A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I, Part 56

Author: Perry F. Powers
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 597


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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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PRESCOTT AND LUPTON


Prescott dates from 1882, when what was then the Detroit, Bay City & Alpena Railroad was extended westward into Mills and Rich- land townships, Ogemaw county. It was named in honor of C. H. Prescott. a pioneer lumberman who owned a large tract of land in the vicinity, and is now the terminus of a short branch of the Detroit & Mackinac Railway.


Lupton, a station and postoffice on the same road, five miles east of Rose City, was settled in the late eighties, mostly by members of the Society of Friends. It took its name from Emor Lupton, who, with his sons, were owners of large tracts of farm, orchard and timber lands, and made many improvements both as cultivators of their prop- erties and builders of mills.


OSCODA COUNTY


Lying between Alcona county on the east and Crawford county on the west, Oscoda is in that neutral territory of northeastern Michigan


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which has never had the benefit of railway communication to advance its interests. The Au Sable & Northwestern Railway crosses its north- western sections, with Comins as its terminus, but since the burning of Oscoda and Au Sable at its shore terminus that means of communi- cation with a circumscribed area of the country has been crippled.


The Au Sable river, which crosses Oscoda county from east to west, throwing out branches in every direction, carries with it not a few natural advantages which may, in time, be developed to the advantage of the entire region. It furnishes an abundance of power which is expected to be utilized at Mio, the county seat, in the furtherance of various hydro-electric enterprises.


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Oscoda is also by nature, a fine clover, seed and dairy county, and farmers are sparsely settled in various districts, largely near the county seat or in the vicinity of the Au Sable Railroad to the northeast, or in the extreme southwest, as near as possible to the line of the Michigan Central. Much of the well-watered country along the streams of the Au Sable river is admirably adapted to dairying and sheep raising.


There are no incorporated villages in Oscoda county. Mio, the seat of justice, was first settled by lumbermen in 1880. It is on the Au Sable river, a little south of the geographical center of the county, and fifteen miles southeast of Comins, its nearest railroad point on the Au Sable & Northwestern line. Its main support is the trade which naturally centers at the county seat.


From the census figures which have been submitted for the decades ending 1890, 1900 and 1910, it will be seen that the population has increased steadily, although not rapidly.


Civil Divisions


1910


1900


1890


Big Creek township


432


349


187


Clinton township


207


Comins township


745


681


272


Elmer township


396


319


122


Mentor township


247


119


607


Total population


2,027


1,468


1,188


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CHAPTER XXVI


GLADWIN AND ARENAC COUNTIES


GLADWIN COUNTY PHYSICALLY-INCREASE IN POPULATION-FIRST SET- TLER AND SETTLEMENT-GLADWIN, THE COUNTY SEAT-BEAVERTON- ARENAC COUNTY-POPULATION IN 1890, 1900 AND 1910-COUNTY ORGANIZATION - STANDISH, THE COUNTY SEAT - OMER CITY - AU GRES AND TWINING


Gladwin is one of the newer counties of Northern Michigan in point of settlement and development. Although the first settlers, most of them lumbermen, located about 1863 at the forks of the Tobacco and Cedar rivers, branches of the Tittabawassee, in the southwestern part of the county at what is now Beaverton, there were few permanent resi- dents even at the organization of the county in 1875. Its continuous history really dates from that year and period.


GLADWIN COUNTY PHYSICALLY


Gladwin county lies west of Arenac and far enough from Saginaw bay so that its early settlement depended on the lumber industries rather than the fisheries or lake commerce. The natural key-note to its success in that regard was the Tittabawassee river, its main branches, the Tobacco, Molasses and Sugar rivers, and numerous minor streams. The first named, so famous for its output of logs in early times, courses through the central part of the county, north and south-the Molasses and its tributaries in the eastern part, the Sugar in the northwest and the Tobacco in the southwest, joining the Tittabawassee at Edenville, just over the southern line in Midland county.


The Cedar, a rapid, clear stream, rises in Clare county, drains the western townships, passes through Gladwin, the county seat, and, with the north, middle and south branches of the Tobacco, forms a junction at Beaverton, or as it was first known, Grand Forks. This locality was the gateway for the first settlers of Gladwin county.


