USA > Michigan > A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I > Part 44
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Mason county was named in honor of Stevens T. Mason, the last territorial and the first state governor of Michigan; appointed to suc- ceed his father as secretary of the territory and acting governor in 1831 and elected governor in 1835. He was known as the "boy governor," as he was in years although not in maturity of judgment, brilliancy of mind, or steadfastness of purpose. In view of the fact that he had not yet arrived at his twentieth year when he succeeded his father, in 1831, as secretary of the territory and acting governor, there was much opposition in the United States senate to the confirmation of his appointment by President Jackson. But he was confirmed, it being evident that the people of Michigan were generally in favor of "giv- ing the boy a chance." Although he was soon succeeded by George B. Porter, a Pennsylvania lawyer, during the short period in which he was acting governor he conducted himself with dignity and good judgment. In 1834 Governor Porter died of cholera and Mr. Mason again acted as governor of the territory, being such during the excit- ing boundary dispute between Michigan and Ohio, which he handled with vim and vigor. He was supported by his home constituency, and, although the president removed him from office, his course was sus- tained by the popular verdict in his election as first governor of the state in 1835. Heman's "History of Michigan" thus speaks of the brilliant, warm, honorable, and lovable man whom Mason county has delighted to honor: "The young governor never lost his popularity with the people. They loved his generous nature and believed in his honesty and integrity. During the years in which he was discharging his many official duties he had been a close student and long before the close of his official career as governor he had become a member of the Detroit bar. In 1841, he removed to New York City to engage in the practice of his profession. A bright future seemed to be opening be- fore him when he died suddenly on the 4th of January, 1843. having
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GOVERNOR STEVENS T. MASON [From oil painting in State Capitol]
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contracted scarlet fever while attending a literary gathering with Wash- ington Irving at Staten island. Imposing funeral and memorial serv- ices were held at Detroit upon the receipt of the news of his death. It was a service in which all the departments of the state government took part and which was indicative of sentiments that were genuine and sincere.
"For long years Governor Mason's mortal remains rested in an obscure cemetery in the city of New York. With passing years came a better understanding of the man and his work and the legislature of 1905 appointed a commission to superintended the removal of the remains to Michigan soil. On June 4th of that year, amid civic and military honors, they were deposited in Capital Park, Detroit, the interment being in the very foundation of the capitol of the territory and first state government. In due time the spot will be marked by a monument of Michigan's appreciation and regard for her first governor, who although a boy in years, was a man in the loyalty and fidelity with which he served her interests."
MEMORIES OF FATHER MARQUETTE
Mason county is most fertile in memories of Father Marquette, venerated by the Ottawas and Chippewas of the region so long as they haunted the Michigan shores as their patron saint. Its largest river, which comes up from the south and southeast fertilizes a large tract of the southern townships and finally expands into a splendid harbor around which is built the city of Ludington-this, formerly clad with dense pineries, is the Pere Marquette river; the harbor is Lake Mar- quette and the city itself was Pere Marquette until forty years ago. No admirer of Michigan's progress will forget the Pere Marquette rail- road, of which Ludington is the lake terminus and the strongest con- necting link between the state, the lake ports and the northwest.
More than all else which has been mentioned connecting the pros- perity of the present with the crudeness and struggles of the past by the personality of Father Marquette-his revered grave at the mouth of the beautiful stream, which bore his name and wherein his remains first reposed, kept alive the memory of the entire region and finally when the ambitious white sought the site of a future city he instinctively turned toward that sheltered and deep harbor into which emptied the waters of the forest-clad river.
