USA > Michigan > Bay County > History of Bay County, Michigan, and representative citizens > Part 18
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doubled, the saloons showing the largest in- crease in numbers. There are now several large general stores, a hardware, dry goods and shoe store, photographer, music teacher and three practicing physicians.
Like other business centers of the valley, the industries of the village have undergone a complete change in the last 15 years. Car- rier & Company built the first sawmill in 1867, with a capacity of 8,000,000 feet of lumber per year. The Rouse mill was built by J. M. Rouse in 1870-71. In January, 1878, his sons, -E. F. Rouse and William B. Rouse (the latter now village president),-took charge of the mill, which then cut 12,000,000 feet of lumber annually, built a salt-block in connec- tion, producing 90 barrels per day, and oper- ated it so long as the supply of logs held out. The lumber statistician of 1879 also counted the McEwan mill as part of Essexville, and while it has been within the limits of Bay City its employees came largely from this village. Then came the mill of J. R. Hall and the shin- gle mill of S. A. Hall, and still later Boyce's mammoth sawmill and salt-block brought new life and business to the bustling lumbering com- munity. Then came the $2 tariff on Canadian logs and with a single stroke of the pen at Washington, the lumber industry of the west- ern shore of Lake Huron and on Saginaw Bay was totally destroyed. One by one Essexville's sawmills closed down, were torn down, re- moved or fell a prey to the fiery elements. Pen- niman & Courval's shingle mill near the mouth of the river is all that remains of this once booming lumbering community.
In 1898 Essexville profited by the experi- ments with sugar beets carried on for a term of years by Hon. Nathan B. Bradley, C. B. Chatfield, Rev. William Reuthert and other pio- neers of that now flourishing farm and factory,
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industry, the Michigan Sugar Factory being built under the stimulus of a State bounty that year. This was the first beet sugar factory in Michigan ; it was incorporated in 1897, capi- talized at $200,000, and with these officers : Thomas Cranage, president; Hon. Nathan B. Bradley, vice-president ; E. T. Carrington, sec- retary-treasurer. In December, 1898, the Bay City Sugar Company was incorporated with a capital of $600,000, being officered as follows : W. L. Churchill, president; Capt. Benjamin Boutell, vice-president; Eugene Fifield, secre- tary-treasurer. By January 1, 1900, this mam- moth five-story sugar-house began its first beet- slicing campaign. The question of refuse molasses from these factories was solved a year later when the Michigan Chemical Company was organized by Pittsburg capital, and the following summer the first high-proof spirits were manufactured, the government taking most of the output for use in its manufacture of high-power explosives.
These, with the chicory factory on Borden avenue, since burned down and consolidated with the Center avenue factory, just south of the corporate limits of the village, and a num- ber of large fishing institutions, comprise the present industries of the village. Many of the villagers have turned their attention to culti- vating sugar beets during the summer, finding employment in the sugar and chemical factories in fall and winter. The Boyce Coal Company was organized in 1899, A. A. Boyce, president ; G. J. Boyce, secretary-treasurer, with offices on Pine street. The erection of the Hecla cement plant just across the river from Essexville, with a capitalization of $5,000,000, furnished employment to hundreds of villagers, and, when the concern settles its internal troubles in the courts, will prove a bonanza to Essex- ville and its inhabitants. The Essexville coal
and wood yard built by William B. Rouse two years ago, and now operated by Charles Gard- ner, fills a long-felt want. The population of Essexville was 1,639 in 1900.
The dividing line between Greater Bay City and Essexville is about the center of Woodside avenue, east of Atlantic street, and many of the villagers are looking forward to the time when their community will form a ward of the great city. The main objection is the bonded indebt- edness of the city, while Essexville has not one dollar of bonded debt. But this might be arranged on a mutually satisfactory basis, and the consolidation would at once give Essexville access to the municipal lighting plant, the water-works, with the much needed fire protection, the High School, for which the villagers must now pay extra, permanent pave- ments, improved drainage, and all the other modern advantages of an up-to-date city. That many of the villagers see this union of village and city in the not very far future is proven by the defeat of the proposition to bond the village for $50,000 for a village water- works plant, at the election on March 13, 1905. Consolidation will give them this water service, then why erect a separate plant? The dividing line is slender, the social and business interests closely interwoven, and ere long all the people residing on both sides of the Saginaw River, for five miles from its mouth, will comprise one city of more than 50,000 inhabitants, and Essexville is destined to be one of the busy wards of the greater. city.
The village election held on March 13, 1905, was one of the most spirited in the annals of Essexville, and more remarkable because only one candidate of the Democratic ticket won out, after that party had ruled the desti- nies of the village for years. Following was the vote :
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PRESIDENT.