The county is also sprinkled with pretty lakes, especially in the northern part. A few miles from Gladwin is Sage lake, about a mile either way, and along the line of Gladwin and Ogemaw counties is the group comprising Indian, Elk, Frost and Campbell lakes, ranging in size from forty acres to half a section, but all being naturally stocked with fish and many of them supplied from the state fish hatchery. Deer and other game also abound in many parts of the county, so that


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HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


the fisherman, the hunter and the lover of out-of-doors in general have constant occupation and enjoyment.


Originally a large portion of Gladwin county was heavily timbered, but its densest growth has been removed by the axe and saw of the lumberman. Quite a large amount of forest products is still handled, albeit the remaining timber is usually worked up into manufactures rather than shipped away as raw lumber. This clearing away of the heavy forest growths is to the advantage of the present day agriculturist and live-stock man, who wish at once to realize from their crops and stock-and this class are in the heavy majority.


The surface of the county is gently rolling, not enough to interfere with tilling the soil, but sufficient to give the country, when cleared, a picturesque appearance and show off the land to excellent advantage. The soil is clay, sand and gravelly loam, noted for its fertility and the ease with which it can be worked. Wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, pota- toes and all kinds of vegetables flourish, while small fruits of all kinds are a sure crop. The numerous rivers, creeks and springs throughout the county furnish an abundance of water for domestic and stock pur- poses, and guarantee rich forage for live stock.


During the past few years a good deal of attention has been paid to stock raising in the county and with the most satisfactory results. Common Hungarian and millet grasses grow luxuriantly, and even that which grows in the forests furnishes good grazing for stock during the summer months.


INCREASE IN POPULATION


While the population of Gladwin county for the past twenty years has not progressed by leaps and bounds, it has been steady, and the census figures show that it has enjoyed a larger percentage of increase than most of the counties classed as "interior :"


Civil Divisions


1910


1900


1890


Beaverton City


418


Ward 1


74


Ward 2


199


Ward 3


145


Beaverton township


581


756


Bentley township


443


534


Billings township


270


333


253


Bourret township


247


156


Buckeye township


484


254


385


Butman township


720


359


260


Clement township


170


101


124


Gladwin city


988


Ward 1


337


Ward 2


324


Ward 3


185


Ward 4


142


.


775


903


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HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


Civil Divisions


1910


1900


1890


Gladwin township


1,011


732


683


Grout township


872


713


857


Sage township


800


568


547


Sherman township


543


213


Tobacco township


866


1,070


196


Totals


8,413


6,564


4,208


The people, the trade and the commerce of Gladwin county enjoy their transportation facilities through the Michigan Central and the Pere Marquette railroads. The Saginaw Bay & Northwestern division of the former, running from Pinconning to Gladwin, with spurs to Estey and Raymonds, is the main dependence, while a branch of the Pere Marquette coming from the south to Beaverton provides the south- western section of the county with adequate accommodations.


FIRST SETTLER AND SETTLEMENT


Marvil Secord, whose death occurred in October, 1886, at his old homestead at the Forks, now Beaverton, was the first settler of Glad- win county. He was then within a few days of his eighty-fifth birth- day, vigorous in health and active up to the time of the accident which was the direct cause of his death. He had spent most of his life in the woods, but was so popular and straightforward that after he came to Gladwin county and had passed his eightieth year the lumbermen and citizens forced him into several offices which he honored.


The Gladwin County Record, to which much credit is given to the following historical sketch, published an interesting biography of this interesting old pioneer, from which the author makes liberal extracts.


Mr. Secord was born at Brantford, Ontario, October 16, 1801, and came to Michigan with his father, mother and family at an early age, removing from near Hamilton, Canada to Ann Arbor, and thence to Owosso, Shiawassee county, of which place he was a resident many years. and where he was married four times. His third wife, who came with him to Gladwin county, died in 1881, from the effects of a fall from a bridge upon hard ice. He was thereafter married to a Mrs. Cyntha Hoffman of Sterling.


Mr. Secord's early life was spent with his parents in the usual life of the frontier. When a small lad he accompanied his father into one of the Indian wars of the northwest, in which he made himself use- ful in various ways. At Owosso. Shiawassee county, for a long period he was engaged in conducting on a large scale a gunsmithy and wagon and carriage shop, upon which business the war and the Jackson wagon works (which manufactured wagons cheaper than could be done else- where) brought disaster. Mr. Secord therefore determined to change his location. and, with his family, he went from Owosso to St. Charles by wagon and by steamer "Little Nell" to Saginaw; thence to Midland upon the then noted steamer "Belle Seymour."


