A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I, Part 54

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 54


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).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57


LINCOLN AND MIKADO


These are both stations on a branch of the Detroit & Mackinac rail- way, which runs a few miles west of the main line. They are also villages, incorporated in 1907. Lincoln, formerly West Harrisville and about seven miles west of the county seat, was settled in 1885. It is still a very small settlement, having a bank, a grist and sawmill, and being the medium of a fair trade with the adjacent country. Two churches are located at this point.


Mikado is twelve miles southwest of Harrisville and comprises a bank, several general stores, a cluster of residences and three or four churches. It is sustained by a good country and an industrious farm- ing community.


Hosted by Google


.


-


[Courtesy Detroit & Mackinac Railway Company]


TROUT STREAM NEAR HARRISVILLE: ALSO, AN EX-RESIDENT OF IT


Hosted by


Google


CHAPTER XXIV


IOSCO COUNTY


CENSUS FIGURES REVISED BY FIRE-INDUSTRIAL TRANSFORMATION -- RIVERS AND LAKES- HISTORY OF AU SABLE-OSCODA VILLAGE-THE AU SABLE-OSCODA FIRE-TAWAS CITY-EAST TAWAS-WHITTEMORE.


On Tuesday, July 11, 1911, when adjacent forest fires swept away Oscoda and Au Sable, those flourishing twin communities at the mouth of the Au Sable river. one of the notable conflagrations of Northern Michigan and the country had to be recorded in history. Of Au Sable city not a business house remained and only a few small houses hang- ing on its outskirts. Oscoda's fate was hardly less pitiful; a church, a schoolhouse and a few substantial buildings were left here, and, what was better, a strong spirit of hope and determination. At this writing (September, 1911), Au Sable is virtually a deserted city of ruins : Oscoda's old site shows a number of new buildings rising, and her former merchants and manufacturers are revisiting the place and some of them arranging to rebuild. But the general result of that terrible fire is to necessitate the reconstruction of Iosco county as to its present status: for where, on the 10th of July, 1911, there was a busy, pros- perous community of nearly two thousand people (for Oscoda and Au Sable were really one), on the following day was a square mile or more of flaming and smoking ruins, with half a dozen families mourning the loss of dear ones. At the present time the combined population of the two places will not exceed two hundred.


CENSUS FIGURES REVISED BY FIRE


From the figures of the United States census office compiled in 1910, and of the county authorities, adopted by the board of supervisors on June 26, 1911, should therefore be eliminated the facts relating to Au Sable and Oscoda which are now "past history" in the most forceful sense of the term.


Civil Divisions


1910


1900


1890


Alabaster township


533


464


372


Au Sable city


648


1,116


4,328


Ward 1


213


Ward 2


335


Ward 3


100


506


Hosted by Google


HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


507


Civil Divisions


1910


1900


1890


Au Sable township


599


752


170


Baldwin township


312


349


285


Burleigh township


632


743


443


East Tawas city


1,452


1,736


2,200


Ward 1


442


Ward 2


599


Ward 3


411


Grant township


325


287


149


Oscoda township, including Oscoda village Oscoda village


864


1,109


3,593


Plainfield township


821


330


200


Reno township


358


364


358


Sherman township


436


280


168


Tawas City


1,061


1,228


1,544


Ward 1


330


Ward 2


472


Ward 3


259


Tawas township


900


980


805


Whittemore city


218


Ward 1


100


Ward 2


118


Wilber township


328


268


299


Total


9,753


10,246


15,224


Townships and Wards


Equalized Value


Au Sable city, 1st, 2d and 3d wards


$ 35,000


Au Sable township


175,000


Alabaster township


170,000


Baldwin township


80,000


Burleigh township


150,000


East Tawas, 1st, 2d and 3d wards


195,000


Grant township


85,000


Oscoda township


165,000


Plainfield township


200,000


Reno township


140,000


Sherman township


125,000


Tawas city, 1st, 2d and 3d wards.


