A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I, Part 49

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 49


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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"Watts S. Humphrey, recently there practicing as a disciple of Ike Walton, has kindly furnished the following information as to the progress of the work up to date of September 6, 1876: 'The dredging at the head of Indian river was completed on Tuesday last, September 6th. The pile driver, with a raft in tow loaded with about 27,000 feet of lumber and timber, besides a quantity of nails, iron, etc., for con- structing the piers, reached Crooked lake on Saturday night, and the first pile was driven on Monday morning at 7 o'clock. The piles go through about eight feet of marl and then strike into good hard bot- tom. making a splendid foundation.'


"The little tug run by Capt. Andrews, and formerly belonging to Petoskey. made her first through trip from the head of Crooked lake


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to Cheboygan, starting from the head of Crooked lake at nine o'clock in the morning. and making several stops on the way, she arrived at John F. McDonald's at half-past seven in the evening. She brought with her quite a number of passengers from Petoskey, among whom were three gentlemen from Milwaukee, prospecting and looking over the country with a view to locate somewhere in the vicinity. A pho- tographer was also among the passengers, sent up in the interests of the Grand Rapids & Indiana railroad, to take views of the lakes and rivers through which the route passes. This tug can make the trip from the head of Crooked lake to Indian river in three hours. The 'Minnie Sutton' has run from the latter named place to Cheboygan in the night in two hours and twelve minutes. When the route is com- pleted the 'Minnie Sutton' can make the round trip in eleven hours.'


AT THE CHEBOYGAN DOCKS


"It is expected that the improvement will be completed sometime this season. To Mr. Chandler great credit is due for pushing this im- portant matter to such a successful issue. The parties concerned in the operations are as follows: W. Chandler, the local commissioner in charge of the works; O. B. Green, of Chicago, contractor for dredging throughout ; George J. Dorr, his agent, superintending it, and doing the work liberally, exceeding the depth the contract calls for; F. M. Sammons has the contract for the piling and gravel work. He has the contract also for removing the obstructions in the rivers on the route. David Smith has the contract for the timber or carpenter work; Col. R. C. Duryea is the engineer in charge."


The first systematic attempt to improve the inland waterway from Lake Huron almost to Lake Michigan was thus made and the work was accomplished in the late seventies. Since then other improvements have been pushed from time to time with the object of so increasing the capacity of the rivers and lakes included in the system that large


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craft can make Crooked lake and bring Cheboygan within seven miles of Petoskey and in direct communication with the railways of the Grand Traverse region. At the present time, through government appropria- tions, Cheboygan river has a continuous channel eight feet deep and fifty wide, and comparatively large passenger steamers and freight boats have easy access to a stretch of sixty miles of country which gratifies the eye and practical expectations of tourist and farmer alike.


DUNCAN BECOMES CHEBOYGAN


In 1870 the name of Duncan postoffice was changed to Cheboygan, C. A. Brace being at that time postmaster. During the same year, in June, the government engineers commenced the harbor improve- ments to enable steamers and vessels navigating the lakes to approach the village through Cheboygan river.


In 1871, by special act of legislature, fractional sections 26, 30, 31 and 32. in fractional township 38 north, of range 1 west, was constituted a village. The first charter election in the village was held May 9, 1871, at which time 115 votes were case. The first officers were as fol- lows : President, W. P. Maiden, M. D .; recorder, H. H. Kezar; trustees, Ward B. McArthur, David Smith, Paul R. Woodward, James N. Reiley, Charles Bellant, Ephraim Nelson; treasurer, Lorenzo Backus; assessor, S. Legault; marshal, Peter Paquin, who served for two months, then resigned, and M. W. Horne was appointed for and served the balance of the term.


The year of Cheboygan's incorporation as a village also witnessed the building of its first planing mill by Kemp & Long on Main street. In 1873 Perry & Watson opened its first foundry, on Main above Pine street, the first article which they produced being a forty-horse power en- gine. A Union brick schoolhouse was built the same year on Pine street west of Huron.