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MARVIL SECORD, FIRST SETTLER OF GLADWIN COUNTY


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Midland at that time was a small hamlet. J. S. Eastman kept a small trading post on the dock at the lower bridge, and John Larkin and G. F. Hall were rival landlords. At or about the same time, John Eastman also kept a store on the site of the present Star Mills.


Mr. Secord here met with an accident, a dog biting one of his hands so he could not use it. Here, after some persuasion, he hired two Indians to take himself and family to "Dick's Forks," upwards of thirty-five miles distant, and after a week's hard journey in a canoe, they landed at their destination.


The route at that time was an unbroken wilderness. At Edenville. then generally known as "16," David Burton and Jacob Hagar had located, and John McMullen opened a lumber headquarters which was merged into a hotel, near the site of the present Axford House, soon after. A lumberman from Maine named Ledbetter, had commenced operations in the vicinity of "16," but no logs had been run north of that locality.


In September. 1861, in the manner narrated, Mr. Secord and family, consisting of his wife (formerly Mrs. Goodwin, whom he had married the year before), his daughter Julia, son Seth, and three step- children, landed at Dick's Forks, so named from the fact that a man named Dixon owned the land there, and surveyors had cut the name on a tree, located at the junction of the Sugar and Tittabawassee, on section 28, town 19, 1 east. Hunters had reached this point before. but only a small number. Mrs. Secord, his wife, was the first white woman. however, who had come to this county. She was a woman of many noble qualities, intelligent, refined and heroic. Here she assisted her husband to build up a pleasant home, where during many years, with his family he was "monarch of all he surveyed," only a small num- ber of settlers penetrating the county for quite a number of years.


The occupation of hunting and trapping, which Mr. Secord fol- lowed during the first three years of his residence at Dick's Forks, was at that time quite lucrative, and he thereby averaged $900 annually during that period, in one year reaching $1,150. During his second winter in the woods, while fifteen miles from home, he accidently shot himself in the ankle, and was carried home on a litter. A doctor was brought from Midland, but he was unable to extract the ball, which was never taken out. Mr. Secord related many interesting anecdotes of his experience in the woods. Dogs brought into the neighborhood by outside hunters usually came up missing, and 'twas said they had been caught on Secord's "sharp sticks;" besides many fictitious tales were told in relation to the old hunter.


In 1863 the pioneer entered the homestead upon which he resided until death. About that time in the vicinity of the Forks, the first lumber operations were commenced. Pearson & Craig, partners, the former from Buffalo, the latter from Maine, with Sam Sias of Midland, as foreman, were the first to lumber in that locality. Marsh hay at this time became a valuable commodity, bringing $40 per ton, and Mr. Secord spent the summer season in cutting hay and the winter in trapping. With assistance of his boys and hired help, he sometimes


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earned $600 per year from the hay, besides quite a snug sum from trapping.


Mr. Secord was somewhat of a genius in mechanical arts, and at an early day invented and manufactured a single barreled, muzzle load- ing gun, with which he shot twice with once loading. This was a number of years before the famous reloading guns appeared. The old hunter and farmer was slow to push forward for official positions, but his popularity with the lumber boys, who were wont to stop at his place and delighted to do him honor, as well as the cordial feeling held by many permanent settlers, placed him in the offices of supervisor of Gladwin township and judge of probate of the county by decisive ma- jorities. These offices he filled when upwards of eighty years of age with good judgment and clean hands. The deceased was of a hospitable and generous nature, and thereby made many friends. Although he had for so many years led the wild life of the woods, he retained a veneration for sacred subjects and during his last years was not ashamed to be known as a Christian. It is certainly no discredit to Gladwin county to acknowledge Marvil Secord as her first settler.


GLADWIN, THE COUNTY SEAT


Prior to the late seventies, the settlements in Gladwin county were few and far between, the most pretentious being that at the Grand Forks. But about 1876, after the organization of the county and the fixing of the seat of justice nearer its territorial center, several settlers located at the village of Cedar, as Gladwin was first known. Among the first were Warren T. Johnson, James A. Wright and James A. Ells, with their families, and even as late as the spring of 1878 theirs were the only permanent households established on the present site of the city. To these were soon added the families of Isaac Hanna and C. C. Fouch.