150,000


Tawas township


200,000


Wilber township


85,000


Whittemore, 1st and 2d wards


40,000


Total


$1,995,000


1,130


1,349


3,848


INDUSTRIAL TRANSFORMATION


The figures as to the changes in the population of Iosco county illus- trate the effects of her decline in the lumbering and fishing industries,


Hosted by Google


508


HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


with the cutting away of the forests along the Au Sable, the Tawas and the Au Gres rivers and the almost equal depleting of the waters of the upper Saginaw bay and Lake Huron. The forests and the fisheries have gone, or at least declined to the diminishing point, and agricul- ture has not advanced with sufficient rapidity to regain the lost ground. Like other sections of Northern Michigan, however, which formerly bore dense timber growths, Iosco county has the vitality and durability of soil which will eventually make her territory richly productive in grain, grasses, fruit, vegetables and live stock. Material progress has already been made in the raising of potatoes, sugar beets and apples, and in the various lines of dairying. With this growth has come a considerable trade in agricultural implements.


The manufacture of lumber in the county was almost paralyzed with the burning of Oscoda and Au Sable, although there are still several mills and factories at East Tawas and Tawas City. Salt is still an important article of manufacture and shipment, and has been such for some forty years. The first wells were sunk at East Tawas for Grant & Son, about 1877, and much of the brine was carried in later years to Oscoda and Au Sable where it was manufactured into salt. Thus it became a county industry. But the importance both of lumber and of salt in the early development of this section of northeastern Michigan has already been set forth in the general chapter devoted to these industries.


RIVERS AND LAKES


Iosco county is bountifully supplied with both lakes and rivers. The broad and picturesque Au Sable takes its course through its north- ern districts. A popular and ideal trip for tourists and fishermen is to follow the river from Grayling, Crawford county, to its mouth at Oscoda, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles. The Au Sable & Northwestern railway is within sight of its banks for much of the distance, during which it passes across the northeastern corner of the county. At times the river runs between banks two hundred feet high and at one stretch, for two miles or more, it takes a straight course through low meadow lands. Rainbow trout are the greatest attraction for anglers in the Au Sable river.


There are few rivers in Michigan which can furnish greater or more constant power than the Au Sable, and some twelve miles above its mouth at the Big Bend, there is now in process of development a great hydro-electric project. The enterprise, which is being pushed by the Commonwealth Power company of Jackson, Michigan, involves the construction of four or five massive dams at that point and a great plant designed to distribute power and electric light, over a great con- ducting system, to numerous southern cities including Saginaw, Lan- sing and Jackson. So there is much more to that stream than its at- tractions, great though they are.


Van Ettan lake is less than two miles from the mouth of the Au Sable river. It is about four and a half miles long and a mile wide, incloses a pretty little island and its wooded shores are dotted with rustic bungalows.


Hosted by Google


509


HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


At Long Lake station, in the northwestern part of the county, south- west of Au Sable river and on the Rose City division of the Detroit & Mackinac railway, is situated the national camping grounds of the Christian churches, or Disciples of Christ. The two hundred acres comprising the grounds not only front Long lake on three sides, but embrace seven tiny lakes.


But the ideal lakes in the county are known as the Tawas chain, and are reached by good roads from East Tawas. During the season of


A RUSTIC BUNGALOW


1903 a party of hunters decided they should have a clubhouse to which they could go for fall shooting in November, also during the summer months, at any time, for rest, recuperation, fishing and a care-free life. The land surrounding the head of Indian lake, nine miles from East Tawas, was purchased and a large log club house erected; this spot is at the head of a group of eight lakes. Later, members purchased land and put up cottages and bungalows; today every foot of land on the lakes is held by private individuals.


A short distance southeast of the city limits of East Tawas, on the shores of Tawas bay, is the finely improved health and pleasure resort owned by the Detroit & Mackinac railway known as Tawas Beach. It is a beautiful and diversified tract of woods, cottages, hotels, bath- ing beaches, pavilions, tennis courts and all the up-to-date conveniences and luxuries attending out-of-door rest and recreation-all attractions within walking distance, which are also accessible by a branch of the


Hosted by Google


SCENES AT TAWAS BEACH


Hosted by


Google


511


HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


Detroit & Mackinac road. Tawas City is beautifully situated on the opposite, or western side of the bay, which is the main water indenta- tion of Iosco county.


The Tawas river, with its branches, drains the eastern sections of the county, and empties into the bay through the Tawas chain of lakes, while the branches of the Au Gres river water its western town- ships.


