USA > Michigan > A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I > Part 47
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426
315
230
Total
10,606
9,308
5,048
The assessed valuation of property in the county, made in 1911, amounts to $2.120,310 in real estate and $436,177 in personal property.
ORGANIC
Missaukee county was first attached to Manistee and then to Wex- ford. when the latter was organized in 1869; it did not form an inde-
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pendent body, civil and political, until 1871. Prior to the latter year settlement had been scarce and spasmodic.
The enabling act of the legislature provided that the county seat should, for three years, be located at Falmouth, or Pinhook as the settlement of a few houses was then called. When the vote for reloca- tion was polled on June 3, 1873, it was found that the rival settlement on the northeast shore of Round lake had won by 131 to 95. One vote was cast for "center of county."
FIRST EVENTS, PERSONS AND THINGS
One of the best general sketches of pioneer times in Missaukee county was prepared by Mrs. Mary Reeder and read as a paper, in 1902, before the old settlers' reunion of that year. The Reeder family was the third to permanently settle in the county, in the fall of 1868, and the township which embraces most of Lake City was named in its honor. Washington and William Reeder, Canadians and brothers, were leading merchants of the county seat from the early seventies to 1888, when they became successful agriculturists. From the paper mentioned, prepared by Mrs. Mary Reeder, are collated the salient facts comprising the county's early history :
"The first survey in the county was made by W. L. Coffinberry, about 1853 to 1856. The first and second homesteads in the county were taken by A. B. Clark and Laird, who abandoned their claims before final proof. The third was taken by H. A. Ferris, who made final proof but never actually resided on it, and sold it soon after- ward. W. Richardson was the first who made a permanent home in the county, the date of his claim being December 27, 1867. William J. Morey also homesteaded his land during the same month.
"The first recorded election was held April 3, 1861, for justice of the supreme court and other state offices; forty-one votes were cast, all republican. Of the first election of county officers, the records in the county clerk's office tell nothing. All that can be ascertained is that some time in the spring of 1871 a special election was held at which the following officers were chosen: John Vogel, judge of probate; Gillis McBain, sheriff; E. W. Watson, clerk and register; Ira Van Meter, treasurer; A. Stout, surveyor. The circuit judge, T. J. Rams- dell of Traverse City, appointed L. H. Gage of Traverse City, prose- cuting attorney for this county, there being no attorney within its limits.
"The first board of supervisors met at the Perley farm, about two miles northeast of Falmouth (Pinhook), on June 6, 1871. Those pres- ent were William J. Morey of Pioneer, James White of Quilna (now known as Caldwell and Bloomfield; the name was changed to Caldwell a year or two later), Daniel Reeder of Reeder, John Vogel of Clam Union, and Henry Van Meter of Riverside. Mr. Reeder was elected chairman. The salaries of county officers were fixed by this board as follows: Clerk, $500; treasurer, $250; prosecuting attorney, $200; judge of probate, $100; sheriff, $100. At this session the Osceola Out- line of Hersey, was designated as the official paper of the county.
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"The first general election on record was held in November, 1872, during the Grant and Greeley campaign. There were one hundred and nineteen national ballots polled, Grant receiving one hundred and eleven and Greeley eight. On the county ticket John Vogel was reelected probate judge, Otto Schaap sheriff, M. D. Richardson clerk and register, Washington Reeder treasurer, Arlington C. Lewis prosecuting attorney. B. C. Bonnell surveyor, and Thomas T. Caldwell and Addison T. Smith coroners.
"The first birth that occurred in the county was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Vogel; the second, Etta, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M. D. Richardson, was born March 28, 1870. The first marriage was John Cavanaugh and Miss Caroline Van Meter, on March 1, 1871, solemnized by the Rev. W. Richardson. The first death that occurred was that of Albert Richardson, March 21, 1870.
"The first physician was Dr. Moorehouse of Falmouth, and the first resident attorney, A. C. Lewis; both moved to California.
"The first road was built in the fall of 1867, from the Watson farm to Falmouth, by a Mr. McDonald; Oscar Noble constructed the first state road through the county. the Houghton Lake state road.
