History of Bay County, Michigan, and representative citizens, Part 19

Author: Gansser, Augustus H., 1872-
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond & Arnold
Number of Pages: 738

USA > Michigan > Bay County > History of Bay County, Michigan, and representative citizens > Part 19

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No doubt the early adventurers were at- tracted hither by the trade in furs ; but among the pioneers of this section were those who recognized the almost limitless wealth to be cut from the boundless tracts of pine timber. There now remains but one tract of this virgin growth

of pine, and that is being manufactured into lumber as rapidly as modern methods and ma- chinery can do so. However, large tracts of hardwood timber, including the different varie- ties of oak and ash, elm, maple, beech, tama- rack and other valuable woods are still stand- ing. There is a constant and increasing de- mand for hardwood lumber to be used as in- terior finish and in the manufacture of cabinet- work; and while, of course, the lumber indus- try will never again be the mainstay of the county's industries, it will contribute largely to the wealth and prosperity of this section for many years to come. All the remaining saw- mills have timber supply and contracts for from 15 to 25 years.

Until 1860 lumbering and fishing were al- most the only industries. In that year the attention of capitalists and the community in general was called to the existence of vast res- ervoirs of salt in this section, and as an experi- ment a salt-well was put down in Bay City. This venture proved successful, and from that time on, with the encouragement of a small State bounty, the production of salt increased rapidly. The salt-blocks were usually operated in connection with sawmills, because in this way the exhaust steam, which up to this time had been wasted, could be profitably utilized, and steam could be generated from the refuse of the mills. Under the Saginaw Valley, at a depth ranging from 600 to 1,000 feet, lies a vast salt basin. The immense deposit of rock salt from which the brine used in our sait works must come has not yet been touched. Many attempts have been made to drill down to it, but after going to great depths, drill after drill has been broken, and up to this time all such ventures have been abandoned on account of the financial loss sustained. The brine from our salt-wells stands 96 and 98 by the salino- meter, and is freer from troublesome impurities

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-"bitter waters," the operatives call them- than the brine of most other localities. While we all realize the importance of salt, not many are aware that soda is largely made from it. There are also many by-products of the manu- facture of salt and soda which have consider- able value as articles of commerce, such as bromine, which is much used in photography and other arts and in pharmacy; chloride of magnesium, which is also used in pharmacy ; and chloride of calcium, used in the manufact- ure of artificial stone. With the decline of the lumber industry, the manufacture of salt also fell off to some extent, but many hundreds of thousands of barrels are manufactured each year, the North American Chemical Company alone producing about 1,000 barrels per day.

The discovery of coal in Bay County does not date beyond the memory of the oldest in- habitant, but it goes back many years. With the sinking of the first salt-wells came the dis- covery of the presence of coal; but in those days the matter was not considered worthy of particular attention. The drills would always pass through what the workmen were pleased to term the black mud or shale, but it was not supposed that coal existed underneath the val- ley, and no effort was made to mine it. In more recent years came reports from the north- ern part of the county (now included within the boundaries of Arenac County) that coal had been found while a well was being put down. A company soon went to work on the land where the discovery was made, and the news was sent broadcast that a good vein had been found. Then the company went to pieces, and that was the end of the Rifle River coal boom. It is scarcely II years since workmen, sinking a well in Monitor township, ran their drill through a vein of fine quality. The news of this discovery reached the ears of Frank and Alexander Zagelmeyer, who organized the

Monitor Coal Company, the first company of the kind in the county. Subsequent investiga- tion has shown that the entire county is one vast bed of pure bituminous coal of the finest quality, the veins varying from 34 inches to seven or eight feet in thickness. The problem of cheap fuel has been solved, for the Bay County product can be placed right at the doors of factories in the city, in the matter of freight alone, at nearly a dollar a ton less than Ohio coal, which heretofore has had a monop- oly of the trade in this county. With miles of deep-water navigation, excellent railroad facili- ties, and fuel right at our doors, the future of Bay City as a manufacturing center is assured, for these inducements can be offered to manu- facturers by no other city in the State. Other valuable minerals which are found in paying quantities are gypsum, and shales and clays well suited to the manufacture of Portland cement. Many varieties of brick clay have also been found in operating the coal mine shafts and are being worked at a profit.