Fortunately, a record of the various visits made to the site of Father Marquette's first burial place has been made by R. H. Elsworth, who has collected the information from many sources and published it in the invaluable volumes issued as "Michigan Pioneer and His- torical Collections," in 1897. "The death and burial of Jacques Mar- quette, the French missionary and explorer, nearly two and a quarter centuries ago," he says, "made the river's banks, one of which serves as the site for the present city of Ludington, historic ground. Accord- ing to the Jesuit Relations, the black-robed father, who was weakened by disease and exposure, perceived one morning, while being paddled
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in a canoe toward the mission of St. Ignatius at Michilimackinac 'the mouth of a river with an eminence on its bank' and selected the place as that of his last repose. A landing was effected and a hut erected. 'Feeling that he had but a little while to live he made a last effort, clasped his hands and with his eyes fixed sweetly on his crucifix he pronounced aloud his profession of faith and thanked the Divine Majesty for the immense favor he bestowed upon him in allowing him to die in the Society of Jesus, to die in it as a missionary of Jesus Christ and, above all, to die in a wretched cabin, amid the forests, destitute of all human aid.' The burial was in accordance with the wishes of the father, a large cross being raised to serve as a mark for the grave. Two years later the place was again visited by the followers of Marquette; the remains were exhumed and taken to St. Ignace. But the soil made historic by being the missionary's death bed did not lose its interest. The Indian, the Frenchman, and the Englishman remembered the spot and did it in honor in the succeeding centuries.
"The place was visited in 1721 by Pierre Francis Xavier de Charle- voix, who was in North America at the order of the King of France. He entered the river of Father Marquette 'in order to examine whether what he had been told of it was true.' A letter then written to a friend in France, besides furnishing a geographical description of the locality, says 'I have not been able to learn, or else I have forgotten the name this river formerly bore, but at this day the Indians call it the River of the Black Robe, for thus the Indians term the Jesuits. The French call it Father Marquette's river and never fail to call upon him when they are in any danger on Lake Michigan. Several of them have affirmed that they believe themselves indebted to his intercession for having escaped very great dangers.'
"Ninety-seven years later the place was visited by another white man-Gurdon S. Hubbard. He says that while coasting from Macki- naw to Chicago he saw a cross of red cedar near the head of the Mar- quette river which marked the burial place of Marquette. The cross which was held in veneration by the voyagers was reset whenever nec- essary. He also states that for the several years following he saw the cross as he passed along the coast.
"Again in 1821, three years after Hubbard's visit, Gabriel Richard of Detroit, one of the most important characters in the early history of Michigan, visited the Pere Marquette river. He was accompanied by a party of Indians from Harbor Springs. He also gives a descrip- tion of the place which tallies with those given by subsequent explor- ers who are yet alive. A week was spent by Richard at the river. Among other things he erected a cross at the spot where, according to the Indians, a former one had stood, and with his penknife he engraved it with Marquette's name and the date of his death."
The Rev. Gabriel Richard mentioned, was one of the remarkable figures of the Catholic church in its missionary work throughout the new Northwest of the early nineteenth century, and really one of the striking figures of his times. He it was who in 1823 erected the wooden cross on the spot where Father Marquette died and accorded that great
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and noble priest of the Catholic church and of God a tardy local rec- ognition of his martyrdom. Hon. Thomas A. E. Weadock read a paper on Father Richard's extraordinary life and achievements before the United States Catholic Historical Society on February 28, 1892, show- ing how immeasurably his labors transcended the local field of Detroit, despite the fact that he was pastor of St. Anne's church there from 1798 to 1832. "Father Richard's life," said the author of the paper, "affords material for a volume, but the limits of this paper forbid more than an outline sketch of a man who, born of a good family in France emigrated to America to fill a professor's chair in St. Mary's College, Baltimore, then became a zealous missionary among the Indian and half-breed settlements in distant Illinois and Michigan; who set up the first printing press west of the Alleghanies; who was so patriotic in his adopted land that he was made a prisoner of war by the British general at Detroit after Hull's surrender; who was vice president and held six professorships in the University of Michigan; the associate of Lewis Cass; and who was the only Catholic priest who ever sat in the congress of the United States."
Although the labors of Father Richard as a regular missionary ceased in 1798, he seems to have frequently visited the scenes of his earlier labors. As the parish register shows he was at Mackinac on June 3, 1799, and extended his visits to L'Arbre Croche, in the Grand Traverse region at that time, as well as in August, 1821. Again in 1823 he visited many of the missions on the northern and western shores of Michigan and while thus engaged was conducted by Indians to the spot where Father Marquette died-a locality which they had marked and held sacred for nearly a century and a half. There, as stated, Father Richard erected a crude wooden cross, carving thereon with his penknife "Father John Marquette died here 9th May, 1675." Father Richard was a victim of the terrible cholera scourge which swept over Detroit and to many other localities in the northwest during - the year 1832.