IIISTORY OF AU SABLE


According to the undisputed narrative of James O. Whittemore, who wrote a history of the county in 1868, "the first settlement made in Tosco county was at the mouth of Au Sable river, to which the


-


CHRISTIAN CHURCH OUTING GROUNDS, LONG LAKE


valuable fisheries attracted attention at a very early day. Some time previous to 1848 Curtis Emerson, of East Saginaw, and James Eld- ridge located the land at the mouth of the river, on both sides, covering the site of the present village plat of Au Sable and also a part of the property of the Backus brothers, on the north side of the river. Ben- jamin F. Pierce, of Bangor, Bay County, at that time had a trading post or storehouse which formed the landmark, from which in March, 1849, Eldridge and Emerson set off and divided lots fronting on the river to resident fishermen and others, who wished to purchase.


"The names of the seven original purchasers were Benjamin F. Pierce, W. L. D. Little, James E. Smith, Enoch Olmstead, Hulett Duell,


Hosted by Google


512


HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


Patrick Perrott and Horace D. Stockman. These lots had from fifty to one hundred and fifty feet frontage, and ran back at right angles to the river to the back line of the government subdivision. Subse- quently, Mr. Alberti was sent to survey and plat the new town, and it was thought best to lay out the lots parallel with the lines of the government survey. When this new survey was laid down over the division lines of purchase which ran northeast and southwest, an in- numerable amount of gores, triangles and fractional lots was found, and a tangled network of lines ensued, which a Philadelphia lawyer could not unravel. Happily, this plat was not recorded, and in the spring of 1867, mainly through the judicious efforts of Francis B. Smith, who owned a large part of the town, a new survey was made, which left the ancient boundary lines undisturbed and which fur- nished a much more convenient and accessible arrangement and a bet- ter view of the town from the river.


"The white fish and trout fisheries off the mouth of the Au Sable river, constituted the main business of the town for many years. Many thousand barrels were taken which found a ready market in the south- eru States, through Cleveland, Sandusky and Cincinnati; the capture of these required a large fleet of sail craft, and the curing and packing gave employment to many coopers and other hands. Thousands of barrels of salt were required, and thousands of dollars worth of nets and fishing apparatus as well as large supplies of provisions and cloth- ing for men. The furnishing of these laid the foundation of the for- tunes of Felix O'Toole, one of the most prosperous citizens of Au Sable, whose fine block of stores, crowned with a public hall and Masonic lodge rooms, forms one of the most conspicuous ornaments of the village. Sometimes the demand was very great and prices were very high, and the business was exceedingly profitable. At other times prices would sink to the lowest mark, inspection would then be unusually severe, and the profits would be on the minus side of the ledger. Mr. O'Toole often made large advances to fisherman in the early fall and supplied them with provisions and clothing for themselves and men during the fishing season. The age of poetry fell into the night of tradition, and the prosaic modern era came in, with the first shipment of machinery for the sawmill of Messrs. Backus & Brother, the pioneers in the lum- ber business of Au Sable."


The postoffice at Aut Sable was first established in 1857. Prior to that time, the few letters addressed to people at this point were brought from Tawas City or Bay City. The Tawas City office was established in 1856. The mail carriers were authorized to get the mail and bring it to people at Au Sable. The first postmaster was Elijah Grandy, a fisherman. He kept the office in a small log house, where the O'Toole block afterward stood.


The first school in Au Sable was taught, in 1864, by a Mrs. Horr, who took compassion upon the few children of the settlement and gave them instruction in a private house.


In 1865 the first schoolhouse was built, the fishermen turning out on stormy days and helping. It stood on the state road. It was a primitive affair, enclosed with boards nailed up and down. and was


Hosted by Google


513


HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


just high enough inside for Horace Stockman to stand up in without damage to the top of his head. He was the tallest man in the region round about Au Sable. The first teacher in the new schoolhouse was Miss Jennie Doyle, now Mrs. Wm. Mackin, of AuGres.


Life in Au Sable in the early days had but few variations, although the population was continually changing. The staples of those days were whiskey and fish, but the citizens had little interest in the fish except as articles of merchandise. It would be a difficult task indeed to collect the names of all who at some time occupied a place in the procession that came or went, as the case might be, between the years of 1848 and 1870. The fishing grounds there were widely known, and were sought by scores of men in pursuit of temporary and profitable occupation. Many came here for a single season and never returned; some student in pursuit of means to finish an education, or others who, after a season, settled into permanent and profitable occupations. Then the lumber industries developed until they completely overshadowed the fisheries.


Au Sable was incorporated as a village in 1872 and became a city in 1889.


