USA > Michigan > Bay County > History of Bay County, Michigan, and representative citizens > Part 11
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Up to our altars, then, haste we and summon Courage and loveliness, manhood and woman ! Deep let our pledges be: Freedom for ever ! Truce with oppression, never, oh never! By our own birthright-gift, granted of Heaven- Freedom for heart and lip, be the pledge given! -Whittier.
The Saginaw Bay Company, led by the late James Fraser, and organized February 9, 1837, named the embryo city they had surveyed and platted "Lower Saginaw," which name the set- tlement retained for 20 years. Lower Saginaw contained 240 acres within the limits now bounded, roughly speaking, by Woodside ave- nue on the north, Columbus avenue on the south and by Grant street, then away out in the wilderness, which formed the eastern boundary.
In 1836 the late Judge Albert Miller pur- chased a tract of land some three miles from the mouth of the river, which lay somewhat higher above the river level than the surround- ing country, and therefore to his practiced eye offered the best opportunities for early settle- ment. This tract includes the district now lying south of Columbus avenue and west of
Garfield avenue, the western portion of which now constitutes the greater part of the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh wards of Bay City. After being surveyed and platted, it was named Portsmouth. Judge Miller recognized the im- mense value of the vast timber belt then skirt- ing the river, and his first enterprise was the erection of a sawmill in 1837, the first at this end of the river, designed to furnish prospect- ive settlers with an easy and cheap means of erecting their humble cabins, and also to sup- ply the other sections of Michigan south of the Saginaw River, which during those years of colonization in the "Peninsular" State, were rapidly being populated.
The subsequent panic throughout the coun- try, particularly disastrous to the development of the interior of our State, crushed for a time all the prospects of these two prospective set-
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tlements. In 1838 the affairs of the Saginaw Bay Company, opened under such auspicious and enterprising circumstances, went into chancery, and its bright prospects were blight- ed. But the original projectors never lost faith in the future of this end of the valley.
In 1840, Dr. Daniel Hughes Fitzhugh took advantage of the recent survey by govern- ment officials of the Indian reservation on the west shore of the Saginaw River, by purchas- ing several of the more desirable parcels of land lying directly across the river from Ports- mouth.
It will be noticed that all these early land transactions dealt in the few locations directly on the river bank, where elevations, natural or artificial, removed the danger of the peren- nial floods at that time. During the following 60 years the waters have gradually receded, the river banks have been artificially dammed, and the river channel deepened at its mouth, so that every foot of the rich, low river bot- toms has been made available for farms and for factory sites. Could the pioneers of 1840 have foreseen these favorable changes with the pass- ing years, they would undoubtedly have in- vested in much more of the valley property, the choicest parcels of which then sold for $5 an acre, and what is now some of the choicest city property was then bought for $3 an acre. But even at that price it required some foresight and faith in the future of these lowlands, for any large purchases. For the settlements at the mouth of the Saginaw River were the out- post of civilization in the interior of Michigan for many years.
In 1840 there was not a single known white settler between here and Mackinaw, and Fort Mackinac itself was only a military outpost, with a mission for the Indians. On the old map owned by Captain Marsac the country north of here showed but crude outlines of a
few of the many large streams that pour their waters into Lake Huron. Ouisconsin, as the State of Wisconsin appears on that map, was scarcely known beyond the outskirts of the first settlements on its southeastern border. The entire country from this valley to Mackinaw was included in the township of Saginaw, with the exception of a part of Arenac, which was attached to Midland for judicial purposes.
In 1842 the projectors of Bay City made an effort to secure a separate township organi- zation, and in the winter of 1843 the Saginaw County Board of Supervisors erected the town- ship of Hampton, which included at the time all the territory from the lower end of the Sag- inaw River to Mackinaw. This vast territory was named Hampton by Hon. James G. Bir- ney, in honor of the country seat of his wife in New York State, Hampton-on-Hudson.