"The first logging camp in the county was built by W. Windson in 1865, on section 34. town 21, north range 6 west, on the bank of the (lam river two miles below Vogel Center. The first pole logging road was built by Paul Lux in 1877, running from section 35, town 23-7, to the head of the West branch, or what is known as the Gerish dam. It was operated during the spring and summer of 1878 and brought three million five hundred thousand feet of logs to the West branch.
"The first railroad for running logs was built by Watson Brothers. Tom Simpson also built one about the same time in 1876-7, the rails being part iron and part wood. One road ran from the No. 2 farm on the Butterfield to the main Muskegon river. The others ran to the Clam. The first passenger road was completed in December, 1885, by Mr. Cummer of Cadillac. In the spring of 1890 the Missaukee branch of the Grand Rapids & Indiana was extended to Lake City.
"The first saw and shingle mill in the county was built by Pearly, Palmer & Company in the winter of 1871-2. The first grist mill was erected at Falmouth. The first hotel was also built at Falmouth in 1871 and was managed by John Cavanaugh. Indians had occupied the land long before white people settled here, but John Green and John Wagan were the first who located in the county in late years. The first deer. bear or wolves were killed by a man named Hicks in 1866. "A temporary courthouse was built at Falmouth in 1871. In 1873 a courthouse and jail were built at Lake City and in 1883 a new court- house was erected at a cost of $10,000. The new jail was erected in 1886 at a cost of something over $7,000.
'The first sermon was preached at Lake City in January, 1874, by John R. Robinson. a half-breed Indian. The agricultural society held their first fair in the year 1880 in Lake City, south of the house now owned by William J. Morey. Since then it has been held on the grounds purchased by the society.
"The nearest markets long ago, were Hersey (Osceola county), on
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the south and Traverse City on the north. The first postoffice was at the home of Daniel Reeder at Reeder (now Lake City), in the spring of 1872, but mail used to be brought to the settlers in the county by those who made long trips for provisions, the settlers coming for their mail when the trains returned. The mail averaged perhaps one every two months.
"The first store was built by John Koopman in October, 1869, it bemg a log house-residence and store combined. In 1879 he built a store at Falmouth.'
LAKE CITY
The settlement formerly known as Reeder was incorporated as a village. under the name of Lake City, in 1887. It is now a pretty place of nearly eight hundred people. Lake City is a leading receiving and shipping station on the Grand Rapids & Indiana line, the pro- ductions of the surrounding country being largely confined to potatoes
MISSAU KEE COUNTY COURT HOUSE. LAKE CITY
and fruit. Its industries are a glove factory, and flour and saw mills. The Lake City State Bank is capitalized at $20,000, while the Missaukee County Bank (not incorporated) has a capital of $10,000. As the county seat and a place which enjoys an especially healthful location. Lake City has long added to its other attractions and advantages. It is lighted by electricity and has also a good system of waterworks. Its churches include Catholic, Free Methodist, Methodist, Presbyterian and I'nited Brethren. and its Union school is well deserving of the hearty support it receives. Of the higher departments of the village system
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of public education the high school has an enrolment of eighty-two pupils and the County Normal of twenty. Grammar, intermediate and primary grades embrace the remainder of the village pupils, whose total enrolment is two hundred and eighty-two.
McBAIN AND OTHER CENTERS
McBain was incorporated under a village government in 1893, and as a city in 1907. It is a place of less than six hundred people, on the Ann Arbor Railroad, ten miles south of Lake City, the county seat. McBain city is in a fertile district in the southwestern part of the county. Among its industries are a flour mill and a pickle factory, and it is the center of quite a trade in produce and live stock.
Falmouth, twelve miles southeast of Lake City, on a small spur of the Missaukee branch of the Grand Rapids & Indiana line, is chiefly of interest from its associations as the first county seat and the earliest settlement. There is a good country around it and the settlement itself claims a creamery and a saw and grist mill. It is a banking point for a considerable district and has somewhat of a trade in agricultural implements with the farmers of the vicinity.
Jennings, seven miles west of Lake City, on the Missaukee branch of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad, was first settled in 1881. It is quite a busy place, being the headquarters of Mitchell Brothers, large lumber business and the site of a substantial plant for the manu- facture of wood alcohol.