William B. Rouse, Rep. 165
J. R. Cotter, Dem. II9
Rouse's majority, 46.
CLERK.
O. A. Lloyd, Rep.
135
F. O. Guindon, Dem. 149
Guindon's majority, 14.
TREASURER.
W. C. Rothermel, Rep 143
Jacob Van Hamlin, Dem. 130
Rothermel's majority, 13.
ASSESSOR.
Martin Richards, Rep. 154
William Felker, Dem. 127
Richards' majority, 27.
TRUSTEES.
E. F. Crummer, Rep. 152
W. Portlance, Dem. 130
Crummer's majority, 22.
Archie Deary, Rep. 144
Charles Wise, Dem. I33
Deary's majority, II.
William Burgess, Rep. 154
Henry Hudson, Dem.
123
Burgess' majority, 46.
VILLAGE OF KAWKAWLIN .- One of the prettiest and most enterprising hamlets in Bay County is situated on the banks of the placid river, which gives it its romantic Indian name. The earliest settlers clustered about the quaint little water-mill built by the late James Fraser, and later operated by O. A. Ballou & Company, Frederick A. Kaiser's steam-mill, and the ford used by the Indians in their travels. In 1855 this village consisted of the two mills, five cot- tages, two log huts, several Indian wigwams, and one hundred million mosquitoes to the square mile. The pioneer Kaiser and his sturdy German wife never had any altercation at the dinner table, because they always had to keep muffled, to prevent being devoured by these winged demons of the swampy river bot-
tom! Thomas Munn, Edward McGuinnes, Michael McGuinnes, Cromwell Barney, John Sutherland, the late Dr. T. A. MacTavish, Jans Jacobsen, Amos Wheeler, Calvin E. Be- dell, Edwin M. Parsons, Carl Schmidt, George A. Schultz and John C. Westpinter, who came in 1852, were among the home-builders of this village in its pioneer days.
The fellow-citizens of genial "Tom" Munn know that there could not have been many dull moments in the village, while Tom was there, and the pioneers tell many amusing stories of pioneer life on the "raging" Kawkawlin. One day in November, 1873, a lovesick and not overly bright young fellow wandered into the settlement, and before the week rolled around had received the icy mitt from all the young women of the town, to whom he proposed in short order. A fun-loving Scotchman thought he saw a chance to relieve the mosquito season. A beardless boy of feminine looks was togged up, Mr. Masher duly introduced, and the weird courtship duly started. A fellow named Smith made some insulting remark to Mr. Masher's "girl" one evening, and next morning a war- rant was secured before a fake justice, a mock trial was held, and Smith fined $15, to the de- light of Mr. Masher. To settle matters he proposed to marry, and before night the fake justice had tied the knot. Then Smith bobbed up to spoil the wedding ceremony by demand- ing another trial, which was duly held next morning and Smith acquitted. In the same instant another fellow stepped forward to claim his wife, now Mrs. Masher, and the "girl" was promptly arrested for bigamy, to Mr. Newly- wed's horror! But his horror became aggra- vated when some wag tore off the "girl's" bon- net and other toggery. Tableau! Mr. Masher was set adrift on the Kawkawlin and drifted out of sight forever, but never out of mind in the settlement !
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HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
The spirit of the community also found expression in breezy rhymes. Here is a sample :
No fightin' or brawlin is heard in Kawkawlin And the only contention is at the ball park!
'Tis here that the white man gives the red man his right hand,
And helps him, as Penn did, to paddle life's bark!
Canadians in dozens, with "Old Country" cousins, Are fleeing the maple leaf, thistle and rose; And westwardly sally, to Kawkawlin valley,
To find richer homes where the prairie grass grows.
We have a fair river, a bountiful giver, Of all sorts of fishes that dwell in the sea ; While placidly resting, or fearlessly breasting, Its current, the wild duck is waiting for me.
We turn out together, in fair or foul weather, To help any neighbor we think is in need ;
Each man to the other is a scriptural brother, Despite nationality, color or creed !
In 1861 the first school was opened in a little frame building, and Miss Carrie Chelsea, now Mrs. C. C. Faxon, of West Bay City. was the first teacher. The venerable lady has achieved in the 44 years since passed a fore- most place for philanthropy, and earnest work in the missionary and temperance field. The post office was established in 1868 and D. Stan- ton was the first postmaster. The Presby- terians and Methodists held church services about 1863, and 10 years later substantial church edifices graced the thriving village. Social Lodge, No. 148, I. O. O. F., was orga- nized December 13, 1871, two members being admitted by card, and seven by initiation. It has grown continually since then, and with the Pine Grove Lodge of Good Templars, shares the honor of being the earliest fraternal and benevolent organizations in the village. The Knights of the Maccabees, Gleaners, Independ- ent Order of Foresters, Modern Woodmen of America and Masons have strong lodges in
the village. Many of the members live in the surrounding country.