School District No. 4, which included the present city and territory as far away as the Van Valkenburg, Busch and McGregor farms, was organized May 25, 1878, by the school inspectors of Grout and Gladwin townships. When Gladwin was incorporated as a city in 1893, the limits of the school districts and the municipality were made uniform.


The first schoolhouse was built by Isaac Hanna in the fall of 1878. It was a one-room, frame building, sixteen by twenty-four feet, and fulfilled its purposes until 1883, when a four-room structure replaced it. Gladwin's third schoolhouse was completed in the winter of 1906, at a cost of about $25,000. This Central or Union school building is a two-story brick structure, well built and attractive. The present at- tendance is thus divided: High school, 91, and grammar grades, 200.


It is interesting to know that the first religious services in what is now the city of Gladwin, were conducted in the printing office of the Gladwin County Record, on March 31, 1878, by Rev. I. C. Smallwood. The first church to be built in the county was the Methodist, at Glad- win, the cornerstone of which was laid May 9, 1883. A few years after- ward Presbyterian and Catholic houses of worship were erected. There


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are now in existence Methodist, Catholic, Episcopal, Free Methodist and Protestant Episcopal organizations.


Gladwin was incorporated as a village in 1885 and has been a city since 1893. It is provided with thorough systems of electric lighting and water distribution and, as has been seen, has all the educational and religious privileges required by all progressive and moral com- munities. Its industries and trade partake both of its earlier lumbering days and its later period of development growing naturally from the agricultural advancement of the county. This statement is practically illustrated by the operation at Gladwin of saw, planing and flour mills,


CENTRAL SCHOOL AT GLADWIN


a basket factory, veneer works and grain elevator, and the fact that the city is quite a receiver and shipper of grain, flour, produce and live stock. The local trade and outside commerce are moved through two good banks, and the Michigan Central Railroad furnishes the trans- portation conveniences.


Gladwin has a substantial and convenient courthouse for transacting the official business of the county, and since 1910 has been provided with a secure jail and comfortable sheriff's residence. It has a neat opera house, a number of well furnished lodge halls, and has made ample provision both for the maintenance of law and order and the social enjoyment and educational and religious well-being of its people.


BEAVERTON


As stated, Beaverton was formerly known as Grand Forks, from the fact that the original lumber camp was located at the middle, north and south branches of the Tobacco and Cedar rivers. It is nine miles


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HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


south of Gladwin, the county seat, and is the terminus of a spur of the Pere Marquette road which runs southwest to Coleman, Midland county. The county board incorporated it as the village of Beaverton in 1896, and it became a city in 1903.


Beaverton's appearance, with its electric lights, substantial public school, neat churches and houses, and well-built stores, is attractive and reassuring as to its present and future prosperity. It has a saw- mill, a manufactory of shingles, laths and posts, and a grain elevator. The same plant which furnishes electric lighting also supplies the city with good water. One could go far afield in Northern Michigan and fail to find a pleasanter, busier or more healthful little city than Beaverton.


ARENAC COUNTY


Three-fourths of this county lies in the fertile valley of the Saginaw and it has a shore line of forty miles on Saginaw bay. Being both the natural child of the river and the lake, Arenac county has a great diversity of products, drawn from her soil and her waters of the in- terior and the coast. The territory is drained by the Au Gres, Rifle and Pine rivers, which cross the county through its eastern, central and western, and southern portions, respectively, and empty into upper Saginaw bay. Bay county, to the south, is drained by the streams which empty into lower Saginaw bay along its western shores.


The soil of the eastern and southern parts of Arenac county is for the most part of a clay or black loam, in the northern part being more plentifully mixed with gravel. The belt of country along the Huron shore carries a deep, rich clay loam of unsurpassed richness, which is particularly well adapted to sugar beets, potatoes, beans, peas, hay, wheat and corn. The southern part of the county has gained a wide reputation for its ability to stand long droughts and still yield bumper crops of sugar beets, beans and grains, the accepted explana- tion of this welcome fact being that this region is underlaid at a depth of forty feet with a porous, water-soaked rock, which may be tapped and yield never-failing springs, or be drawn upon for the nourishment of surface vegetation by means of the capillary attraction of the soil.


