History of Bay County, Michigan, and representative citizens, Part 22

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

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with many smaller hostelries in both cities. The New Republic House, built since then, de- stroyed by fire in 1901, has been entirely re- built, and a large addition in 1904 makes it one of the largest and most modern hotels in the State, while the Oriental on Jefferson ave- nue, built in 1904, is a pretty and unique addi- tion to the city's public buildings and hostelries. The old Welverton and Globe hotels are still standing. The city had many substantial busi- ness blocks 20 years ago, of which the follow- ing are still standing in 1905: The Cranage Bank, Cottrell, Hine, Munger, Union, Watson, Averell, McCormick, McEwan, Jennison, Bir- ney, and two Shearer Park blocks. Among the notable additions to these business blocks in re- cent years are the Crapo, Ridotto, Hawley, Rosenbury, Norrington, Baumgarten, Beck, Commercial, Central, Concordia, Eddy, Elks', Fay, Griswold, Harmon & Vernor, Hurley, McDermott, Maxwell, Moran, Kaiser, New Griswold, New McEwan, Obey Pacaud, Plumsteel, Root, Simon, Stewart, Taylor, Tierney, Van Emster, Warren, Washing- ton, Heumann and New Hurley Blocks. The fact that none of these many blocks are lying idle indicates the business act- ivity of the East Side. Some of the older blocks, in locations somewhat off the modern trend of business affairs in the city, are in use simply for the lack of better and more desir- able locations and more modern buildings. Cottage Hall on Madison avenue, Trades Council Hall on Water street, Moran Hall on Harrison street, and the Bay Theater Hall (on the West Side) are more recent additions to the public buildings of Greater Bay City. The Elks' Hall, facing Center Avenue Park on the southwest, and the magnificent new home of the Bay City Club fronting the same park on the northwest, are the two most noteworthy ad- ditions to the city's architecture and social life

in 1904. The Bertch Block on Washington avenue and the Gustin, Cook & Buckley Block, at the foot of Washington avenue, are the last and very substantial additions to the city's per- manent buildings.

The business directory of Bay City for 1885, just 20 years ago, is as enthusiastic about the prospects and progress of this city, as the earlier local chronicler. Some of the blocks here enumerated were built during this year, and in addition many smaller business places and many handsome residences. It was esti- mated that nearly $400,000 was spent for such improvements during that year. The assessed valuation was $7,722,310, which was probably not much more than half of the real value. In that year the 32 mills in both cities cut over five million feet of lumber, together with 52 million shingles, and 13,399 car-loads of salt were shipped during one year. The Pere Marquette handled nearly 79 million pounds of exports, and nearly 36 million pounds of imports; the Michigan Central shipped over 76 million pounds of exports, and almost 32 million pounds of imports. Since that time the latter road has made Bay City the center of its mam- moth business north of Detroit. A beautiful passenger depot graces the terminal at the foot of Jackson street, with an immense freight de- pot at the foot of First street. On the West Side are miles of side-tracks in the freight yards, with a large, modern roundhouse, and pretty passenger station just below the Wash- ington viaduct, the latter built jointly by the West Side and the railroad company.

In 1885 there were seven wards on the East Side, each having two aldermen. The city re- corder drew $1,300, with $1,000 bonds; the city treasurer, $1,400, with $150,000 bonds for the city, $60,000 bonds for the School Board, and $50,000 bonds for the county; the comp- troller, $1,400, with $10,000 bonds. The alder-

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men appointed the city attorney, with $600 sal- ary per annum; city surveyor, $3.75 per day ; street commissioner, $2.50 per day, and poor director, $425 per annum. The Board of Education looked after the schools, then