The organization of Hampton township was completed in March, 1843, and on April I, 1843, the settlers held their first election in the Globe Hotel. William R. McCormick's hat was the ballot-box and it was a stand- ing joke of the old settlers ever after that he wore a hat large enough to hold all the votes between here and Mackinaw. The more super- stitious of the settlers had cause for reflection when it was found that just 13 citizens were present and eligible to vote. Hon. James G. Birney, who that very year was nominated for the second time by the Liberty party for the highest office in the gift of our people, the presidency of the United States, received six votes for supervisor, while the proprietor of the settlement's only hostelry received seven votes, and thus Sydney S. Campbell was de- clared duly elected to attend the board meet- ings at Saginaw, and privileged to paddle his own canoe for 16 miles each way for glory and the prestige of the settlement.
That first vote has been subject to consid-
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erable critical analysis. That party spirit ran high is evident by the close vote. Just why James G. Birney, one of the brightest and most advanced citizens of the country, without a doubt Bay County's foremost citizen, who had done much to bring about the separate or- ganization of Hampton township, and who was at that very time bending every energy and dollar he had in the world to the develop- ment of this little settlement, should be defeated by the jolly tavern-keeper, has been the subject for discussion and conjecture. The Democratic party was then still in the ascendency in the land, and Supervisor Campbell belonged to the dominant party. Perchance the party whip and party loyalty was as effective in 1843 as it certainly is in 1905. Or mayhap the refreshing influence of the tavern was more persuasive in securing votes, than pre-eminent ability, pub- lic-spirited effort or the undivided interests of the little settlement. Be that as it may, the contents of William R. McCormick's hat showed that a majority of the settlers wanted Sydney S. Campbell on the board, and his elec- tion was duly celebrated far into the night by the successful "party," differing from our mod- ern-day celebration of election victories only in point of numbers.
Old residents are authority for the deduc- tion, that there was more good cheer dispensed as a result of that first election on the soil of embryo Bay County, per capita of population taken into the reckoning, than was dispensed in these parts in November, 1904, when the popu- larity of President Theodore Roosevelt landed him in the White House by the largest electoral as well as popular vote ever given a presidential nominee, and incidentally resulted in a land- slide for the local Republican ticket in Bay County, every candidate on that ticket being elected, with hundreds of votes to spare, against an unusually strong ticket on the other side.
Judge Campbell in later years enjoyed many jokes about that first election in Hamp- ton township, while some of the best emanated beside his own fireside. He served as super- visor for a number of years, being succeeded by George Lord, who came here from Madison County, New York, in the winter of 1854. and who built the Keystone mill on the West Side. He had hardly settled here before public office and honors were showered on him by the little community, and during the next 20 years he held a number of the highest offices in the gift of the people here. He was a robust type of the early pioneers, who liked a joke as well as his predecessor, Judge Campbell, and both were correspondingly popular. He represented this community on the board of Saginaw County at the time the agitation was on for creating a separate county down here, and was bitterly opposed by the supervisors of Saginaw and Midland townships. When Midland set up for itself, he was active in securing the or- ganization of another township on the west side of the river, and in 1855 the Midland board organized the township of Williams, comprising townships 14, 15 and 16 north, range 3 east, and all of Arenac County.
How thinly this vast territory was settled in those early years, is best shown by the vote at presidential elections. Michigan being ad- mitted to Statehood in 1835, the first presiden- tial election took place in November, 1836. Oddly enough, Saginaw County, which then included all the territory from the Flint River to Mackinaw, is credited with giving 165 votes to Martin Van Buren, Democrat, while not a single vote is credited to "Tippecanoe" Har- rison, the Whig candidate. Undoubtedly the Democratic politicians of that day and of this vast territory knew at that early day how to manipulate returns and votes. Four years later, in 1840, Van Buren received 100 votes, to Har-
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rison's 89. In 1844, President Polk received but 104 votes, to 107 for Henry Clay, the Whig candidate. These several elections not only show a slow but positive increase in population, but they also show much change of sentiment.