In 1862, O. A. Ballou, A. M. Switzer and Dr. W. E. Vaughn, the latter still a resident of Bay City, operated for a few years a chemical plant for the manufacture of hemlock extract. It was the predecessor of a number of large chemical plants erected in Bay City since. Kaw- kawlin has had several genuine earthquakes, owing to the tendency of the H. H. Thomas dynamite plant, just south of the village, to create a terrific noise and a rocking of the uni- verse, whenever it takes one of its periodical flights into space and minute particles! Win- dow glass for miles around is at a premium on such occasions, and, more unfortunately still, a number of lives have been lost by these terri- ble explosions.
The village has suffered a number of times owing to fierce fires raging through the remain- ing forests and underbrush of the vicinity. One of the most destructive fires occurred on March 25, 1880, when the handsome home of the oldest pioneer, Frederick A. Kaiser, was destroyed by fire caused by defective flues in the heating apparatus. Mr. Kaiser was in Bay City on the eventful morning, and his son and hired men were at work. About 10 o'clock a son-in-law, living over a mile distant, looking toward the Kaiser home, saw flames and smoke pouring from the roof. Mounting a horse he rode the animal under the whip the entire dis- tance, the exertion killing the faithful beast. Most of the furniture was saved but the house, valued at $16,000, was totally destroyed.
Just south of the village, in a beautiful grove of forest kings, on a little bluff overlook- ing the river and valley, facing the fine stone road, is "Riverside Farm," one of Bay County's prettiest and most famous ranches. It is the homestead of the Marston family, and was for years the beloved retreat of the late Hon. Isaac
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AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
Marston, justice of the Supreme Court from 1875 to 1883, being chief justice in 1880 and 1881. He also filled, by appointment from Governor Bagley, a vacancy that occurred in the office of Attorney General of Michigan, this being prior to his elevation to the bench. "Riverside Farm" has for years had the dis- tinction of being one of the model farms of the entire country, and is far-famed for its large herd of blooded cattle, mainly Jerseys. The Judge has a worthy successor at "Riverside Farm" in his son, Thomas Frank Mars- ton, who served for years on the State Board of Agriculture, being president of the board during the administration of Governor A. T. Bliss, and has lately been reappointed to this board by Governor Fred M. Warner.
Like Frankenlust on the southwest, Wil- liams on the west and Portsmouth and Merritt on the southeast of the county, Kawkawlin is noted for its hospitality. The dust and smoke- begrimed employees of factory and workshop in Bay City know and have no greater recrea- tion, than a drive over the fine roads, where macadamized stone has replaced corduroy, mud and finally plank roads, to the cozy, well- stocked and hospitable homes of the villagers and farmers of Kawkawlin.
PINCONNING VILLAGE. - "Pinconning : Change cars for Mount Forest, Bentley and Gladwin." Such is the stentorian announce- ment of the pleasant-faced conductor on the "Mackinaw Flyer" of the Michigan Central, as the train pulls into the pretty village on the Pinconning River. We are 18 miles from Bay City. The trunk line to the Straits of Mackinac runs due north, the Gladwyn Branch almost due west to Mount Forest, and then northwest- ward to the county seat of Gladwin County. As the townships to the north of Bay City are
being settled, the importance of Pinconning as a trading center naturally increases.
The village dates from 1872, when Fred- erick A. Kaiser and George H. Van Etten built and operated the first sawmill there. They built a unique railroad of 3 by 5 maple rails for 18 miles into a timber belt that gave 140,000,000 feet of lumber. They platted 100 acres on both sides of the railway; the streets running north and south were named : Waters, Warren, Kaiser, Manitou and Van Etten, while those running east and west were numbered from one to six. With the later additions, these are the streets of the village to-day. A large general store was started by the firm, and a post office established. Pinconning township now has rural free delivery advantages, but the post office is still in much demand. George Barie is the popular postmaster of Pinconning.
With the falling of the last pine tree in that lumbering section, the palmy days of the village ended for a time. The mills were wiped out by fire or torn down and removed nearer their timber supply. But the settlers followed the lumber jack, and ere long Pin- conning took a new and permanent lease of life, so that in 1887 it was incorporated and reincorporated in 1891. In the census of 1900 it had 729 inhabitants.