For many years after the settlement of the county, scarcely any attention was paid to agri- culture. The clearing of farms began in the early "seventies" and it may truly be said that this industry even now is only in the early stages of its development. Probably three- fourths of the men who originally cleared up Bay County farms worked at one time in the fishing industry, in the sawmills or in the salt- blocks. They were thrifty and frugal, invest- in their savings in land, which they cleared in the winter season. The money received from the sale of the timber paid for the land, which is now worth in many cases from $50 to $200 per acre. It was necessary to drain a large part of the county before the land could be used for agricultural purposes. Thousands of acres of rich river bottom and swamp lands have been reclaimed by dredging and dyking. This

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work, which is still going on, is not difficult, as use is made of the many streams which trav- erse all parts of the county. In the southern and western portions of the county a rich black loam with a clay subsoil is found, while in the northern townships the soil is more sandy in character. Anything can be grown here that can be grown in other localities, and many crops flourish here that cannot be grown else- where. All fruits, with the possible exception of peaches, do as well here as anywhere in Michigan, and there is no better wheat, corn and hay land in the State. At first the farmers gave their attention more particularly to the growing of grains and hay, but in more recent years much of the land has been devoted

to market gardening, sugar beets, chicory and fruit growing. The raising of stock is fast be- coming an important branch of farming here, the expense of raising cattle being less than in many localities. In the summer season the meadows, pastures and wild lands produce the best of feed for stock, and in the fall and win- ter, beet pulp, which is an excellent feed for cattle, sheep and hogs, is given freely by the sugar factories to the farmers who will haul it away. The products of Bay County farms are sent to agricultural fairs far and wide, always winning prizes and premiums, and the "Gar- den Spot of Michigan," as it has been called, is conceded to be the banner agricultural county of the State.

CHAPTER VIII.

GREATER BAY CITY .- 1865-1905.

Our Motto: "United We Stand, Divided We Fall!"

REMARKABLE EVOLUTION OF THE BAY CITIES FROM BOOMING FRONTIER LUMBER COMMUNI- TIES TO HIVES OF VARIED INDUSTRIES-THE RISE AND DECLINE OF THE LUMBER AND SALT INDUSTRIES-MUNICIPAL IMPROVEMENTS-PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND BUSINESS BLOCKS-THE REVIVAL OF THE LUMBERINDUSTRY-THE CENTER OF AMERICA'S BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY-CHEMICAL FACTORIES, CHICORY MILLS AND VARIED INDUSTRIES- DISCOVERY OF COAL-IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRIES-MAMMOTH SHIP-BUILDING PLANTS AND DRY DOCKS-FISH AND GAME-THEFIGHT FOR CONSOLIDATION-THE FIRST OFFI- CERS OF GREATER BAY CITY-THE CHARTER.

Happly thy sun, emerging, yet may shine, Thee to irradiate with meridian ray ; Hours splendid as the past may still be thine And bless thy future as thy former day. -Byron.

The year 1905 will ever mark a memorable epoch in the annals of the thriving communi- ties situated on the banks of Michigan's might- iest inland stream, who, in this year of grace have joined together that which man should never have kept asunder! In April, 1865, Bay City began its corporate existence as one of Michigan's most promising cities, and just 40 years later West Bay City, the enter- prising sister community on the west bank of the Saginaw, unites its energies and destinies with the older community, creating by this happy union a flourishing city of approximate- ly 45,000 people. Drawn hither by the splen- did advantages for commerce and industry

offered by the Saginaw River for seven miles inland from Saginaw Bay, these early pioneers and town builders yet allowed that very same river to nominally divide them, for separate corporations have existed during all these years on opposite sides of the river.

During this very month of March, 1905, the Journal of Geography, while discussing the war between Russia and Japan, and the event- ual boundaries dividing the disputed empire of Manchuria, has this to say about rivers as a dividing line: "The Amur River, running through a broad and fertile valley, nominally divides the lowland politically into two parts -Russian Siberia on the north and Manchuria

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on the south. History proves that such a di- vision carries the suggestion of extreme weak- ness. Modern civilization has found out, THAT RIVERS ARE THE DIAMETERS OF COMMUNITIES, AND NOT THEIR CIRCUMFERENCE! That trade, and with it all the rest of modern life, gravi- tates toward the rivers, and there mingles, and thereby UNIFIES the life of the country on both sides! It will be as difficult to keep the people on opposite sides of the river Amur divided, as it was to keep the river Rhine German on one side, and French on the other! Navigable rivers, while good barriers in time of war, are fatal to continued separation in time of peace!"