THE CITY OF CHEBOYGAN


In 1875 Cheboygan was reincorporated under the general law of 1873, but as portions of the act had been declared unconstitutional the village returned to its original charter. It was reincorporated in 1877, under the general law of 1875, and became a city in 1889. The Michi- gan Central and the Grand Rapids & Indiana railways had been com- pleted to Mackinaw City in 1881 and 1882 respectively, so that Cheboy- gan herself had a free outlet for her shipments by land as well as by water. At about the same time the village established a small pump- ing station, around which gradually, under the city government, de- veloped a fine water works plant. As her water system stands today which, with ten miles of mains and 116,000 horsepower, could not be duplicated for $160,000.


Cheboygan's present system of city schools was established under the provisions of the municipal charter granted by the legislature in 1889. Eight buildings are occupied by the schools, the largest and finest of which is the High school. Some thirty teachers are employed


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to 200 men, fully $150,000 is distributed in the community. This sum includes wages and salaries for maintaining the plant, the cutting of spruce and pulp wood for the raw material, taxes paid on the local prop- erty and money expended on repairs, feed for horses and many other incidentals. From fifty to sixty tons of paper are daily manufactured. The concern is capitalized at $500,000. The plant covers forty acres of ground and all its buildings are in direct communication with the Michigan Central and Detroit & Mackinac railroads through a system of side-tracks which cover its yard. Print paper for newspapers is the sole article of manufacture. In connection with the paper plant, however, is a sulphite mill with a daily capacity of from thirty to forty tons.


The Pfister & Vogel Leather Company, whose headquarters are in Milwaukee, operate a tannery at Cheboygan which is one of the most extensive industries of the kind in the west. Its force of men averages one hundred and fifty, to whom fully $75,000 is annually paid in wages and salaries, and another $100,000 is distributed in the county for the purchase of the 14,000 or 15,000 cords of hemlock bark re- quired in the tanning processes. The Pfister & Vogel tannery at Che- boygan was founded in 1892, covers a site of twenty-five acres and in- cludes thirty buildings. The company also owns a large tract of grass land adjoining the tannery grounds proper.


Cheboygan has a number of large lumber companies, of which the Olds concern represents one of the first and most successful. In 1904 the Olds Cheboygan Lumber Company purchased the property of the old Cheboygan Lumber Company, which was established over thirty years ago with a mile and a half of dockage along the river and a daily capacity of 100,000 feet of lumber, its yards present one of the busiest sections of Cheboygan. About one hundred and twenty-five men are usually employed. Besides the dockage, tramways and water and land area embraced in the yards of the Cheboygan Lumber Company, its property includes some 40,000 acres of timber land scattered through Northern Michigan.


The Cheboygan Brewing and Malting Company, which went into operation under its present management in 1905, is also one of the city's leading industries.


Mention is also due of the importance of the fishing industry. With- out referring to special houses, it is sufficient to state that Cheboygan is still one of the largest fishing stations on the lakes, and that the annual product of this branch of industry is about 150,000 boxes valued at $100,000.


The two leading banks of the city are the First National and the Cheboygan County Savings. The origin of the former is traced to G. V. D. Rollo, who came to Cheboygan from Cincinnati in the spring of 1875, and engaged in the banking business. W. F. De Puy was asso- ciated with him until some time in 1878, and the style of the firm was C. V. D. Rollo & Company, until Mr. De Puy sold out, when it was changed to Rollo & Hitchcock. In February, 1882, that firm was suc- ceeded by the Cheboygan Banking Company, which, during the same year, was reorganized as the First National Bank of Cheboygan, with


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and the enrolment is about 1,500. The city is also the seat of the fine county normal school.


Nine miles from Cheboygan on Black river is the plant which sup- plies the electric light to illuminate her streets and many of the resi- dence districts, besides furnishing power to not a few of her manu- factories. The dam, works and conveying system were completed in 1898. In 1904 the Cheboygan Gas Light Company was organized, so that electricity and gas are both available for lighting or heating pur- poses.


Cheboygan has no Carnegie library, but one which is supported by its own tax payers and by a fund derived from penal fines. It was


CHEBOYGAN'S HIGH SCHOOL


established some thirty years ago largely through the efforts and in- fluence of Dr. Arthur M. Gerow, first president of the library asso- ciation. The collection comprises about 7,000 well-selected volumes, and the reading room is thoroughly stocked with standard newspapers and magazines. The Cheboygan public library is a continuous edu- cator as well as pleasure to its people of all ages and conditions.