The business section of the village has been repeatedly wiped out by fire, but, as often Pinconning rose from the ashes and always with more pretentious hotels, stores and homes. The fine brick school was destroyed by fire in 1904, and in 1905 an even more modern and handsome brick and stone school has replaced it. The Maccabee Hall is one of the conspicu- ous two-story structures, and furnishes ample auditorium space for the public meetings and entertainments of the village. The first church was the Indian mission at the mouth of the Pinconning River. In 1884 the Methodist
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HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
Episcopal and the Presbyterian Church were built, and almost every denomination is repre- sented in this little hamlet. Women's clubs and social organizations assist in furnishing diver- sion and enlightenment for the progressive vil- lagers.
Practically every line of retail trade is rep- resented in the village, the stores are well- stocked and well-kept, and the enterprising merchants know the value of paint in keeping things looking bright and new on the outside, and clean within. Two hotels and several tav- erns provide for the comfort and good cheer of transient visitors and industrious villagers. The fraternities are well represented in Pin- conning, there being lodges of Masons, Odd Fellows, Maccabees and Modern Woodmen.
Edward Jennings, proprietor of the shin- gle, heading and stave mill, the only survivor of the palmy days of lumbering here, has held about all the positions of trust and responsibil- ity in Pinconning village and township. In 1904 he was village president. On March 13, 1905, the following union ticket was elected without opposition : President, A. Grimshaw, hardware merchant; clerk, H. C. Mansfield, grocer ; treasurer, W. A. McDonald, grocer ; assessor, George Deremer, musician and ton- sorial artist; trustees,-Alex. Lenhoff (cloth- ing merchant), George Hessling (harness- maker.) and Edward Jennings (lumberman).
AUBURN .- About 10 miles west of Bay City, exactly midway to Midland, on the splen- did Midland stone road, is one of Michigan's prettiest country hamlets. Well-kept stores and comfortable homes, inviting taverns and busy shops, cozy schools and dignified houses of worship, are clustered here, providing many of the diversions and ethics of life, and all its modern-day necessities. In the farming com-
munity about the village, the stump-puller has long since given way to the up-to-date sowing and reaping machines. In 1883 there were two churches (Methodist Episcopal and Catholic), the Auburn House (a fine brick hotel owned by W. P. Root), the fine store of Ira E. Swart, a blacksmith shop and two saloons. The pio- neer, Ira E. Swart, joined the great majority eight years ago. The place has known many changes in the two decades intervening between 1883 and the present time.
The Methodist Episcopal Church of 25 years ago is still a landmark in Auburn, but the little Catholic Church has been replaced by St. Joseph's Church, a brick structure, 40 by 65 feet, and modern in every respect, at a cost of $10,000. The town hall is located in the heart of the village, furnishing an ample meet- ing place for the residents of Williams town- ship. Just across the way is the office and cozy home of the veteran physician of the village, Dr. John P. Snyder, and Smith's drug store fills a long-felt want in the community. John Nuffer's cheese factory and general store, and the elevator and general store of C. A. Kern are among Auburn's substantial business insti- tutions. August Constantine presides at the Auburn Hotel and James Green at the Bay City Hotel. The merry music of hammer and anvil is heard from early morning until late each day, where George Clark and the Hemingway Brothers operate their respective smithies. Interspersed with these busy institu- tions are the comfortable and well-kept homes of the villagers.
Here, too, the townspeople of Bay City find a breathing place, a source of rest and recreation after the day's work or the week's work is done. Sleigh-ride parties in winter, bicycling, coaching and auto parties during summer find Auburn a jolly good place to visit. The village folk enjoy these visits, and practice
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fraternity and benevolence within their own little community. We find here the Auburn Post, G. A. R., a reminder that Williams town- ship furnished rather more than its quota of men when our country needed them most, and active lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Modern Woodmen of America, Inde- pendent Order of Foresters, Gleaners, and lead- ing "Farmers Club" of the county. Verily these worthy villagers know the town-meeting, love its associations, and profit by the lessons of progress and charity there espoused, worthy descendants of the idyllic New England vil- lage, whose memory Auburn brings vividly to mind. And verily here too we find :
Under a spreading chestnut tree The village smithy stands ; The smith, a mighty man is he, With large and sinewy hands; And the muscles of his brany arms Are strong as iron bands.
Week in, week out, from morn till night, You can hear his bellows blow; You can hear him swing his heavy sledge, With measured beat and slow, Like a sexton ringing the village bell, When the evening sun is low. -Longfellow.