. as now the Board of Water Works looked after the city's water supply and the Police Department was managed by the mayor and four police commissioners, with Nathaniel N. Murphy, as chief. This veteran in 1905 manages the police force of the united cities with the office of superintendent. The Fire Department was managed by a Coun- cil committee, with Robert J. Campbell as chief engineer, with hose companies in the First, Second, Fourth and Seventh wards and the hook and ladder truck in the Fourth Ward, the center of the city. There were 35 fire-alarm boxes. But one disastrous fire has in all these 20 years gotten beyond their control, the ter- rible South End fire of 1893, which wiped out all the mills, stores and homes from the river to Jennison, and from 28th to 32nd streets. Judge Sanford M. Green presided over the Circuit Court. The immense local salt output required three salt inspectors; William R. McCormick, the esteemed pioneer ; Charles H. Malone and W. R. Wands, the last named still living on the East Side. The city had three banks,-the Bay City, First National and Second National banks. The Bay City Bank (incorporated July 19, 1871, with $100,000 capital, had George Lewis as its president. George H. Young, the cashier in 1885, is the present presi- dent of this bank, with capital increased to $50,000. The First National Bank, incor- porated in 1864, capital and surplus in 1885, $200,000, had these officers : James Shearer, president; Hon. Nathan B. Bradley, vice-presi- dent; B. E. Warren, cashier; F. P. Browne, assistant cashier. In 1905 we find Mr. Browne still cashier of this institution, Charles A. Eddy

is president and F. T. Norris vice-president. The Second National Bank (incorporated in May, 1864, had capital and surplus amounting to $140,000 in 1885; the following were the officers. William Westover, president; A. Chesbrough, vice-president; Orrin Bump, cash- ier ; and Martin M. Andrews, assistant cash- ier. Mr. Bump became president when the bank was reorganized as the Old Second Na- tional Bank, and so continued until ill health compelled him to retire in 1903. Mr. Andrews is the present cashier; James E. Davidson, president ; and Frank T. Woodworth, vice- president. The Commercial Bank with a cap- ital of $100,000 has been organized since then, as has the Bay County Savings Bank with a capital of $50,000. John Mulholland, cashier.

A ferry line connected Banks, Bay City and Salzburg, the "Hattie Brown," "Hubbard" and "H. C. Hull" taking care of the passengers. The electric cars have long since replaced the river craft. There were steamer lines running regularly to Saginaw, to Oscoda and Alpena, Caseville and Sebewaing, Detroit and Buf- falo, Toledo and Cleveland. A dozen har- bor tugs handled the logs and tow barges in the river. The railroads and changing fortunes of the cities have long since driven most of these river and lake craft to more congenial ports. Telegraph and telephone companies came early to this thriving lumber town, and in 1905 Bay City has two excellent telephone systems, reaching every part of the State and country, and two telegraph companies, with similar connections, all over the globe.

About 1885 the government was made to see the importance of Bay City as a port of entry, and through Hon. Spencer O. Fisher, ably assisted by Hon. H. H. Aplin, the hand- some and commodious Federal Building was secured on Washington avenue, the square in-

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cluding Fourth avenue and Adams and Third streets. Here is the post office, internal revenue office, customs office, and office and court room of the United States District Court for Eastern Michigan.

Bay City has long enjoyed several pretty public breathing places. Carroll Park, on the eastern city limits, with its casino and primeval forest kings, with modern landscape gardening, is a beautiful place for recreation and a quiet hour. Less pretentious but equally shady are Madison Park, Washington Park, Central Park and Broadway Park, while the Oak Grove on the East Side, Wenona, Oa-at-ka and Reserva- tion beaches on the West Side are ideal resorts and camping grounds on Saginaw Bay. Wen- ona Beach is the "Coney Island of the Lakes." An immense casino, with continuous vaudeville performances all season, with boating, bathing, dancing, and all the other attractions that go to cheer the heated term of summer, are here with- in the reach of every one, the car fare for the round trip of 12 miles being but 15 cents. It is the delight of the people who cannot afford the time or expense of visiting more expensive, even if not more attractive, summer resorts on distant shores.

Six public schools, and the High School, together with a number of good parochial schools, furnished the educational facilities of Bay City 20 years ago. The old High School is today the Farragut School, and the increas- ing population has made necessary the hand- some Washington School of the 11th Ward, the equally attractive Lincoln school of the Eighth Ward, and the Woodside School, a frame building destroyed by fire in March, 1905. The new High School, on Madison ave- nue and IIth and Jefferson streets, was expect- ed to answer all purposes for many decades. But despite many additions this building is again crowded to the limit, and with the ad-

mission of the West Side scholars a new build- ing will be at once imperative.