The tastefully equipped City Opera House, in the City Hall, is a real credit to the corporation and its projectors.


The industries of Cheboygan have already been noted in a general way. It remains to specifically mention several of her leading manu- factories.


The Cheboygan Paper Company was organized in January, 1902, and through the operations of its great plant which employs from 150


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a capital of $50,000. Its first president was John W. McGuine; Will- iam McArthur, vice-president; Charles R. Smith, secretary, and George F. Reynolds, cashier, being the other officers. Jacob J. Post, who was one of the original directors, is now president ; Arthur M. Gerow, vice- president, and Arthur W. Ramsey, cashier.


The Cheboygan County Savings Bank is also an institution of long and stable standing. It is capitalized at $50,000, and its officials and directors are connected with the city's leading industries and business houses.


WOLVERINE


This growing village of between eight and nine hundred people is situated at the forks of the Sturgeon river, in the southern part of the county, and is one of the best stations on the Michigan Central railroad in Northern Michigan. It was platted in 1881 and was men- tioned at the time as follows: "The location is a most excellent one, being on the railroad, on Sturgeon river at the junction of the west branch with the main river and in the midst of some of the best farm- ing land in the county. The new village is called Torry, and is in the township of Tuscarora, and situated in section 6, town 33 north, of range 2 west, on land owned by Daniel McKillop. It was platted by John M. Sanborne, a surveyor of Otsego county, and as platted con- sists of seven blocks."


Since the foregoing was written, Nunda and Wilmot townships have been created and the village of Torry (which lies in both of these town- ships) has been rechristened Wolverine.


The village of Wolverine was incorporated in April, 1903. It is twenty-eight miles south of Cheboygan, has a good graded Union school and is represented in the religious field by the Congregationalists, Catholics and Methodists. Wolverine's industries comprise two saw- mills, shingle and planing mill and veneer and cooperage stock works. She has two well-managed banks and is the center of a productive and progressive country.


MACKINAW CITY


The village of Mackinaw City stands upon historic ground, and the events which gave this point a conspicuous place in history have been narrated upon preceding pages. The village as a reality is of recent growth, but as a projected enterprise dates back to the early years of progress in Northern Michigan. In the year 1857. Edgar Conkling and Asbury M. Searles as trustees of the proprietors of Macki- naw lands inaugurated a movement for building up a business center upon the south shore of the straits.


After vigorous but unsuccessful efforts to found a city, Mr. Conk- ling became convinced that the project was matured at too early a time. The time had not arrived for extending railway lines to this point, and without railway connection a business center of any im- portance is impossible. Mr. Conkling, however, never lost faith in


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the ultimate success of his enterprise, and after waiting and watch- ing nearly a quarter of a century died in December, 1881, a few days before the Mackinaw division of the Michigan Central was completed to this point. In July of the following year the Grand Rapids & In- diana railroad also reached Mackinaw City, and in December, 1882, the village was incorporated by the county board of supervisors as "Mackinaw City." Although still a village, it is incorporated as Mackinaw City; it was reincorporated in April, 1883, but has always maintained its unique status as "the village of Mackinaw City."


Mackinaw City is sixteen miles northwest of Cheboygan on the two railroads mentioned, at the extremity of the Southern Peninsula of Michigan and hemmed in by historic memories and beautiful and romantic surroundings. It is charming as a summer resort and place of rest, has good schools and hotels, is lighted by electricity, and is a neat, mellow old village. Its only article of trade and export is fish, the shipments of which are still considerable.


TOWER


Tower is comparatively a new village on Black river and the De- troit & Mackinac line, twenty-eight miles south of Cheboygan. It was incorporated in 1906, has now about six hundred people and the nucleus of industrial advancement. An electric light and power plant. a well organized Union school and a substantial bank give Tower a good standing in the community, and it has also, to fall back upon, a handle factory and saw, stave. heading, lath and shingle mills.


STATIONS AND POSTOFFICES


Indian River and Topinabee are stations on the Michigan Central line. postoffices and centers for summer tourists of the inland-lakes regions, the former on Indian river near the southern end of Burt lake and the latter (Topinabee) on the southwestern shores of Mullet lake. The site of Indian River was settled as early as 1876, and that of Topinabee in 1880. Weadock, in the northwestern part of the country nine miles from Cheboygan, is the center of a good fruit and farming country. It has banking facilities and a small sawmill is in operation.