Lucas is also a postoffice and small settlement. It is located on the Ann Arbor Railroad. in the southwestern part of the county, four miles west of Bain City, and has a good produce country upon which to draw.
KALKASKA COUNTY
Kalkaska is one of the counties of northwestern Michigan included in the Grand Traverse region. Torch and Round lakes extend into its northwestern sections: its northern and western townships give rise to the head streams of the Boardman and Rapid rivers, which flow into the West arm of Grand Traverse bay, and the Manistee river has its origin in several small lakes in the northeast. In other words, the general surface features of Kalkaska consist of a main central plateau extending from northeast to southwest through the geographical center of the county, forming a watershed which divides the Manistee valley slope on the southeast from the Boardman and Rapid river valleys on the northwest.
The entire county, with very rare exceptions, is well watered by streams, originating from springs of clear and cold water. These streams literally swarm with speckled trout, which afford the most delicious food and rare sport for the leisure hours. There are also numerous small lakes, clear and deep, fringed with dense foliage, and concealing within their waters an abundance of pickerel, bass and other varieties of fish.
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RAISING CELERY IN WESTERN MICHIGAN
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"The main central plateau," says an article on Kalkaska county lately published by the Western Michigan Development Bureau, "was originally heavily timbered with sugar maple, beech, elm, basswood, birch and other woods which here grew in great luxuriance, forming some of the finest and most beautiful forests to be found on the conti- nent. The soil here varies from a loose but very fertile sandy or gravelly loam to heavy clay-the former being best adapted to cultivated crops, and the latter to hay and pasturage, although both grass and grains, as well as potatoes and all sorts of vegetables, apples, pears, cherries, plums and small fruits, grow abundantly on either soil. The same soils prevail in nearly the entire northern half of the county. The Board- man valley. which is but just beginning to receive attention, is of a
POTATO GROWING IN KALKASKA COUNTY
rich, dark muck, well adapted to the raising of celery and all kinds of garden truck.
"There are in this county many thousands of acres of cut-over hardwood lands of the very best quality for agricultural purposes. offering the greatest possible inducement to persons of small means who desire to obtain homes of their own. Many of these lands are within a few miles of the best markets, and are on, or within a short distance of, the most excellent county roads for which this county is justly famous, being one of the pioneer counties in the work of county road-building."
To such advantages, provided by nature, man has made a great addition in the building of railways through the settled portions of the county. These include virtually its western half. Kalkaska, the county seat, northwest of the center and, by far its largest village, is at the crossing of the Grand Rapids & Indiana and the Pere Marquette railroads-the former giving an outlet to the markets of the south and north and the later to the Grand Traverse region. Prior to the build- ing of the Grand Rapids & Indiana. Kalkaska county had been roughly placed in communication with that region and the Manistee valley by
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means of a state road and a more local highway running from Kalkaska, the county seat, to Torch river, where travelers, during the open season, could sometimes connect with steamers bound for Grand Traverse bay.
Boardman, the only village in the county besides Kalkaska, is in the southwestern section on the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad.
COUNTY STATISTICS
With a statement of these general facts, the reader is presented with the table of statistics showing Kalkaska's increase in population during the past twenty years, by townships and villages :
Civil Divisions
1910
1900
1890
Boardman township, including Boardman vil- lage
1,240
857
740
Boardman village
524
298
Clearwater township
878
882
542
Cold Springs township
545
270
137
Excelsior township
773
438
339
Garfield township
278
262
181
Kalkaska township, including Kalkaska village.1,829 Kalkaska village 1,415
1,727
1,542
Oliver township
222
152
131
Orange township
534
591
383
Rapid River township
616
657
549
Springfield township
535
602
285
Wilson township
319
409
148
Township 25, range 5
34
73
Township 25, range 6.
95
133
Township 26, range 5.
74
14
Township 27, range !
28
Township 28, range 5
125
38
Total
8,097
7,133
5,160
The area of Kalkaska county is 364,800 acres; land in farms, 67,731 acres; available for fruit raising and general farming, 200,000 acres.
