USA > Michigan > Bay County > History of Bay County, Michigan, and representative citizens > Part 23
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Just as this depression in the business af- fairs of our country gave way to a general re- vival, and the lumber industry on the shores of the Saginaw River and Lake Huron was look- ing forward to better things, the wiseacres at Washington dealt the industry its death blow, by passing the bill making the duty on lumber from Canada $2, or just twice what the experi- enced lumbermen insisted it should be. Retalia- tion was both speedy and fatal. The Canadian log supply was cut off by a prohibitory export duty on boom sticks and logs. One after an- other, the great mills along the river shut down, most of them never to open again. The Eddy mills were dismantled and the valuable machin- ery removed to Canada. The Georgian Bay re- gion was the Mecca for Michigan's lumbermen. There they bought up every available tract of timber and erected the mills that were driven from their native land by the misguided wis- dom of Congress.
Lumbermen in other portions of the coun- try amassed fortunes by the results of the very same law that killed the lumber industry in Eastern Michigan. This fact has led many of the sufferers to attribute the $2 tariff to sinister motives, and their own ruin to the greed of other sections of the country. The Michigan lumbermen insist that the lumber industry in
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other sections of the country could have been benefitted, without sacrificing the mills and the entire industry along the Canadian border. But regrets and vituperation alike were vain.
The lumber industry under the new con- ditions was driven across the border to Canada, and the salt industry could not be continued with profit without this auxiliary. The salt- blocks had used the exhaust steam from the sawmill engines, and the waste wood and saw- dust provided a cheap fuel for the operation of the engines in the salt-wells. Only a few of these salt-wells continued to operate after the sawmills shut down, more especially since the price of salt steadily declined for some years. The idle sawmills were easy prey for the fire demon. In most of these mill fires the depart- ment could do no more than save surrounding property. One by one the old hives of industry were wiped out. The mammoth McGraw mill was one of the first to go up in smoke. The Sage mill on the West Side is one of the few that has stood idle during all these years, and whose empty framework yet remains, a silent reminder of the days when Pine was King in the valley.
Verily a wonderful change has come over Bay City in the past 10 years. The one fixed idea of all the valley lumbermen, in the days when the forests of pine extended to our very doors, was to cut them down, and exchange them in the markets of the world as quickly as possible for what they would bring. Fortunes were quickly made by those lucky enough to own vast tracts of this wealth of pine forest, bought from the government for a song. Not until these forests were denuded of pine, and pine barrens miles in extent marked the destruc- tive trail of the axe and saw, did any one stop to think that there might be even larger profits in the finer manipulation of this timber, and that there might possibly be some use for the other
and neglected timber, such as oak, maple, hem- lock, cedar, tamarack, beech, birch, white and black ash, elm and bass, of which there were still untouched tracts in this vicinity and to the north. The cutting off summarily of our pine log supply called attention to these remaining possibilities, and the sawmills that are still standing equipped along our river front, are all kept busy cutting up logs, that in former years were entirely ignored by the old-time lumber- men.
This business in hardwood lumber has been gradually picking up, and the revival recalls the palmy days of long ago. This very year the Detroit mill, at the foot of Sherman street, has started cutting a log supply that will keep that modern mill running for 15 years. Frank Buell, formerly of Gaylord, and F. Wyllie of Saginaw, are the operators and owners of the mill and the log supply. The J. J. Flood mill is cutting mahogany timber from South Africa for piano manufacturing purposes, and has been kept busy with hardwood timber for some years. The Campbell-Brown Lumber Com- pany, Kneeland-Bigelow Company, F. T. Woodworth & Company, Mershon, Schutte, Parker & Company, Samuel G. M. Gates (one of the oldest mill-owners still in the business ), Kern Manufacturing Company, Edward C. Hargrave, Hitchcock Lumber Company, Eddy Brothers & Company, and E. B. Foss & Com- pany are still operating logging camps, saw- mills and huge lumber-yards, the last named on our river front.