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CHAPTER XX ALPENA COUNTY


POPULATION AND PROPERTY-FIRST SURVEYS AND SETTLERS-DAVID D. OLIVER REAPPEARS-VILLAGE OF FREMONT BORN-ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY-A TURNING POINT-FIRST YEARS AS A CITY-WATER AND LIGHT-SCHOOLS AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS-RELIGIOUS-INDUSTRIES AND BANKS-OUTSIDE OF ALPENA CITY.


The great water systems of northeastern Michigan are strung along the valleys of the Cheboygan and Thunder Bay rivers which approach within a few miles of each other in the northwestern part of Mont- merency county. In that locality originate the north branch of Thunder Bay river and Canada creek, an affluent of Black river, but the systems of waterways which pour their floods from the south and west into the northwestern extremity of Lake Huron and those which gather from Presque Isle county in the north, Montmorency in the west and Alcona in the south, push their way through their thousand channels in Alpena county and make their grand exit into Thunder bay-these imposing systems of northeastern Michigan are radically different. The Cheboy- gan system is composed of lakes as its most striking feature; that of Alpena county of rivers and streams. While the Thunder Bay river drains four hundred square miles of territory, Hubbard is the only lake of any size which it can claim as a reservoir ; and that is in Alcona county. The only lakes worthy of the name in Alpena county are Devil's lake, in the eastern part, but not included in the Thunder Bay river system, and Long lake, also an independent body, which extends for about half its area into Presque Isle county.


Alpena county has an area of about 1,440 square miles and con- tains approximately 391,680 acres, including not only the mainland but all the islands in Thunder bay. The surface, which is gently roll- ing, descends a little to the south and east. The timber which origin- ally covered a great portion of the country, and which is by no means exhausted, comprises pine, hemlock, beech, cedar, balsam, white and black birch, black ash, maple, elm, poplar and spruce. The clearing away of many square miles of timber by which many of the leading industries of the county have been established and developed has also assisted farmers, fruit-raisers and stockmen. The soil, which is gener- ally a light sandy loam, is favorable to all kinds of fruits and roots. but her record as an agricultural county chiefly rests on her success as a potato and strawberry section. Cheboygan county in famous as


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the home of the big red apple; so should Alpena county be known as the garden of the sweet red strawberry.


Alpena county is also fortunate in its great deposits of limestone and cement; the former insuring, with characteristic enterprise and forethought, a system of good roads, and the latter the founding and progress of a leading industry. The advantages of good roads are too well known to be reviewed. It is enough in this special connection to say that the city of Alpena is now connected with Long lake and sev- eral minor lakes of the interior by first-class macadamized highways- an invaluable encouragement to travelers, tourists and those seeking


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"KATY-DID" IN NORTHERN MICHIGAN PINERY


homes in the county not in direct connection with the Detroit & Macki- nac railroad.


POPULATION AND PROPERTY


The city of AAlpena, the only large center of population in the county. is built around the mouth of Thunday Bay river and is one of the leading ports of Northern Michigan, having not only a safe door- way to Lake Huron in its fine harbor on Thunder bay, by generous means of transportation through the Detroit and Mackinac railroads. Its industries founded on its soft and hardwood timber, its cement, its fisheries and the home demands of its people, with all these advantages of distribution and intercommunication. have made Alpena not only a growing city, but one which has largely absorbed the population and wealth of the countv. This statement is forcibly illustrated by the figures collated by the United States census enumerators in 1910 and by the county authorities in 1911.


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Civil Divisions


1910


1900


1890


Alpena city


12,706


11,802


11,283


Ward 1


1,625


Ward 2


1,722


Ward 3


3,684


.


. .


Ward 4


1,260


...


. ...


Ward 5


1,827


. ..


...