If that is true of a mere boundary line, it comes home with even more force when ap- plied to sister communities, who like Brooklyn and New York City, or like the two Bay Cities, are bound together by the closest ties of social intercourse, business relations and mu- tual interests. Time and experience is there- fore bound to wipe out these imaginary divid- ing lines, and unite for collective effort and joint advancement ALL the people living on the same great waterway for identical reasons.

The most progressive and far-sighted citi- zens of both communities had for 30 years rec- ognized the advisability of uniting these cor- porate interests, but local pride, the ultra-con- servative obstructionists, who exist in every community and who ofttimes wield a restrain- ing influence for good, who in this instance were perhaps misguided, yet perfectly honest and sincere in their opposition, together with minor personal interests, served to keep us asunder for 25 years, and nearly encompassed the turning back the wheels of progress for an- other 20 or 30 years, through the "railroaded" repeal act of the Legislature in January, 1905, upsetting all that had been accomplished with wisdom and patience in the joint action of the

two Bay Cities through the Legislature of 1903.

But the rising generation of young men, with progressive ideas, with no ties to a vener- able but obsolete past, rallied to the support of the stalwart leaders of the consolidation move- ment of other years, and through the keen busi- ness judgment, wise counsel and decisive action of Michigan's beloved chief executive, Governor Fred M. Warner, they snatched victory for Bay City's union from the very jaws of ignom- inous defeat.

And so in April, 1905, by the election of its first officials, the charter of the new and greater city becomes operative! A new metropolis has been added to the list of great cities in the commonwealth of Michigan, and Bay City, West Side, and Bay City, East Side, become one good, strong and united community, to take that high place in the sisterhood of our country's great cities, to which these people have long been entitled by force of numbers, industry and natural advantages. Just as 40 years ago, the incorporation of Bay City, East Side, as a city gave new impetus to the busi- ness and social interests of that pioneer com- munity, so in this year of grace, 1905, these united Bay Cities must and will take on new vitality, new ambition, new energy and rise to that high plane of progressiveness and pros- perity, which in view of the city's splendid lo- cation, unbounded natural resources and intel- ligence of its people must be all its own, if we but do and dare, and pull together with a will !

But let us pause a moment, to see how this community of half a hundred thousand, with other thousands still without the corporate lim- its of Greater Bay City, came and grew and prospered. Turn back the pages of time, 50 years. Where stands to-day the really magnifi- cent City Hall, fit to be the capital of a kingdom,

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there stood in 1855 the crude wigwam or bark hunting-lodge of Nau-qua-chic-a-me, the chief- tain of the Chippewas. A spring clear as crystal welled up beneath a shady nook, and meandered westward to the great river, which rolled be- neath the shadows of the pines northward into an equally mighty bay. The wise men of his tribe were wont to assemble on the very spot for counsel, where 50 years later will assemble the councilmen of the Greater Bay City. Little did the red men dream what changes the next half century would bring forth. And almost as difficult is it for us to mentally turn back the wheels of time and call to mind that primitive hunting lodge, with its sage warriors and coun- cilmen of the aborigines. Nau-qua-chic-a-me in 1854 was more than three score and ten, and a warrior :

As monumental bronze, unchanged his look, A soul that pity touched but never shook; Trained from his tree-rocked cradle to his bier, The fierce extremes of good and ill to brook. Impassive-fearing but the shame of fear- A stoic of the woods-a man without a tear. -Irving.

In the earliest sketch of Bay City, compiled under authority of the Common Council of Bay City in 1875-76, by Alderman George W. Hotchkiss, Nau-qua-chic-a-me is given the fore- most place among the Indians met by the pio- neers of Bay City. "He was well and favor- ably known to all the white settlers of the val- ley. His honesty and friendship were proven in numberless instances." His band of Indians usually camped amid the pretty grove on the west side of the river, a veritable paradise for the natives. But the sage chief is said to have preferred the solitude of his lone hunting-lodge on the spot, where oddly enough, in the years to come, the business of a great community was to be transacted. Whenever the chieftain had im- portant matters to bring before his leading war-

riors, he would assemble them near the "deer- lick," where busy squaws and romping youths would not disturb their deliberations. Daniel A. Marshall, ex-alderman and city accountant for years, came here in 1860, and among his many interesting reminiscences, his recollection of this old chieftan, as he would troop into the young settlement with two or more squaws at his heels, and a jolly "Bu-shuu" greeting for all he met, is a refreshing recital of pioneer days.