That the lesson of other years has not been entirely lost on our lumber interests is proven by the large number of manufacturing insti- tutions that work up the raw lumber, instead of shipping it to distant points for manufacture. The firm of W. D. Young & Company, on the West Side, has a world-wide reputation for the quality of its finished product, has a mammoth
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plant for the manufacture of maple flooring and is constantly expanding. It furnished the lumber for the decks of the last "American Cup" defender, the yacht "Reliance" which speaks volumes for the firm's position in that line of business. Its latest addition is a wood alcohol plant, which uses up the sawdust and other waste material of the plant. Courval & Company in Essexville, E. J. Vance Box Com- pany, the Foss mill, Matthew Lamont, W. H. Nickless, Sheldon, Kamm & Company, B. H. Briscoe & Company, Bindner Box Company, Fred G. Eddy, Bay City Box Company, Lewis Manufacturing Company on the East Side and Handy Brothers, Beutel Cooperage & Wooden- ware Company, Russell Brothers, and Bradley, Miller & Company, on the West Side, with Bousfield & Company's world-famous wooden- ware works on the site of the old McGraw mill in the South End, are all employing large crews, and producing a finished lumber prod- uct that gives the manufacturer the profit that formerly went to middlemen in other localities.
So in 1905 we find that the lumber industry is actually showing a marked revival. But for 10 years after the log supply was cut off, things looked gloomy indeed for the cities. In those 10 years Bay City has made a complete change of front, and this united city is today a living example of the never-say-die spirit of American communities ! From being a mere lumber and salt producing center, it has become in six short years the hub of the beet sugar business east of the Rocky Mountains, and we have within our borders to-day as varied and stable industries as any city of its size in the country.
Instead of leaving the dismantled lumber town, the people looked about them for new avenues of trade and industry. C. B. Chat- field, Hon. Nathan B. Bradley, and others be- gan some systematic experiments with sugar beets, while Alexander Zagelmeyer and others
investigated the vein of bituminous coal long known to have existed in this neighborhood. Persistent boring showed that the vein under- lies the entire county, at a depth of from 150 to 300 feet, varying in thickness from four to seven feet, and of excellent quality. This solved the fuel question, and the opening of many mines brought an influx of coal miners who took the place of the sawyers and lumber jacks who had gone to Canada with the saw- mills.
The farmers proved that both sugar beets and chicory roots could be raised here profit- ably, the moist climate, with its mild and late fall, being ideal for the maturing of these crops. A State bounty in 1898 assisted to bring the Michigan Sugar Company's plant to comple- tion for operation that fall, with a three-months supply of beets, and excellent results followed. This pioneer sugar factory of Michigan was followed the very next year by the still larger Bay City Sugar factory, and the West Bay City and German-American sugar factories fol- lowed the next year. Other factories were erected in different parts of the State, and the State bounty was at once withdrawn as its fur- ther application would have bankrupted the State treasury. Since then, millions of pounds of the finest granulated sugar have been pro- duced annually, giving the Michigan farmer another excellent crop for rotation, and mak- ing all his other farm crops more valuable, as the thousands of acres put into sugar beets re- move just that many acres from the market competition in other staple farm products. The beet pulp, leaves and toppings make good cat- tle feed, and at the very time when green fod- der cannot be secured in this latitude. All the mills in Michigan run to their capacity could only supply the home demand for sugar, hence these factories are assured a certain market for their output. Since the American Sugar Refin-
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ing Company, better known as the Havemeyer Sugar Trust, has acquired an interest in two of the local factories and also in others through- out the State, all competition, which for a time threatened to bring on a ruinous rate war, has been practically removed.