Ward 6


2,588


Alpena township


928


1,173


1,115


Green township


758


670


436


Long Rapids township


1,312


1,243


817


Maple Ridge township


761


783


598


Ossineke Township


1,000


587


132


Sanborn township


847


542


204


Wilson township


1,653


1,454


996


Totals


19,965


18,254


15,581


The total number of acres and assessed valuation of the townships and city of Alpena, as fixed by the assessors and equalized by the board of supervisors, are as follows :


Civil Divisions


Acres


Valuation


Alpena


62,399.45


$ 334,300


Green


48,895.39


235,000


Long Rapids


62,669.31


329,300


Maple Ridge


30,131.39


138,900


Ossineke


62,225.25


250,000


Sanborn


26,357.91


135,500


Wilson


46,825.54


308,000


City of Alpena


4,269,000


Totals


339,504.24


$6,000,000


FIRST SURVEYS AND SETTLERS


From the time the first government surveys were made in Alpena county in 1839 until a civil organization was effected in 1857 comprises a period of preliminaries, or the real epoch of the pioneer. It was in the spring of the former year that the surveyors first entered the ter- ritory now included by Alpena county and they all agreed that the country was worthless; that the government would never realize enough from the sale of the lands to pay for the surveying. Lewis Clason, one of the surveyors, was so confident of this, that he said to his party of helpers, "I will give any of you a good, warranty deed of any town- ship of land that we have surveyed for your wages and will bind my- self to purchase the land of the government for you should it ever be- come saleable. Not one of the party would accept Mr. Clason's offer


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-not even David D. Oliver, the young civil engineer and lumberman from Grand Haven, who was of the party and within a few years there- after was to become one of the leading figures in the development of the Thunder Bay region.


In the year 1840 Northern Michigan was parceled out into various unorganized counties of which Alpena was one and attached to old Mackinac county for judicial purposes. It was originally named after An-a-ma-kee, or Thunder, an old chief of the Thunder bay band of In- dians. In the spring of the same year, 1840, the surveyor general of the state contracted with Sylvester Sibley, Henry Brevoort and Henry Mullet to survey about half of Alpena county, as well as Cheboygan and Presque Isle counties. This second surveying party left Detroit early in the spring of 1840 on the steamer "Madison" for Presque isle. Near the Thunder river they discovered the site of a house that had been burned, some square timber and excavation for a mill race. Upon subsequent inquiry, they were told that Michael Douseman, of Macki- naw. with other parties from the state of New York, had, some time prior, attempted to build a sawmill at that place and had been driven away by the Indians.


DAVID D. OLIVER REAPPEARS


It was late in the fall of 1840 that the surveyors finished their work and returned to Presque Isle on their way to Detroit. For nearly five years thereafter Mr. Oliver continued his surveying in various parts of the country and also his studies in natural history. The government lands in Alpena and adjoining counties were offered for sale in 1843 and on the 18th of September, in the following year, Mr. Oliver landed at the mouth of Thunder Bay river not to purchase but to study the animals of the region. From that time until the 20th of May following he did not see the face of a white man, nor hear the crack of any rifle but his own. On coming down the river to its mouth in the spring he found Washington Jay, his wife and daughter, and a man named Will- iam Dagget, who had moved there late in the fall from Thunder Bay island, for the purpose of making some barrel staves for fish barrels. They built a log house near what is now Second and River streets, and cut timber and made staves on the present site of Alpena. This was the second house built on the site of the city by white men, and Mrs. Jay and her daughter Emma were, in all probability, the first white women that had ever visited the place. They were certainly the first to live there.


In September, 1844, Jonathan Burtch and Anson Eldred purchased two pieces of land at the mouth of Devil river. that tract being the first bought of the United States in Alpena county; the patents were issued in 1844. They erected a water mill on Devil river, with two upright sash saws, driven by two old fashioned flutter-wheels, and cut eight thousand feet of lumber in twenty-four hours. This was the first sawmill erected in Alpena county. In 1845 Mr. Burtch located forty acres more at Devil river and Mr. Eldred two fractions on Thunder Bay river.


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In the spring of that year Mr. Oliver reappeared on the scene as a settler. He had collected one hundred and nine marten skins and other valuable furs in the course of the winter's trapping, which he sold in Detroit at about two dollars and fifty cents apiece, or to be more precise for a lump sum of two hundred and eighty dollars in silver and two hundred and eighty dollars in paper money. With the pro- ceeds he purchased a stock of goods, took them to Thunder Bay island, and there built and opened the first store in Alpena county.




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