This vote of 1844, as recorded in the Capi- tol at Lansing, would also show that this settle- ment of future Bay City did not show due re- spect and appreciation for the distinguished lawyer and citizen who for the sake of princi- ple, in defense of human liberty, equality, and the very birthright of the human race, had given up his slaves, much of his earthly pos- sessions, had forsaken the charming scenes of his childhood in "Old Kentucky," and all the comforts and luxury of his Southern home, to seek exile in Michigan, where freedom was all that the word implies, and not merely an idle phrase. For nowhere do we find that one single vote was cast in this election of 1844 for Bay County's most distinguished pioneer, Hon. James G. Birney, who in this very election re- ceived 62,300 votes for President of the United States on the ticket of the Liberty party. While thousands of his fellow-citizens in other parts of the country were by their votes honoring the grand old man and his principles, his neigh- bors in the wilderness, for whom he was doing so much, do not appear to have voted for him at all! Yet this sterling citizen, defender of liberty for all, an earnest preacher in the wil- derness, eloquent in his defense of the en- slaved black race of the South, who through a long life practiced all the Christian virtues, this pioneer in our own backwoods settlement, received in the very next year (1845) 3,023 votes for Governor of Michigan on his party ticket. The county did better by him in this election, giving him 37 votes, but even these are paltry returns for all that he daily did for these hidebound partisans.
James G. Birney came upon the political
arena just 20 years too soon! Had he been eligible in 1860, the whole trend of our coun- try's history might have been changed. But it was his duty in life to "blaze" a way for future generations. His self-sacrifices and his elo- quent championship of the down-trodden slaves of the South showed the way for the next generation of abolitionists, who completed the work he had so well begun. He was a leader in that great movement, when leader- ship meant social exile and banishment from his native hearth. He was one of the prophets in the wilderness, who was figuratively cruci- fied for the cause he served and that world-wide humanity he loved. And he was as eminent and successful a pioneer in this valley, as he was in that movement to free the slaves of the South.
That his preaching was not utterly lost upon his neighbors, is shown by the vote of 1848, when this vast county gave Gen. Lewis Cass, the famous Indian fighter and territorial Governor of Michigan, 183 votes on the Demo- cratic ticket, while Gen. Zachary Taylor, Whig, received 118, and Martin Van Buren, Free Soil candidate, received 47 votes. Those 47 votes were cast for the principles James G. Birney fought for. The tide had not yet set in, that would sweep old prejudices away, but the first low waves were rolling, even here. In 1852 the vote for President was as follows : Franklin Pierce, Democrat, 694; Gen. Win- field Scott, Whig, 367; John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, Free Soil, 73. The younger gen- erations of this settlement were most impressed with the spirit of their tutor, and he lived to see the work he did in the vineyard of his Master bear good fruit in the organization in July, 1855, under the oaks at Jackson, of the Republican party, embodying all the principles for which he fought.
This little settlement was represented at
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the birth of the "Grand Old Party" by the late Gen. Benjamin F. Partridge, Judge Albert Miller, John McEwan, and Col. Henry Ray- mond. The movement started by Judge Birney and his compatriots had now gained full swing, and through the entire North there rang the songs of Whittier and Longfellow, and the eloquence of Daniel Webster and his co-labor- ers in the halls of state at Washington, while thousands of volumes of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" were sold in Michigan. The result of this propaganda is evident in the last election held jointly by this community as part of Saginaw County in 1856. John C. Fremont, Repub- lican, received 1,042 votes, to 1,222 for James Buchanan, Democrat. It will also be noted that the vote of this vast region had almost doubled in those short four years. Verily many good citizens had entered the wilderness in Michigan's interior since 1850 and a large pro- portion settled here.
In 1850 the work of building up a prosper- ous community in these wilds of Lower Sag- inaw, begun in earnest in 1842 by Hon. James G. Birney, the late James Fraser and Dr. Daniel Hughes Fitzhugh, began to show excellent re- sults. Capitalists with money to invest, pro- fessional men with energy and ability, brainy mechanics and enterprising merchants, came to swell the population, undaunted by the primitive means we then had of communicat- ing with the outside world, or the still more primitive environs of the settlement itself. The acute business men of that army of hardy pio- neers and home-builders recognized in this lo- cation with its wealth of pine and other tim- ber, and its many probable though undiscov- ered and undeveloped natural resources, a busi- ness diamond cut in the rough, and their judg- ment has been verified by subsequent events.
By 1856 this settlement became ambitious,
and the pioneers were no longer satisfied to be a mere tail to the Saginaw kite, and around their firesides and in public meeting places they demanded a title more distinctive for their rising community. In that year Hon. James Birney came here to carry on the business en- terprises of his worthy father, and one of his first public acts was the introduction of a bill in the Legislature in January, 1857, providing "That the name of the village of Lower Sag- inaw, in the Township of Hampton, State of Michigan, be, and the same is, hereby changed to Bay City." The bill was passed and ap- proved February 10, 1857, Governor Bingham willingly signing the bill, for Saginaw had given him an adverse vote, while the little set- tlement, which was not yet incorporated as a village, had shown some of the spirit of the leading pathfinder of the community in regis- tering its sovereign will. This success spurred the ambitious settlers on to new efforts for a separate county organization.