FIRST SETTLERS AND POLITICIANS
The first settler in Kalkaska county was William Copeland, who located in what is now the town of Clearwater, in the fall of 1855. For twelve years Mr. Copeland and wife were the only permanent residents of the county. About the time Mr. Copeland located there a dam was built on Barker creek, but the parties did not build a mill, and did not become residents of the county. Mr. Copeland was near the Grand Traverse county line and had neighbors in that direction, but in his own county he was the monarch of all he surveyed.
Rapid River was the first town organized in what is now Kalkaska Vol. I-28
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county, the year being 1868. There were then only a few settlers in the county, but they were desirous of voting at the presidential elec- tion. The territory was then attached to Antrim county and the dis- tance to the nearest voting place was so great that some would be de- prived of their rights of franchise. Therefore Norman Ross, then a resident of what is now Clearwater township, circulated a petition to the Antrim board of supervisors for the organization of a town to be called Rapid River. The first town election was held at the house of S. A. Rice, in what is now Rapid River and nineteen votes were cast. H. U. Hill had been elected justice of the peace at the spring election and Norman Ross was elected first supervisor. The day following was the presidential election and the voting place was at the house of Nor- man Ross. Fifteen votes were cast at that election-a falling off of four. Having had a taste of politics, when the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad commenced to loom up from the south, Kalkaska county girded up her loins and struck out for independence from Antrim, for home rule.
COUNTY ORGANIZATION
Kalkaska county was successively attached to Grand Traverse and Antrim counties, being a portion of the latter until civil organization, under an act of the legislature approved January 27, 1871. Crawford county, then unorganized, was attached to Kalkaska for municipal and judicial purposes. The act further provided that Joseph B. Haviland, Charles H. Estes and Morris Mahan should be the commissioners to locate the county seat during the year 1873; failing which, it was to be located by the board of supervisors and county clerk. Under its provisions the county officers were elected in the following April, the first meeting of the board of supervisors on the 25th of that month, held at the schoolhouse in District No. 1 of Round Lake, being attended by A. T. Kellogg of that township, H. U. Hill of Rapid River and A. W Jones of Kaska.
On July 14, 1873, the commissioners named met and located the county seat at Kalkaska, where it has remained. Although cars were not yet running regularly over the Grand Rapids & Indiana as far as Kalkaska, a village had been platted during the previous winter and the road had been pushed through the county.
KALKASKA, THE COUNTY SEAT
In the spring of 1872, A. A. Abbott, then living at decatur, Van Buren county, Michigan, started out to find a suitable location for a mill and village site. The Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad was fin- ished and trains running as far as Cadillac and work on the grade was being prosecuted as far as Walton, Grand Traverse county, near the Kalkaska county line. Mr. Abbott visited the present site of Kalkaska and was favorably impressed with the location. The county had been organized but the county seat had not then been located. He reasoned that a village at this point, being on the line of the railroad and near
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the center of the county, would probably become the county seat; and his reasoning was correct. The north branch of the Boardman afforded a desirable location for a mill site, and he therefore made a purchase of one thousand acres of land of the railroad company, Hannah, Lay & Co. and Dexter & Noble. He remained there until August and then returned to Decatur to complete his arrangements for beginning work. Before starting on his prospecting tour Mr. Abbott had arranged with R. L. Thompson, then living at Grand Junction, to join him in the enterprise, should he find a satisfactory location.
In October, 1872, Messrs. Abbott and Thompson arrived upon the site of their operations with men to begin work. Trees were cut down and a log house built for a boarding house. After work was well under way, Mr. Thompson went back after teams and tools necessary for lum- bering, and returned with them in December. Work was pushed for- ward on the mill and sometime in February it commenced running. Mr. Thompson owned and operated the mill, the site and lands belonged to the firm of H. S. Buskirk & Company.
During the winter Mr. Buskirk sold his interest to O. S. Abbott. brother of A. A. Abbott, and the style of the firm was changed to O. S. Abbott & Company. The business at Kalkaska, however, was transacted by A. A. Abbott, who remained upon the ground and became a resi- dent of the place, carrying on lumbering operations. there for several years. Mr. Thompson operated the mill about a year when he sold it and took up a homestead on section 36, in what is now the town of Kalkaska.