About 1855 the growing community reached southward along the river front, and the "deer-lick" no longer offered solitude, and with silent regret the Indians retreated farther into the wilderness, appearing periodically at the little government pay-station on the banks of the river, where the Detroit & Mackinac Railway bridge now spans the deep waters, and visiting the stores of the pale faces for the com- modities which even their fathers never knew.

Poor Lo! The first and last dollar of his government pay invariably went for fire-water, and when on such rampages, the wild, discord- ant shrieks and war-whoops would make the night hideous in the settlement. Brawls with fatal results occasionally followed these de- bauches, and the pioneers always breathed eas- ier when the red men vanished again in the vast forests to the west and north of Bay City. The tavern and store-keepers invariably held most of the government cash by the time Poor Lo was ready to retreat, and hence the red men were not unwelcome guests. Nor did they often molest unoffending pale faces. Their brawls were usually with their own race, or with equally untamed bushmen of the frontier type. Often the pioneer mother in the wilder- ness of the valley would be startled by the silent approach of moccasined feet, but we know of no single instance, where the lonely wife or children were injured or even molested by these

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roaming warriors. The oldest settler tells us, that the Indians were consumed with curiosity about the life and deeds of the pale faces. They would stop at the log hut in the primitive for- est clearing, to watch the little pale faces play, to inspect the cooking of the housewife and to partake of the viands that were so new and in- viting to him, but all this as a rule unobtrus- ively. The early historian of Bay City ap- proved the kindliest sentiments about the In- dians. "who held their course, silent, solitary and undaunted through the boundless bosom of the wilderness." His hunting expeditions vied in distance and danger with the pilgrimage of the knights errant, traversing vast forests exposed to the hazards of lonely sickness, fero- cious beasts, lurking enemies and privations. In a frail bark canoe the Indians darted over the Great Lakes and the rushing rivers, ever re- treating before advancing civilization, but here still, with a lofty contempt of death, and a fortitude strengthened by their accumulating afflictions. The Chippewa could face death, but he could not face the buzzing of the saw- mill and with the other frightened denizens of the forest he left these scenes forever.

The mighty river the red children of the forest loved proved their undoing here, years before the other sections of the State in the same latitude became thickly settled. The Saginaw River furnished an easy means of reaching this wealth of forest and prairie, and an equally ready highway to the markets of the world. It is therefore small wonder, that in the primitive and pre-historic periods, no less than in the colonial period, it drew the human race to its shores. The stream, which Long- fellow has immortalized in "Evangeline," dur- ing its entire tortuous course cannot lay claim to natural charms or much pastoral beauty. Its waters are rather murky, the result of sweep- ing the rich alluvial lowlands on its journey to

the great bay. The current is not swift, except during spring freshets or after prolonged rain- fall in the valley. The earliest pioneers found it more beautiful, when stately pines and tang- led vines framed its low banks, and a carpet of sweet and beautiful wild flowers extended to the water's edge. The ridge along its west bank was particularly attractive, with its rich covering of green, and with luxurious wild flowers running riot beneath the wide-spread- ing branches of the scattered monarchs of the forest. The tepees of the Indians were then the only signs of human habitation on that side of the river, while often the antlered tribes of the forest trooped down to the water's edge in the more secluded spots, and packs of wolves romped along the shore within sight of the early East Side settlers. Then as now, it was indeed a "Silent River :"

"River! that in silence windest Through the meadows, bright and free, Till at length thy rest thou findest In the bosom of the sea!

Thou hast taught me, Silent River ! Many a lesson, deep and long ; Thou hast been a generous giver ; I can give thee but a song.

Where yon shadowy woodlands hide thee, And thy waters disappear, Friends I love have dwelt beside thee, And have made thy margin dear.

'Tis for this, thou Silent River ! That my spirit leans to thee ; Thou hast been a generous giver, Take this idle song from me. -Longfellow.

With the advance of the very forces at- tracted by this navigable river, its shores be- came even more prosaic. The earliest known clearing was made by the German frontiers- man, Jacob Graveroth, who came West for the Astors, in quest of furs and trade with the In-

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dians, about 1825. He married a daughter of Kish-kau-ko, a Chippewa chief of the band that then made this valley their rendezvous. The Trombleys found him living with the Indians when they first visited the site of Bay City, and many amusing stories are told of his droll wit and good humor. He was well liked by the Indians and did a thriving business as their trader and interpreter. The next clearings were made by the Trombleys and the farm instructors the government sent to the Chippe- was, in the hope of teaching these huntsmen and warriors the arts of peace.