CITY OF LUDINGTON FOUNDED
French voyageurs and British and American trappers and traders visited the mouth of the Pere Marquette river and assisted the devo- tees of Father Marquette's memory to make its commercial advantages evident and familiar. About 1851 a few permanent settlers arrived and in a few years several little sawmills were grouped around the harbor of Lake Marquette and a short distance inland. But the settle- ment was not sufficient to warrant the recording of the plat named Pere Marquette until September 10, 1867. It was never chartered as a village, but in 1873 the state legislature granted it a city charter and it was rechristened by its present name in honor of James Ludington, who, with Nelson Ludington of Menominee and Harrison Ludington of Milwaukee, was a strong member of a noted family of lumber kings. In the following year the western division of the Flint & Pere Mar- quette Railroad was completed from Saginaw to Ludington, which from
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that time assumed metropolitan aspirations and spirit. Ludington was then a rude but bustling lumber town of some two thousand people, with streets of sand or saw dust, dotted here and there with stumps and trees.
This also was the period of the ascendancy of Captain Eber B. Ward, whom few will deny the credit of being the founder of modern Lud- ington. He has been fitly pronounced "one of the most enterprising, energetic and broad-minded business operators in a period whose abid- ing glories were its marvelous business men. It was these men who brought to the fore. expanded and utilized and distributed the diversi-
COURT HOUSE, LUDINGTON
fied and matchless resources of Michigan. Among them all Eber B. Ward stood preeminent. Beginning life as the humble servant of his prosperous uncle, his energy and genius for great undertakings made him the leading ship owner on the greatest waterways of the globe. He was identified as president and for years of its infantile embarrass- ments guided the troublous affairs of the Flint & Pere Marquette rail- way, upholding it by the strength of his credit and associations. He was also largely interested in railways west of the Mississippi river and was the largest pine land owner in all the vast pine region of these north-central states. The immense mills at Ludington were built by him. He also built large mills at Toledo and dealt extensively in the hardwoods of Ohio. The methods by which some of our largest saw- mills are now supplied with stocks from distant shores are the result of his costly but unregretted experiments."
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The lumber barons of the Ward and Ludington days settled upon the improvement of the harbor as the one great work to be advanced in forwarding the commercial destiny of the city and that idea has been largely kept in mind to the present. Its public men have never forgotten to keep the Ludington harbor before congress with the re- sult that the government has already spent over $1,000.000 upon dredg- ing, docking and other improvements.
A GREAT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM
These efforts and accomplishments have been the prime means of organizing an unrivaled fleet of gigantic steel ferries which connect the
WEST LUDINGTON AVENUE IN 1869
great railway systems of Michigan (through the Pere Marquette lines) with those of Wisconsin across the lake. These boats, formerly operated by the Pere Marquette Steamship Company, are now under the owner- ship and management of the Pere Marquette Railroad, and comprise six steel car-ferries of 30-car capacity, each giving a constant moving capacity of 180 standard freight cars, so scheduled as to permit transit of 500 cars per day, 15,000 cars per month, 180,000 cars per year. Connections are made in Wisconsin-at Milwaukee, with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, at Manitowoc with the Chicago & Northwestern and Wisconsin Central railways, and at Kewaunee with the Green Bay & Western Railway. The passenger accommodations on these great car-ferries are also so ample and luxurious that the sys- tem has long been called "The Railroad on the Lakes."
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This system rightly claims to have solved the vexatious problem to producers and shippers as to how it was possible to exchange unbroken shipments over Lake Michigan between the producing sections of the northwest and eastern markets, as well as to send by the most direct route the products of Michigan's soil and factories to waiting markets on and beyond the western shores of the lake.