The city's first cemetery was located on what are now Columbus avenue and Saginaw street, which in 1845 was away out in the wil- derness. Potter's field was on IIth street and Washington avenue, and excavations in both these vicinities to this day bring to light many skeletons of early pioneers, whose last resting places had become obliterated in the ruthless course of events. Since then the West Side has created a beautiful city of the dead in the Oak Ridge Cemetery on State street and the Kaw- kawlin stone road; the East Side, in the Pine Ridge, Eickemeyer and St. Patrick's cemeter- ies. The latest addition is the Elm Lawn Cem- etery, planned and laid out by local capitalists on Columbus avenue, from Park to Livingstone avenues. Its shady nooks, well-kept lawns, and artistic landscape gardening, with a massive stone entrance arch, and office, with a large stone vault for public use, ivy grown and on a central elevation, with a number of costly pri- vate mausoleums and vaults and many artistic monuments, combine to make Elm Lawn one of the most beautiful, as well as most extensive and modern of the last resting places for our beloved departed.

In 1904 the East Side had expanded to II wards, the West Side to six wards. On the East Side the management of municipal affairs had been consigned by the Council largely to municipal boards appointed by the aldermen. The public lighting plant was in charge of the Board of Electric Control. The water-works system was in charge of the Board of Water Works. In 1872 the people voted to issue bonds to the amount of $327,000, for es- tablishing the Holly water-works system, and the only fault the citizens have to find with that action was the lack of provision to pay off the indebtedness so incurred. In 1905 the city still

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continues to pay the very high rate of interest in vogue 30 years ago, and it is estimated that the original cost of the plant has been largely paid by the city in interest on the debt, without reducing that indebtedness itself. The intake pipe was placed near Oak Grove, but was not extended far enough into the bay, so that with the gradually receding waters of the lakes, the supply of late years has suffered, much river water being pumped to make up the deficiency. The consolidated cities will have to solve the East Side water problem at no distant day, and it is hoped the large and modern water-works plant on the Kawkawlin, owned and operated by the West Side, can be made to supply both sides of the river. The old system on the East Side was built under the supervision of Andrew Walton, William Westover, William Smalley, H. M. Bradley, Andrew Miller, Thomas H. McGraw and Thomas Cranage, the last named being still in active business on the East Side. The first secretary of the board, E. L. Dunbar, has an enviable record for public service, for in 1905 he is still the efficient head of this depart- ment, which has during the last 33 years laid many miles of water mains, only recently re- placing the worn-out wooden pipes with iron mains and has ever given ample fire protection to the city and a cheap water supply to private and commercial consumers. Bay City's water system has been a model for many cities in the country, and one of the best managed of our city departments. The city's sewer system has been excellent from the first, the slope back from the river being just sufficient to provide the necessary drop, and the ample water supply and swift running current of the river have done good service. The sidewalks of plank are in 1905 giving way to permanent cement walks, which cost but little more than the now costly lumber, are much more durable and will save the city thousands of dollars in losses

through damage cases arising from defective wooden sidewalks.

When Bay City and Bay County were in the midst of an unlimited log and lumber supply, the roadways were covered with planks or cedar blocks, even the central country roads being covered with thousands of feet of plank, that at going prices in 1905 would represent a very large municipal fortune. In recent years both sides of the river have supplanted the cedar blocks with paving bricks, asphalt and bitum- inous macadam road surfaces, on permanent crushed stone and cement foundations. While somewhat more costly in the first instance, they assure the city permanent and modern road- ways for all time.

The increasing cost of lumber has made brick and cement the preferred materials for modern residences and business places, and many such buildings are in course of erection in 1905. Holy Rosary Academy on Lincoln avenue, the parochial residences of St. Boniface and St. James churches, and the new Pere Mar- quette Station, finished in 1904, are samples of this new style of architecture.

Bay City has undergone many changes in its 40 years of municipal existence, not the least being the gradual disappearance of the small, crude shacks, that housed the early pioneers, and were the result of the city's mushroom growth during the boom of the lumber indus- try. Slowly but surely these flimsy structures have given way to more modern and more sub- stantial business places, factories and homes, so that the sons of early Bay City, who wandered from their native heath, can but wonder at the changes for the better in evidence on every hand, when they come back to the city of their birth and youth.