OSCODA VILLAGE


In 1867 the firm of Smith, Kelley & Dwight, platted a tract of land which they had recently purchased and named it Oscoda, and in the following year built the first dock on this part of the lake. During that year also the Parks mill was built, but it was operated only a short time.


The father of Oscoda was Edward Smith, one of the original owners of the site, and later of the Gratwick, Smith & Fryer Lumber Company. The original lots in Oscoda were sold subject to a condition that they could not be used for the sale of liquor.


In 1872 the village received an accession, by the Loud property being detached from Au Sable township and attached to Oscoda town- ship. This gave Oscoda two churches, a schoolhouse, and the extensive lumbering interests of Loud, Gay & Company, the latter of which proved to be the main source of its growth. Oscoda was incorporated as a village in 1885 and was operating under its original charter when it met with the casualty of 1911. The splendid part played by the Loud brothers in the growth of Oscoda and Au Sable is described in the pages devoted to the lumbering operations of Northern Michigan.


THE AU SABLE-OSCODA FIRE


The awful conflagration of July 11, 1911, caused a feeling of wide- spread horror and pity. It is self-evident that the most authentic ac- count of the disaster would be prepared by home authorities, and for this reason extracts covering its main features are taken from the Oscoda Press of July 28th following the fire :


"Fire, originating in adjacent forests and from sparks said to have been thrown by the locomotives of both the Au Sable & Northwestern and the Detroit & Mackinac railway lines, devastated the twin towns Vol. 1-33


Hosted by Google


514


HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


of Oscoda and Au Sable and that part of the community known as Au Sable township, Tuesday, July 11. Business blocks, mills, factories and residence houses were totally destroyed to the number of about 600. Five lives were lost in the disaster: Francois Clairmount, an aged musician ; William Batts, yardman at the Hotel Elliott; Samuel Rosen- thal, merchant; Jacques Lavoie, box maker, who died of burns re- ceived, and an unidentified peddler. Only for the ,timely arrival of the steamer Niko, of the Edward Hines fleet, Captain Meyer, of Tona- wanda, the loss of life would have been appalling.


"Two hundred and eighty persons, most of them `women and chil- dren, were hemmed in on the lake shore, to which wings of fire had


.


SITE OF OSCODA AFTER FIRE OF 1911


already spread on the north and south with the van of the conflagra- tion moving down between. All but strong swimmers would undoubt- edly have perished had not the boat arrived.


"The forest fire which had been burning since the preceding Sun- day in the neighborhood of the new chemical plant was the cause of the burning of two houses in West Au Sable early in the day. Sparks from the engine of the train known as the "Lincoln Stub" are said to have been responsible for the fire which burned the H. M. Loud Son's yards and plant. The big fire which bore down on Oscoda at four in the afternoon in a great wall of flame, started near the Au Sable and Northwestern tracks at the Barlow farm.


"Within five minutes twenty houses were ablaze on Main street, and when it became evident that Oscoda was doomed men ran up and down urging the women and children to hurry to the Lond Company, south dock at which the steamer 'Niko' had just arrived. In the


Hosted by Google


--


515


HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


meantime residents of 'Shore Town' were flocking to the junction of the docks at the water's edge. When the first crowd of women and children reached the boat at the end of the pier, men already on board were crying to the captain to 'pull out.' Eli Herrick, Peter McPhail and others of Oscoda and Charles Jahraus of Tawas City, stood by the lines declaring that they must not be thrown off until all who could be saved were taken on board."


When the boat left the dock her cabins were on fire fore and aft, and a disastrous panic was narrowly averted. The refugees could not be landed at Tawas, on account of the heavy sea, and the boat finally docked at Bay City.


"With the fire which had entered at the west end early in the day quenched, Au Sable seemed safe from the devastation under way in Oscoda, until the wind changed at 7 o'clock.


"Turning, like a horse at the starting line, the flames set a terrific pace from the north to the south limits, the buildings sloughing before them as babbit melts and settles in a heated crucible. The inhabitants scurried before it like a herd of cattle amuck.


"Out and far on the sands of the shore they ran helter skelter, void of dignity, all but one. Judge Connine, of the Iosco county circuit, was the last in retreat. Appearing and disappearing in the front volumes of smoke, he walked, with an extended stride, but even in the vortex, dignified. On the sands, in the cold north wind, social caste was lost and rich and poor huddled together until sunrise in mutual discomfort.