To route by rail via Chicago, while avoiding the breaking of cargo, entailed a delay in the crowded yards, equalling in loss of time the makeshift alternative of railing to Milwaukee, unloading and loading to ship across by boat, and repeating the operation on the other shore. The freight yards of Chicago are the clearing-house of western traffic -for nine months of the year so congested that shipments meet delays no less certain of occurrence than uncertain of ending.
To break cargo for lake shipment brought with it scarcely less of delay and infinitely more opportunities for breakage, error and loss. By either method, northwestern shippage was a history of damaged consignments, delayed receipts, and cancelled orders. To obviate this. the Pere Marquette Company's daring system of car-ferriage was evolved and put into successful operation. Loaded cars are taken from their trains, and run with cargoes intact into the great boats specially designed for this use. With a straighter course than any railroad, they are rushed across the lake, coupled without delay to waiting trains and, with a saving of over one hundred and seventy-five miles of travel are sent on their way to rejoice the hearts of shippers, buyers and con- sumers. Not only is Ludington harbor the home of this splendid fleet of freight and passenger boats, but into its land-locked waters ply the great steamers of every important line of the Great Lakes region.
INDUSTRIES AND FINANCES
As an industrial center Ludington has the distinction of possessing the Stearns Salt and Lumber Company, which operates one of the larg- est salt works in the country with a daily capacity of 7,500 barrels ; the largest manufactory of game boards and tables in the world, con- ducted by the Carrom-Archarena Company; the Star Watch Case fac- tory. one of the leading enterprises of the kind in the United States; a grain elevator with a capacity of 75,000 bushels and a large fruit canning factory; and the Tubbs Manufactory Company, whose large plant turns out wood type and printers' wood furniture. Not far from one thousand hands are employed by these leading industries of the city.
The growth of Ludington industrially is largely attributed to the cheap electricity which its factories have been able to secure through the plant of the Stearns Lighting and Power Company. The company was able to do this from the fact that it obtained double service from its steam plant which first operated the generators to manufacture elec- tricity and then was used to evaporate the salt. Thus electricity became almost a by-product and could be sold cheaply to outside plants, with the result that it virtually crowded out of Ludington all other kinds
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HIGH SCHOOL AND PUBLIC LIBRARY, LUDINGTON
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of power. By this means, also, the city became a well-lighted com- munity.
Ludington's two banks are the First National and the State. The First National Bank originated in the private firm of James Blain & Son whose business was started in 1872. After two years they were succeeded by the firm of Blain & Ely, consisting of Charles Blain and H. B. Ely, who continued doing a general banking business until suc- ceeded by the Ludington State Bank in 1880, which was in turn suc- ceeded by the present organization chartered in 1882 with a capital of $50,000. Its first officers were George W. Roby, president; Thomas R. Lyon, vice president, and George N. Stray, cashier. The present building was erected in 1887, and the capital increased to $100,000 in 1893. In 1911 the officers consisted of J. S. Stearns, president; James Foley, vice president and W. L. Hammond, cashier. Its resources amounted to $946,000; surplus and undivided profits, $51,000.
The present Ludington State Bank was established August 1, 1901, and has at present a capital of $100,000, surplus and undivided profits amounting to $115,000 and the following officers: C. G. Wing, presi- dent; W. A. Cartier, vice president, and C. Hagerman, cashier. It has branches in the Fourth ward of Ludington, with A. W. Newberg as manager, and at Fountain and Custer, Mason county.
CIVIC AND SOCIAL
Ludington owns its system of water works which distributes an abundance of good water. It has from eight to ten miles of well paved streets and forty miles of cement sidewalks; gas, both for fuel and do- mestic use; two fine telephone systems; an efficient fire department; a good public library and a public school system of which she has every cause to be proud. The buildings comprise a magnificent Central or High school costing $75,000 and five ward schools which would bring the total value of property devoted to educational purposes up to $190,000. Fifty-seven teachers are employed and the average attend- ance at the five main schools are as follows: Central, 156; Lake View, 299; Longfellow, 346; Luther H. Foster, 386; Pere Marquette, 291. The two rural schools, Wing and Jones, have a combined attendance of 48. Total 1,526. Among the twenty churches which are established in Ludington are numbered representatives of the Baptist, Catholic, Con- gregational, Episcopal, Danish and German Lutheran, Methodist, Nor- wegian Baptist, Presbyterian and Swedish Lutheran denominations.