The new St. Boniface Church, the magnifi- cent new St. Stanislaus Church, the present First Presbyterian Church, the New Trinity Protest-

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ant Episcopal Church, and the First Methodist Episcopal, Broadway Baptist, Patterson Me- morial, Salem Evangelical, Zion Evangelical, Immanuel German Lutheran, Central Method- ist Episcopal, Trinity German Lutheran, Fre- mont Methodist Episcopal and South Baptist churches on the East Side, and the First Bap- tist, First Methodist Episcopal, Westminster Presbyterian, Notre Dame, St. Mary's German Lutheran, and the Tabernacle on the West Side are among the modern houses of worship, that have within the last 20 years replaced their primitive predecessors.

No less advantageous to the city is the com- parison of the original public school buildings with the present roomy, handsome and substan- tial structures, where the youth of the city are being taught by a most competent staff of teachers. The old wooden school on Adams street is today a carriage factory, while the handsome Dolsen School has taken its place on Sherman street and Fourth avenue. The little school on First and Washington, the first in the city, has been replaced with the modern Sher- man School on Woodside avenue and Sherman street. Farragut School has lately been remod- eled. The Garfield School on Fraser and 22nd streets has received a large addition, making it one of the most modern and commodious in the city. An addition will this very summer have to be built to the Fremont School, which took the place of a wooden structure destroyed by the great fire. On the West Side, St. Mary's Parochial School is a late addition. The Kolb School is a new and large brick structure, and another new school has just been completed on Center and Thomas streets.

The East Side Fire Department Headquar- ters on Washington avenue are being remodeled in 1905: The Chemical No. I, and one hose company are stationed here, while an even more pretentious brick hose house on Washington

and Columbus avenues contains the ladder truck and one hose company. Other modern fire-fighting models are the Fifth Ward Hose House on Lafayette avenue, and the 11th Ward Hose House on Johnson street, where a combi- nation chemical and hose cart is housed. The First and Seventh ward companies also have roomy and well-equipped homes. The West Side Fire Department is not so well housed, and its three companies have a vast territory to cover, but both departments have an excel- lent record for efficiency.

In the palmy days of the lumber industry the danger of disastrous fires was very great and, on innumerable occasions, prompt and he- roic work by the fire laddies has saved millions of dollars worth of property. As more sub- stantial structures replace the old flimsy build- ings, which were mere food for fire, the chances for injury at the hands of the fire demon are being lessened, and the Fire Department of Bay City, East Side, as now constituted will meet all requirements for many years to come. The alarm system is the very latest and has proven absolutely rapid and reliable. The fire-fighting apparatus is the very latest obtainable, and un- der the veteran fire chief, Thomas K. Harding, who for more than 20 years has been at the head of this department, after serving before that in subordinate capacities, the fire demon finds his master on every occasion, when he ap- plies his flaming torch. The loss from fire during the year 1904 was trival, compared to that of earlier years.

Equally marked has been the change in the population and police comparisons. In the pio- neer days the frontier ruffians and intoxicated Indians were the dread of the peace-loving set- tlers. As the red men became less numerous, a rough and ready class of seafaring sailors joined forces with the adventurous lumber jacks. Circuit Judge Shepard only recently re-

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called the fact, that less than 30 years ago it was a risky thing to visit the Third street bridge or the Water street resort district, unarmed and unattended ! Murders, assaults, hold-ups and free for all fights were the rule, rather than the exception ! The Good Templars did their best to overcome these evils by a concerted campaign against the rum evil of those days, but quite in- effectually. C. C. Chilson was one of their most earnest leaders, and more than once he was assaulted by saloon rowdies, and on at least one occasion was shot at and nearly killed by a drunken ruffian, who thought to avenge Chilson's anti-saloon work. The writer was a newsboy in 1883-85, and he well recalls the riotous life among the lumbermen even at that late day. Prize fights were the daily attraction at some of the Third street resorts. Gaudy women catered to the thirsty in other resorts, or sang and danced on rough board stages, while below them on rough board floors, cov- ered thick with sawdust to absorb the tobacco juice and on occasion the blood of the brawlers, a mixed array of rough men and equally coarse women caroused and careened. Going down Third street on any afternoon, evening, night or early morning, one could hear the shrill music of the fiddle or bag-pipe, the melodeon and ac- cordion, while spiked feet danced in such uni- son as their maudlin drunk owners could com- mand on the floor cleared for the time being of chairs and crude benches, such as comprised the typical music hall or saloon furniture. To the credit of those tough and rough lumber jacks I want to say, that although they could easily tell by my broken English my foreign birth, they seldom spoke harshly to me, and then usu- ally liquor had mastered their finer sensibilities. Not once during those years of the sailor and the frontiersman, do I recall being molested in my calling as newsboy. Certainly not one of those coarse hands ever was raised to strike the