But the valley remained practically silent and unknown to the outside world, until four master minds came and saw and appreciated its wealth of resources. Judge Albert Miller from his frontier home at Saginaw City, James Fraser from his fine farm on the Tittabawassee, Hon. James G. Birney, of Kentucky, and Dr. Daniel Hughes Fitzhugh from New York State, were without a doubt the first to see and take advantage of the deep-water harbor, and the value of the timber lands, where stands to- day the metropolis of Northern Michigan.

Foremost among the four stands the late James Fraser, "the man on horseback," the most energetic figure in the early annals of Bay City. He it was who personally inspected every foot of the valley lands, ceded to the govern- ment by the Indians in the treaty of 1837. Over Indian trails and trackless wastes without a guide, save for the stars of heaven, he blazed a way as he rode through the primeval forest, or skirted the shores of river and bay in frail bark canoe, determined to know the exact lay of this virgin land. He was a familiar sight to the roving Indians, who admired his restless energy and indomitable pluck. They called him "Little Wizard" and in after years had reason to know that the appellation was well merited. He could not wait for the long drawn out coun-

cils of government officials and Indians about the sale of their last remaining reservation in the valley, but took what he found ready.

The John Riley Reserve of 640 acres, given by the government to Stephen V. R. Riley for his assistance in securing the first treaty of 1819 from the reluctant Indians, was the only available site for a city near the mouth of the placid Saginaw River. For its purchase Mr. Fraser organized the Saginaw Bay Company. John Riley would not sell without the consent of his aged father, then postmaster of Schenec- tady, New York, and this old frontiersman with hair whitened by the snows of more than 70 winters brought about at Detroit the sale of what is now the heart of Bay City, for the then enormous sum of $30,000. The company. led by Mr. Fraser, at once laid out the plat of the new town, constructed a warehouse, planned a hotel and actually started it, and a dock was built for the vessels, which the projectors felt certain would soon be doing business in the set- tlement they called Lower Saginaw. But with President Jackson's order, requiring specie payment for all government lands, the financial panic of 1837-38 swept the promoters of this new town from the height of prosperity to utter ruin. Their fondest hopes were destined to be more than realized, but it was not for them to reap, where they had tilled so well.

James Fraser alone managed to tide over the disastrous years, and he alone was destined in the years to follow, to profit by his own fore- sight and keen business judgment. During those years he was ubiquitous. He seems en- tirely insensible to fatigue, hunger or cold. When the land office was still in Detroit, it was a common thing for him to ride to Detroit, a distance of more than 100 miles, in one day and often without even changing horses. Even this terrible ride did not finish his day's work on some decisive occasions. Finding some

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message or some word from Lower Saginaw or the Tittabawassee, upon his arrival at his home in the settlement above the bar, he would at once mount another horse, and plunge again into the wilderness, defying the storms of Na- ture no less than the terror of savage beasts or lurking Indians. His force of will and sagacity always brought him safe through all dangers, though like St. Paul of old he could recite in the eventide of his busy life the many instances when he passed close to the dark valley of death. Death by drown- ing, by falling trees, by snake bites, by his horse stumbling over an obstacle in the inky darkness of the dense woods, by the breaking of a frail bridge over a deep gully, and a hundred similar dangers, encompassed him, but he always escaped with hardly a scratch. One of the pioneers of those early days recalled meeting Fraser early one morning on the trail over the Cass, riding his horse at speed, knee deep, through the mud, a handker- chief taking the place of a hat, which had been lost in his mad ride through the woods in the darkness of the night, covered with mud, his face scratched by the branches of obstructing trees, yet greeting cheerily those he met. In March, 1850, Mr. Fraser learned that his eld- est son was very sick at Detroit. Mounting his favorite horse "FairPlay," a mount worthy of its master, there began a wild race with death. The trails and roads were in their very worst condition, yet horse and rider plunged along, mile after mile. When "Fair Play" was about exhausted, he changed his mount, and in a little less than nine hours Mr. Fraser was at the bedside of his dying son.

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History of Bay County, Michigan, and representative citizens, Part 19

Author: Gansser, Augustus H., 1872- Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Chicago : Richmond & Arnold Number of Pages: 738

Author: Gansser, Augustus H., 1872-
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond & Arnold
Number of Pages: 738