In November, 1854, Jonathan Smith Bar- clay, one of our county's pioneer business men, builder and owner of the famous old Wolver- ton House, managed to secure the nomination and election to the Legislature from Saginaw County. In 1855, aided by Judge Albert Mil- ler and Daniel Burns-another of the galaxy of irrepressible sons of Scotland among our pioneers-a bill to create Bay County was in- troduced and later defeated by only a narrow margin, despite the bitter antagonism of both Saginaw and Midland, both of whom coveted this rich belt on the shores of Saginaw Bay. Gen. Benjamin F. Partridge is the historian of this memorable contest for recognition by his fellow-citizens of embryo Bay County, his sketch being published in pamphlet form by the Board of Supervisors in 1876. It now occupies a conspicuous place in the State Pioneer So-
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ciety's "History of Michigan." The opposi- tion in the "Third House" was pronounced strong, numerous and influential.
The determination of the now thoroughly aroused settlement was equal to the emergency, however, and, having a good and just cause, won out over seemingly insurmountable ob- stacles, just as, 48 years later, equally public- spirited citizens won out over a similarly ob- durate Legislature, in the endeavor to unite the sister cities. Then as now there were luke- warm citizens, conservative men who thought that possibly the matter was a little premature, who wanted to wait and see, who wanted to leave well enough alone, who were afraid we were not yet old or rich enough to stand alone, just as 48 years after equally conscientious and good citizens thought and argued, that we were not yet old enough or well enough balanced to "stand together." It is interesting to note that the progress of events for separation from Saginaw in 1857 were very similar to the course of events that UNITED the two Bay Cities in 1905. With a divided House behind them, and with seem- ingly insurmountable obstacles before them, there were able and willing spirits in the com- munity who dared to do the impossible. They insisted that the separate organization of Bay County, as they had determined to name the new constituency, was proper and right, and being RIGHT was not something to be ALLOWED by an unwilling Legislature, but something that should be at once CONCEDED.
In 1856 Hon. T. Jerome, of Saginaw, was elected to the Legislature from that county, and Henry Ashman, from Midland County, with the express understanding that they were to frustrate all efforts for the creation of Bay County, and both stood resolutely by their guns. Their opposition was at all times hon- orable and above board, but none the less
strenuous. The Legislature being almost unani- mously Republican, the settlers here wisely de- cided to send, as their missionaries, the leading residents of that political faith. There jour- neyed to Lansing, in behalf of a separate and distinct county organization, a large commit- tee headed by Hon. James Birney, Gen. B. F. Partridge, Col. Henry Raymond, William Mc- Ewan, John McEwan, Judge Albert Miller, and as many other settlers as could spare the time from their urgent daily duties of life.
The act creating Bay County was drawn by Chester H. Freeman, one of the first lawyers to come to this wilderness, and the description of territory was drawn by Gen. B. F. Partridge, himself an able surveyor and civil engineer. But the representatives of Saginaw and Mid- land counties did not want the bill to pass in that form, hence they added Section 2, which after a prolonged struggle before the Legisla- ture was finally accepted by all parties as a compromise. The act creating Bay County was as follows: "Section I: That the following territory (then followed the description) shall be organized into a county, which shall be known and called Bay County, and the inhabitants thereof shall be entitled to all the rights and privileges to which by law the inhabitants of the other organized coun- ties of this State are entitled. Section 2: This act shall be submitted to a vote of the electors of Bay, Saginaw, Midland, and Arenac Coun- ties, at the township meetings to be holden in said county (here followed provisions how the vote should be taken ), and in case a majority of the said votes upon the approval of this act shall be in favor of such approval, then this act shall take effect upon the 20th day of April, 1857; but if a majority of said votes shall be against such approval, then this act shall not take effect, but shall be void."