"When the sun rose Wednesday morning there was no one alive near the scene of the calamity but shuddered at the thought that hun- dreds of their neighbors had met a fearful death. When nightfall came and only four bodies had been found a general feeling of relief was mingling with sorrow for the unfortunate ones."


TAWAS CITY


Hon. Gideon O. Whittemore, formerly prosecuting attorney and judge of Oakland county, as well as secretary of state, was the founder of Tawas City, to whose site he came in June, 1854. In June of the preceding year, as member of a lumber firm, he and his associates made a visit of exploration to this region, located a tract of about 5,000 acres of pine land and secured a front of about a mile on Tawas bay, which then lay in the solitude of nature. On this trip they landed at the lighthouse on Tawas Point, which had been completed in 1852, and were hospitably sheltered by Capt. Colin Graham, then keeper. One solitary hunter with his wife lived at the mouth of Tawas river in a rude shanty, dividing his time between this point and another hut on Tra- verse lake, near what is called Sim's creek in memory of him.


The firm of G. O. Whittemore & Company purchased the site of Tawas City, and erected the first saw mill on the bay in 1854. This mill formed the nucleus of a small village, which was surveyed and platted in 1855, and then included the so called Johnson property. The owners of that tract being absent at that time, the recording of the plat was neglected until July, 1866, when that portion owned by


Hosted by Google


516


HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


the Messrs. Whittemore, embracing some three hundred acres, was resur- veyed, platted and recorded. Judge Whittemore, the founder of the village, spent ten years of an active, useful and honorable life in this locality prior to his death in June, 1863. He it was who took the proper measures for opening the Iosco and Ogemaw state road, which brought the city into communication with an industrious and thriving class of settlers who had occupied the timber lands to the west. Lumber mills were built, the fisheries encouraged, trade with the "back country" developed, and, perhaps above all, the county seat was fixed and held at this point.


In February, 1856, Iosco county was organized, with, provided that the seat of justice should be located at Ottawas, or Tawas bay. Under


E


COURT HOUSE AND JAIL, TAWAS CITY


the impetus of Judge Whittemore's good work the little lumber settle- ment on the bay evolved into Tawas City. Back from the shore, across the creek, is a tract marked Union Square in the original plat. This was at first designed for Courthouse Square, but the proprietors of the village donated the high and pretty grounds overlooking the bay upon which the wooden courthouse and jail, still occupied, were erected in 1867. The supervisors and county officers prior to that year had been accommodated in the second story of the Whittemore store.


The first election for county officers was held on the first Monday in July, 1857, at which the following officers were elected: Sheriff, Charles H. Whittemore, (son of Gideon) ; clerk, James O. Whittemore, (another son of Gideon) ; treasurer, Charles P. Haywood; register, James O. Whittemore, prosecuting attorney, Gideon O. Whittemore; probate judge, Gideon O. Whittemore; surveyor, Henry Daggett. Mr.


Hosted by Google


517


HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


Haywood failed to qualify as treasurer, and Benjamin F. Pierce was appointed in his place.


The two townships of Tawas and Au Sable were created by the act which erected the county and their township elections were held at the same time as the county election.


The first meeting of the board of supervisors was held November 9, 1857. There were present, Gideon O. Whittemore, supervisor of the township of Tawas, and James O. Whittemore, county clerk. Charles H. Whittemore was appointed county treasurer to fill a vacancy caused by the failure of Charles P. Haywood, treasurer elect to file his official oath and execute the bond required by law.


Thus the county machinery commenced to move, as had Tawas City, largely through the efforts, good judgment and popularity of the Whittemore family.


The postoffice established at Tawas City, March 11, 1856, was the first one between Ray City and Mackinaw, and James O. Whittemore was the original incumbent. For several years after the office was first established, the mails were delivered by sailboat from Bay City in sum- mer, and by Indian carriers with dog sledges during the winter. In April, 1869, it was made a money order office. The first international order was issued August 10, 1872.


The first school in Tawas City was taught in 1863, by Miss Graham, daughter of Capt. Graham, keeper of the lighthouse. The school room was over the Whittemore store, the only public place of assembling in the village. In 1868 the village schoolhouse was finished, and cost, with the furniture, $5,000. The main building was 26x45 feet, and the two wings, each 16x20 feet. The entire building was two stories in height, with a belfry. It is situated at the outskirts of the village, on a spot of high ground near the edge of the woods.




Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.