The residence districts of Ludington are homelike and attractive and embrace several pretty parks, but the favorite places of resort for summer visitors who come to the city, and citizens who seek an outing, are the Epworth Assembly grounds six miles north on Lake Michigan, and Hamlin Lake. two miles inland. The Ludington & Northern Rail- road is the popular mode of conveyance to these restful localities. The assembly grounds consist of some 200 acres of diversified land which has been under process of beautifying for sixteen years. The buildings embrace a spacious assembly hall and large hotel and over three hun-
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dred cottages, while the facilities for visitors provide for all sorts of outdoor amusements, including boating, bathing, fishing, golf and tennis.
The Hamlin lake region is a great play ground, resorters thither perhaps being a little more unconventional than those who frequent the Epworth Assembly grounds. There are several large and finely equipped hotels on the shores of the lake, one of the most popular be- ing Bugg House !
SCOTTVILLE, CUSTER AND FOUNTAIN
Scottville is a growing little city of about nine hundred people, originally settled in 1876; incorporated as a village in 1889 and as a city in 1907. Nine miles east of Ludington on the Pere Marquette Railroad and the Pere Marquette river, it is the center of trade for a fertile country which produces fruit, grain and potatoes. Around Scottville is also a good dairy district so that it ships both butter and cheese. A grain elevator and a grist and lumber mill add to the busi- ness like appearance of the place. A graded school, well built water works and a substantial bank are also evidences of its thrift and prog- ress. Through their boards of trade Scottville and Ludington pull to- gether most harmoniously for the general good of Mason county.
Custer, twelve miles east of Ludington on the Pere Marquette Rail- road and river, was incorporated as a village in 1895. It has about three hundred people, a bank, several stores, a small manufactory of wooden bowls, a graded school and two churches.
Fountain, about the same size but unincorporated, is on the Pere Marquette line twenty-five miles northeast of Ludington. Like Custer it is accommodated by a branch of the State Bank of Ludington and has a fair trade with the surrounding country.
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CHAPTER XVII
WEXFORD COUNTY
CIVIL AND PHYSICAL FEATURES-BUILDING OF THE STATE ROAD-FIRST SETTLERS AND INSTITUTIONS-THE COUNTY AND COUNTY SEATS- EARLY HISTORY OF CADILLAC-VILLAGE AND CITY CORPORATIONS- DEATH OF GEORGE A. MITCHELL-THE PRESENT CITY-MANTON- HARRIETTA-SHERMAN-MESICK, BUCKLEY, BOON AND YUMA.
One of the most progressive counties in Northern Michigan, Wex- ford is practically only about forty years old, for prior to 1869 about all there was to it was the little settlement of Sherman, near which were a grist mill and a sawmill, with a number of settlers further to the east in the town of Colfax; the State road running from Northport in Grand Traverse bay to Newaygo county through almost unbroken forests and crossing the Manistee river near Sherman; and the skeleton of a county body centering also in Sherman and loosely put together in 1869. In 1872 the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad passed through the county, leaving Clam Lake and Manton villages and other evidences of hope, confidence and growth in its wake. From that year the solid and sustained life of Wexford county really commences, and very early in her history there were evidences of an awakening to the possibilities of her responsive soil and to the fact that it was destined to produce far more than pine and hardwood forests.
The first agricultural fair was held at Sherman in October, 1874, and a very creditable display was made in vegetables, hay and grain, but owing to the newness of the country the only fruit shown was a plate of grapes grown by H. J. Carpenter. The first mowing machine brought into Wexford county was purchased by Jerome Bartley in the summer of 1876. Prior to that time all the hay and grain raised in the county had been cut with the scythe and the cradle. Such facts as these are adduced to illustrate the "newness" of Wexford county and prove the rapid and substantial nature of her progress.
CIVIL AND PHYSICAL FEATURES
Before going further into the history of the county, it seems best to have a general foreground of its present civil and physical body, the former feature being well presented in the last statistics of population compiled by the United States census bureau.
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