The anomaly of the wording was caused by
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the worthy member from Midland, who also wanted his people to have a vote in killing off the ambitions of "those mosquito fighters" at the mouth of the river, as the inland settlers were wont to refer sneeringly to the men who clared to seek homes amid the malaria and deso- lation of the wild and wooded lowlands. The member from Saginaw was willing to have the bill pass in this thrice altered way, satisfied to leave the matter to his constituency, and happy himself to be rid of the bother on the floor of the House. The representative from Midland County urged the claim of his county for the privilege of voting on this proposition, which seemed to concern them so little, with the undoubted purpose of later urging the rea- sons why Midland and not Saginaw should have that sneered at, but none the less growing, settlement near the bay.
By mutual consent the bill as thrice amended was passed by the Legislature on Feb- ruary 17, 1857, and was duly signed by Gov- ernor Bingham. The territory included in Bay County by this act was taken partly from Saginaw and Midland, and included all of Arenac County, which was attached to Mid- land for judicial purposes. It comprised town- ship 13 north, range 6 east; all the north half of township 13 north, range 5 east, that lies east of the Saginaw River ; all of township 14 north, ranges 3, 4, 5 and 6 east; all of townships 15, 16, 17 and 18 north, ranges 3, 4 and 5 east; all of townships 19 and 20 north, ranges 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 east ; and the Charity Islands in Saginaw Bay. All this territory lies around the shores of Saginaw Bay, including the valleys of the Saginaw, Kawkawlin and Pinconning rivers, which are still within the boundaries of Bay County proper, and the Pine Rifle and Au Gres rivers, now in Arenac County, and the Quanicasse River, now in Tuscola County. In this entire
territory but two townships were regularly or- ganized-Hampton and Williams. The changes of the original boundaries have come since then; as this vast territory became settled, the inhabitants wanted to set up housekeeping for themselves, much as Bay wanted to do in 1855, and did do in 1857. To our credit be it said, we have never compelled other communities to fight for their rights, as Bay County had to do, until the Supreme Court set things right in May, 1858.
In accordance with the provisions of the en- abling act, Bay, Saginaw, Midland and Arenac counties all voted on the proposition on the first Monday in April, 1857. In embryo Bay City a new light had dawned since the bitter fight was waged against the new county at Lansing, and some of those who were most emphatic in opposition to the separation now became the most urgent advocates of a separate county. Once again note the parallel between the evolution of the forces of progress and de- velopment in the fight for separation in 1857, and the endeavor for UNION in 1905. When the votes were counted at Birney Hall that rainy April evening in 1857, the entire settlement was out in the storm, anxiously awaiting the result.
The vote of Bay County was almost unani- mous in favor of the separate organization, the vote being 204 for separation, and only 14 against! Saginaw and Midland counties voted almost as unanimously against the separation, as was to be expected, and they forthwith con- tended that the act creating Bay County was null and void, and the Circuit Court at Saginaw continued to claim jurisdiction over Bay County. Most of the conservative and peace- loving residents of Bay were resigned to their fate, and proceeded to accept the discouraging consequences of that election with such good grace as they could command. Not so Hon.
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Chester H. Freeman, the framer of the act, and one of its sturdiest champions. He contended from the day the act was passed, that the Legis- lature did not intend to have Saginaw and Mid- land vote on it, and that the words "at the township meetings to be holden in SAID coun- ty" clearly proved that the election was to be held by Bay County alone. A handful of stal- wart and progressive citizens alone took Judge Freeman's view of the case.
Determined to have a settlement of the case one way or the other, the township authorities called an election of county officers to be held the first Monday in June, 1857. So little faith did some of the more conservative settlers have in this election, that they did not even take the trouble to vote, and consequently less than half as many votes were cast for the first county officers as had previously been cast in favor of the separate county organization. The officials elected, however, were determined to see the case through on its merits, and the following day qualified for their respective offices, to which they were later duly entrusted by the Supreme Court: Sheriff, William Simon; clerk, Elijah Catlin; treasurer, James Watson ; register of deeds, Thomas M. Bligh; judge of probate, Sydney S. Campbell; prosecuting at- torney, Chester H. Freeman ; circuit court com- missioner, Stephen P. Wright; surveyor, B. F. Partridge; coroner, William C. Spicer. These were the first county officials of Bay County, and the ticket was as well balanced as any ever named since at the polls.
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