During the winter of 1873 Mr. Abbott platted two hundred and forty acres lying upon both sides of the railroad, and commenced selling village lots. At the same time the mill was building, Charles E. Whit- ney built a log house which he finished in February and opened as a hotel called the Kalkaska House. As spring opened a number of settlers arrived and erected houses and stores. Saloons especially flourished at that time. They were mainly supported by the construc- tion gang of the railroad, and as the work passed through the village the liquor business declined. In the spring of 1873, five saloons were in full blast, but by July of that year, when the new railroad town was made the county seat and the grading was far advanced toward the northern boundary, the traffic had so fallen away as to speak well for the habits of the permanent settlers.
Irregular preaching had already been conducted in the young town, but the Congregationalists have the honor of forming the first per- manent society at Kalkaska in December, 1874. This, as well as all other local events, was being duly recorded by the Kalkaskaian, which had been established since early spring.
A school district had been organized in 1873 to include the future county seat, and later the proprietor of the village site offered the board an acre of ground for school purposes. A good frame building was finished thereon in November, 1874; so that both education and religion obtained a firm foothold very early in local history.
In 1883 a new courthouse replaced the old one of 1873-4, its cost being about $20,000, and in 1884 a substantial building was completed for a Union school.
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SAMPLE OF FINE COUNTY ROAD: EXCELSIOR AND KALKASKA TURNPIKE
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Kalkaska was incorporated as a village in 1887 and has shown a steady growth. Situated on the North Boardman river and at the junction of the Grand Rapids & Indiana and Pere Marquette railroads, it enjoys the double advantage of fine water power and adequate facili- ties for the transportation of the various products of its factories and of the agricultural country of which it is the natural and actual center. Among its industries are cant hook works, cement brick works, saw, grist and planing mills, and a maple syrup factory. The shipments of Kalkaska include ginseng, potatoes and other farm products, as well as the output of these plants. It is also a convenient banking point largely through the facilities of the Kalkaska County Savings Bank, with its capital of $20,000.
The county seat provides convenient buildings for the courts and official business of the county, and is altogether a comfortable and attractive village in which to reside. Its streets and structures are lighted by electricity, while well constructed waterworks are installed, operated under the Holly system. School and church advantages are what they should be, the Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists and Disciples having organizations.
BOARDMAN
In 1871 Orange A. Row located in what is now Orange township, in the southwestern part of the county, and got into communication with Hamilton Stone, a friend and lumberman of Ovid, southern Michi- gan. Mr. Row told Mr. Stone of a tract of eighty acres of land lying near the crossing of the Grand Rapids & Indiana railroad and the south branch of the Boardman river. The line of the railroad was at the time fixed, Mr. Stone found a better water power than he had antici- pated, and soon after the railway company platted the town that gentle- man proposed it. In the fall of 1874, accompanied by several others, he located at Boardman to commence operations. As the railroad was then running he brought some lumber from below and his men soon had erected a rough shanty-the first building on the village site. The depot and a boarding house-the Boardman River House-were fin- ished before winter set in, and early in 1875 a man named Thomas Wasson moved a portable sawmill from Mancelona to the new lumber and railroad town. A postoffice was also established at the depot and a schoolhouse built, both during 1875.
Boardman seems to have taken a new start in the early eighties, when large steam sawmills were built by J. L. Quinby of Grand Rapids, and M. B. Farrin & Company of Cincinnati. Mr. Stone also largely improved its water power.
The village received its charter of incorporation in 1890, and is now a pretty place of over five hundred people, lighted by electricity and provided with other conveniences which make it pleasant for resi- dence. It has a creamery, cement block works, handle manufactory, and saw and flour mills, which, with a good school and several churches, give it substantial standing as a place of business and an intelligent and moral community.
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CHAPTER XIX
CHEBOYGAN COUNTY
WATERWAYS AND THEIR INFLUENCE-SOIL AND ITS PRODUCTS-TRANS- PORTATION FACILITIES-POPULATION AND PROPERTY-COUNTY ORGAN- IZATION-FIRST SETTLEMENTS-FOUNDING OF CHEBOYGAN-CHURCHES -- MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT CONTINUED-IMPROVEMENTS OF WATER- WAYS-DUNCAN BECOMES CHEBOYGAN-THE CITY OF CHEBOYGAN- WOLVERINE-MACKINAW CITY-TOWER.
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