"ICEBURG, U. S. A."-This is the famous fishing village, located from three to 30 miles north of Bay City, which appears each winter as if by magic, on the icy surface of Saginaw Bay. Just as soon as the ice on the bay is thick enough to sustain the weight, commercial fish- ermen, and men from every walk of life who happen to be out of employment, rig up their shanties on sleds, each shanty being provided with a stove for a heating, and a cot for sleep- ing purposes, and a box to hold provisions. Hundreds of these fishing shanties are moved out on the ice, their location depending upon the feeding grounds or runway of the finny tribes, and for from three to four months the fishermen are busy spearing fish. Fish buyers drive out each day and buy the catch. This picturesque and transient community has been named "Iceburg, U. S. A." The season of 1904-05 brought out some 350 men, and while the catches for December and January were light, February and March proved bonanzas. Expert spear fishermen made from $5 to $10 per day. The ice for January, February and March, 1905, was three feet thick.
CHAPTER VII.
NATURAL RESOURCES AND ADVANTAGES OF BAY COUNTY.
CLIMATE - EASY WATER COMMUNICATION PROVIDED BY THE RIVERS AND SAGINAW BAY -A PARADISE OF FISH AND GAME-RICH MINERAL AND AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES- PINE AND HARDWOOD TIMBER-EXTENSIVE UNDERLYING DEPOSITS OF SALT AND COAL -RICH SOIL AND FRUITFUL FARMS-"GARDEN SPOT OF MICHIGAN."
Bay County is situated at the head of Sagi- naw Bay, and has a shore line of about 30 miles. It has an area of 437 square miles, and is probably the only county in the State without a single natural elevation. No figure of speech is used in applying the word "valley" to this region. The watersheds where the head waters of the Saginaw have their origin are many hundreds of feet higher than the river valley in Bay County. The altitude of the counties to the south, where the Flint and Shiawassee rivers, tributaries of the Saginaw, have their begin- ning, is between six and seven hundred feet above that of Bay County. A similar condition in greater or less degree, exists as to the coun- ties west of Bay. Bay County is thus protected in no small degree from the severe wind-storms which sometimes sweep across the State. While the winters are long and cold, the variations in temperature are not extreme, and the climate is much milder in winter than that of many portions of the State lying farther south. The summers are usually hot, owing to the county's peculiar location; the modifying influence of Saginaw Bay and the Great Lakes cause a late autumn and all crops have ample time to come
to maturity before the fall frosts. The low mortality statistics show that the climate is exceptionally salubrious.
Besides numberless smaller streams and creeks, four large rivers,-the Saganing, Pin- conning, Kawkawlin and Saginaw,-flow through Bay County. The last named river is formed by the Tittabawassee, Cass, Flint and Shiawassee rivers, and has a total length of 18 miles, being the largest river within the State. It enters the southern part of the county between Frankenlust and Portsmouth town- ships, flows north through Greater Bay City and between Bangor and Hampton townships, emptying into Saginaw Bay three miles north of Bay City. The season for navigation usu- ally runs from the Ist of April to about De- cember Ioth. The ice has been known to go out of the Saginaw River as early as March 17th, and in the season of 1857-58 the ice was at no time thick enough to hinder the passage of tug boats between Bay City and Saginaw. The ice on river and bay during the winter of 1904-05 was from 18 to 28 inches thick. In the early days a sand-bar stretched across the mouth of the Saginaw River and seriously
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obstructed navigation. This has been dredged away by the Federal government and now ves- sels of the deepest draft can enter the harbor and land their cargoes at any dock along Bay City's seven miles of water front.
There are few sections of this country of equal area which have such wealth and variety of natural resources. Long before the first white man penetrated this wilderness, the abor- iginal Indian tribes waged many a war for the possession of its primeval forests abounding with wild game and its rivers teeming with fish. While the larger game has been mostly killed off, or has sought refuge in retreats less accessible to man, there still remains sufficient small game to afford the man with a gun the pleasure he is seeking. The rivers of the county and the waters of Saginaw Bay continue to furnish immense quantities of edible fish, thus sustaining an industry in which hundreds of men are employed and thousands of dollars are invested. It is in winter that the fishing busi- ness reaches its greatest activity. At that sea- son, hundreds of commercial fishermen and workingmen out of employment go out on the ice in the bay, erect huts and live for several months luring the finny tribe from the clear blue waters. The fishing grounds along the bay and river are generally owned by the firms engaged in the business, their riparian rights extending to the center of the stream. Along these grounds nets are set, and lifted daily if necessary. It is not unusual to draw up from one to three tons of fish at a lift. New York City is the great mart for Bay County's fish output.
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