The northern portion of the county is gently rolling, rendering underdraining in most cases unnecessary. This fact, with the favorable soil, makes this section the best for fruit-raising. The north side of the Rifle river is a locality which is probably equal to the best fruit land in Northern Michigan. Color and flavor are both remarkably fine. The higher levels of this valley are admirable for the apple, grape, peach, cherry and plum, while the lower levels, where water is even more accessible, make the strawberry and raspberry crops certain.


Arenac county promises to develop several workable veins of coal; its eastern sections along the shore contain valuable beds of gypsum, and its fisheries along Saginaw bay are still productive. Another source of industry and considerable profit is the cultivation of Norway poplar trees for timber. Their rapid and solid growth makes the in- dustry one of quick financial returns.


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HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


Arenac county is also in line for her share of the patronage from the summer resorters of the country, and also esteems it her privilege to offer her own citizens some of the most enjoyable and invigorating outings to be obtained in the state. In this connection, Point Lookout and Timber Island on Bay shore, the one convenient to the people of the eastern part of the county, the other to those of the western part, are liberally patronized. The fishing, bathing and boating are all ex- cellent. These resorts right at her door make it possible for the poorest


[ Courtesy Northeastern Michigan Development Bureau] SPRAYING FRUIT TREES THREE-YEAR-OLD SPRAYED


citizens to enjoy the delights of camping for a few days or weeks out- ing and rest without going to the expense of a trip away from home. Near these resorts at the mouth of the Rifle river there is good duck shooting, while in the small streams there is trout fishing in abundance. Partridge and quail are usually found in abundance in the woods dur- ing the open season.


POPULATION IN 1890, 1900 AND 1910


This panoramic view of the county may be here completed by offer- ing the figures collected by the United States Census Bureau in 1890, 1900 and 1910:


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Civil Divisions


1910


1900


1890


Adams township


393


378


222


Arenac township


668


1,250


662


Au Gres city


252


132


Ward 1


120


Ward 2


132


Au Gres township


412


622


531


Clayton township


834


774


646


Deep River township


957


816


711


Lincoln township


794


777


396


Mason township, including part of Twining vil- lage


853


977


399


Twining village (part of) .


Total for Twining village in Mason and


Turner townships


361


246


240


Omer city


367


Ward 1


100


Ward 2


100


Ward 3


167


Standish city


828


829


611


Ward 1


287


Ward 2


388


Ward 3


153


Turner township, including part of Twining vil-


lage


(part of)


138


Standish township


1,250


Whitney township


686


642


334


Totals


9,640


9,821


5,683


COUNTY ORGANIZATION


On March 2, 1831, the territory included in the following limits was laid off as the county of Arenac. East of the line between ranges 2 and 3 east, north of the line between townships 16 and 17 north, south of the line between townships 20 and 21 north, and west to the shores of Saginaw bay and Lake Huron. By an act of the legislature approved February 17, 1857, this county was blotted out and reestablished as the county of Bay. The territory of Bay county at that time contained but few voters as compared to Saginaw county; its largest area came from Midland county, particularly from the unorganized county of Arenac, in which territory at that time, aside from Indians, perhaps not ten voters resided. In February, 1859, at a special meeting of the Bay county board, Arenac was erected into a township with Daniel Williams, N. W. Sillibridge and Daniel Shaw as the board of election inspectors. The first supervisor chosen was Peter Marksman, but he resigned and M. D. Bourasso served instead. The erection of Arenac


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985


1,274


48


Twining village


129


Moffat township


267


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HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


township occurred about six months after the first meeting of the board of supervisors of Bay county.


As the years passed and settlers came into the northern sections of Bay county it became very inconvenient for them to go to Bay City, or as it was called until 1857 "the village of Lower Saginaw." Accord- ingly in the winter of 1883 the bill for the organization of the new county of Arenac passed the legislature and became law. In the pre- vious year the vote of the townships embraced in the proposed county numbered 548 distributed as follows: Arenac township, 66; Au Gres, 61 : Clayton, 67; Deep River, 76; Lincoln, 80; Mason, 37; Moffat, 34; Standish, 69; Whitney, 58. By the creating act the county of Arenac was composed of sixteen townships, together with the islands attached to Whitney and Au Gres townships.




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