busy newsboy. On the other hand I often se- cured some large coin for the Evening Press, with the curt admonition, "never mind the change," and however crude or coarse may have been their revels, there went home from them a little lad, happy because of their generous hearts, and because their generosity was sure to make other hearts lighter ! With the passing of the lumber industry these lumber jacks have gone across the border to Canada, where Bay City lumbermen in the year 1905 find them just as hardy, and industrious, but also just as riot- ous and boisterous as they were in their palmy days in Bay City. During those early years the life of the policeman was ever in danger, and more than one fell at the post of duty, while others were maimed and injured while trying to maintain peace and order in the tough dis- trict.

Other and better days have come for our trusty officers of the law. In the ranks today are some of the veterans of those trying times. Supt. Nathaniel N. Murphy, Capt. Mathew Ryan, Sergt. George A. Hemstreet ; Samuel E. Catlin, William E. Toles, John W. Mulholland, George Traub, Joseph Ratcliff, patrolmen ; Ex- Capt. William Simmons, Henry Houck, con- stable and Ex-Capt. Andrew D. Wyman, now special officer on the Detroit & Mackinac Rail- way, were on the department during the years of transition, and the oldest among them took part in many of the stirring dramas enacted in the tenderloin district of the lumber town. The force to-day has a national reputation for effi- ciency and many crooks of national notoriety have wandered thus far but no farther ! Tramps and wandering pilferers shun this city like the plague, and the main duties of the policemen are now directed into more peaceful but none the less useful channels. The truant officer, health officer, tax collector, and the various city departments find their readiest assistants

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among the blue-coated guardians of the peace. This department, too, has reached a stage of development and efficiency that will require no addition in numbers or expense for many years to come.

Just as 20 and 30 and even 40 years ago, the citizens of these communities prided them- selves upon the efficiency of their several muni- cipal departments, in their varying stages of progress and development, so in this later year, 1905, we have every reason to feel proud of our departments of learning and culture, of public water and lighting service, of the transporta- tion, telephone and telegraph service, of the public health and judicial departments, of our fire fighters and peace guardians! It has been said time without number, and as often demon- strated by facts and figures, that no community of equal size in this or any other country is more healthy, more peaceful, or has more of the comforts and conveniences of municipal life, than these very same twin communities, united forever by the vote of their people in 1903, and by the joint election on April 3, 1905, made the fourth city of Michigan, Greater Bay City. Time and space forbid following the tide of events in the expanding metropolis of North- ern Michigan ; a fleeting review brought up to date must suffice.

In 1890 the lumber and salt industries of Bay City, were at the zenith of their develop- ment. The cities prospered and grew, and the rural districts were rapidly being settled. The market gardeners found no trouble in disposing of all they could raise, and money seemed plenty. But dark clouds loomed up on the hori- zon. The tariff tinkering at Washington, fol- lowing some fickle work at the polls of the voters, who apparently wavered for a time on both the tariff and the money questions, caused one of those periodical and yet almost inex- plicable financial depressions or panics, such as

had passed twice over the destinies of Bay County, leaving manufacturers and merchants bankrupt and many happy homes on the verge of ruin. At the very time that hundreds of residents of Bay County enjoyed the feast of arts, of science and culture, at the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, this new peril began to sweep the country from ocean to ocean, and this booming lumber community was not long in feeling the effects. There was little or no de- mand for the finished product and at the same time the log supply was becoming more and more distant, and hence more expensive.

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History of Bay County, Michigan, and representative citizens, Part 22

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