Lake and Onekama, ranging from three to five hundred in population. The last named, the oldest, was settled about 1880. It lies on the north- ern shore of Portage lake and on the line of the Manistee & North- eastern road. The government has made it a harbor of refuge by con- structing a channel from Lake Michigan.
Copemish was incorporated as a village in 1891 and is a station on the Manistee & Northeastern and the Ann Arbor roads. It has a bank and a weekly paper, four churches and a good school, and represents a population of about five hundred.
Bear Lake, incorporated in 1903, is about the same size, has two newspapers and a bank, as well as several churches. It is on the lake from which it takes its name, has no railway connection, but stage com- munication with Norwalk and Manistee.
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CHAPTER XVI
MASON COUNTY
SOIL PRODUCTS AND GENERAL RESOURCES-POPULATION AND PROPERTY- MASON COUNTY AND HER GODFATHER-MEMORIES OF FATHER MAR- QUETTE-CITY OF LUDINGTON FOUNDED-A GREAT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM-INDUSTRIES AND FINANCES-CIVIC AND SOCIAL-SCOTTVILLE, CUSTER AND FOUNTAIN.
In the days when pine was king of Northern Michigan, Mason county was one of that monarch's most powerful provinces. With the cutting away of the pineries and the decline of the industry and trade for the past twenty years, this section of the state has shared in the general transformation of the northern country. All her prosperity and strength are no longer centered in one field, but are diversified and immeasurably increased to meet the demands of broader and more complex communities. Both lumber and salt are still important arti- cles of Mason county manufactures and form large elements in her shipments and channels of trade. But her manufactories are also work- ing up the hardwoods of the state into furniture; she has plants for the manufacture of wooden ware, as well as lumber and planing mills, and she turns out various complex mechanisms from a match to a gaso- line engine.
SOIL PRODUCTS AND GENERAL PROSPERITY
The chief strength of the modern prosperity of Mason county, how- ever. is drawn from her fertile soil. She crowns the stretch of peach country which lies along the eastern Michigan shore. The peach is the king of fruits in Mason county, as the apple is supreme farther north. This luscious fruit is plentifully grown throughout the county, some of the finest orchards being near Scottville and Custer in its cen- tral sections. Crawfords and Peachblows are particularly prolific, large and select. Apples, currants, strawberries, raspberries and cherries do well, but it is mainly the long-continued and fine yield of the peach orchards which has given Mason county so high a position in the hor- ticultural world, and founded a large and profitable canning industry. The benefit is mutual, as the fruit growers are yearly adding to their acreage and output with the establishment of new canning factories whose product goes to far-distant markets. Ludington, with its thor- ough facilities of transportation by lake and land, is the chief shipping point for all the products of the soil, whether in the raw or worked into manufactured form. The result is that the tonnage of the port of
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[Courtesy Western Michigan Development Bureau]
AN AVERAGE CROP OF MASON COUNTY PEACHES
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Ludington is exceeded on Lake Michigan only by Chicago and Mil- waukee. In general agriculture the county ranks high, its rich sand loams being productive and stable.
Stock raising and dairying are also being adopted by progressive agriculturists who are succeeding well. The county is also a favored region for summer resorters, and it is estimated that from ten to fifteen thousand people spend their vacations at the beautiful resorts, which are within easy access of Ludington. Pleasure seekers, farmers and business men have easy access to all sections of the county not accom- modated by railroad through substantial highways of crushed stone and gravel. which, through the system of state rewards, are being yearly extended and improved.
POPULATION AND PROPERTY
Before presenting the tabulated statement of Mason county's in- crease of population according to the national census figures, it should be stated that the cities of Ludington and Scottville have enterprising boards of trade which have pooled their issues with the general public and formed the Mason County Improvement Association-a live body largely responsible for the marked progress of recent years.
Civil Divisions
1910
1900
1890
Amber township
964
1,062
1.036
Branch township
409
614
319
Custer township, including Custer village Custer village
1,287
1,254
1,140
Eden township
815
782
579
Freesoil township
1,162
1,112
878
Grant township
673
569
301
Hamlin township
345
293
85
Logan township
282
Ludington City
9,132
7,166
7,517
Ward 1
1,767
Ward 2
1,832
Ward 3
1,603
Ward 4
1,809
Ward 5
2,121
. . .
....
. ...
Pere Marquette township
845
965
944
Riverton township
1,456
1,488
1,203
Scottville City
891
554
147
Ward 1
454
Ward 2
437
...
... .
Sheridan township
587
461
349
Sherman township
1,259
1,026
550
Summit township
568
486
508
Victory township
1,070
1,053
658
Totals
21,832
18,885
16,385
...
...
...
....
Meade township
87
. .
....
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According to the figures of the last assessment concluded throughout the county in the spring of 1911, the total acreage of what is termed "farm lands" is 304.241. The entire area of the county is placed at 320.640 acres, and land actually in farms, at 133.777 acres. As equal- ized by the county board of supervisors, the total value of real estate is $5,959,135 and of personal property, $1,288,330; grand total, $7,247,465. Of this amount Ludington is credited with $2,168,460 in real estate and $887,710 personal property, and Scottville with $235,780 in real estate and $120,750 personal property.
MASON COUNTY AND HER GODFATHER
Mason county was organized by an act of the legislature approved February 13, 1855, the portion relating to it reading as follows: "The people of the state of Michigan enact: Section 2-The county of Mason shall be organized and shall comprise townships 17, 18, 19 and 20 north, of each of the ranges numbered 15, 16, 17 and 18 west; and the un- organized counties of Lake and Osceola are hereby attached to said county of Mason for judicial purposes."
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