Nothing short of the same suicidal tariff tinkering, that killed the lumber industry, can now cripple this infant beet sugar industry in Michigan, which promises to expand, until it will supply our entire home consumption. The ill-advised Cuban reciprocity treaty proved well-nigh fatal to this new farm and factory in- dustry. Not a single new sugar factory has been built in Michigan since Cuba's cane sugar producers have been favored at the expense of the American farmers, manufacturers and la- borers! The trust interests alone saved those factories already in operation, by keeping the price of sugar at a point where it can be pro- duced by American labor and home-grown sugar beets, at a small profit to the costly sugar mills. Hardly had this crisis been passed, when the native farmer encountered a poor season, owing to adverse weather conditions, and in 1903 and 1904 none of the Michigan factories had as many beets as they needed for a normal campaign. The last year proved very favor- able for growing beets, the percentage of sugar contents being high, and the weight satisfac- tory. This is expected to stimulate more exten- sive beet cultivation, and all the factories in March, 1905, reported more acreage than they had at the same period the year before.
Several factories were operated at a loss last fall, because they did not secure enough beets for a profitable campaign. In those localities the warning has gone forth, that if the farmers do not rally to the support of the factories and each one raise at least as many beets as he can handle successfully himself, thus giving the factories beets enough for at least a three-
months slicing campaign, some of these factor- ies will be dismantled and the machinery re- moved to Colorado, where the farmers are anx- ious to have more factories. Michigan offers some advantages over Colorado, in being nearer a ready market and in having plenty of water and cheap fuel close at hand. The farmer is learning how to handle the sugar beet crop, and many of the costly losses of the first years of experiment have been overcome. It will be a sorry day when the Michigan farmer loses this infant and promising industry. Farm lands have increased in value, mortgages have been wiped out, and new life and new vitality brought to the rural districts by the shower of ready cash paid out each fall for the beets by the sugar factories. The price was intended to stimulate extra efforts for high-grade beets, by paying $4.50 per ton of beets, averaging 12 per cent. in sugar contents, and 121/2 cents for each additional per cent, of sugar in the beets. In 1905 the farmer is offered his choice of $5 per ton, flat rate, or the former sliding scale. This ought to bring an enormous increase in the beet supply, as one of the main objections of the farmers and beet growers has been on the assumption of incorrect sugar valuations by the factory taremen and chemists. No other crop raised by farmers the world over specifies from year to year exactly the price to be paid, long months in advance of the harvest. Sugar beets do. The Michigan farmer should not take any one year as a criterion of the crop, but should try the crop for a term of years and strike an average, the same as he would with wheat, potatoes, or any other farm crop, all of which have fat seasons and lean seasons.
The beet sugar industry in Bay County has furnished work for thousands of men, women and children in the beet fields in spring and summer, while many hundreds more have found work in the sugar factories during the late fall
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and early winter when employment for com- mon labor is always scarce.
The Michigan Chemical Company manu- factures high-proof spirits from the refuse mo- lasses of the beet sugar factories. For the first two years it was a hard problem for the factor- ies to dispose of this refuse, for the State game and fish warden stopped its drainage into the river, claiming it killed the fish. Since this mammoth distillery has begun operations, with its train of about sixty tank railroad cars, each holding 7,000 gallons of molasses, which they gather directly from the sugar factories, the problem has been solved.
The beet sugar industry is a money-maker for railroads, for thousands of tons of beets are brought long distances, and more could be secured in that manner if railroad facilities would permit it. This very year a new rail- road to the "Thumb" is planned to carry sugar beets to local factories, and local coal to the lake ports for export.
The coal industry is constantly being aug- mented by the sinking of new shafts, provid- ing cheap fuel to the railroads, and volumin- ous freight to the manufacturing centers of the East and West. Coal miners from Ohio, Illi- nois, Pennsylvania and Indiana are flocking here, where they find living and working con- ditions more favorable. Quaint little mining communities have sprung up around the coal mines, and new sources of supply created for our business interests.
With chief fuel and deep-water transpor- tation and ample railroad facilities, new and varied manufacturing institutions are rapidiy filling up the gaps along the desirable river front left by the removal of the sawmills and lumber piles. The lumber jacks have given way to sugar beet experts, coal miners, ship- builders, iron workers, wood workers and skilled labor of every variety.
Marl has been discovered a few miles north of here, and the "Million Dollar Plant" of the Hecla Cement Company now occupies one of the most desirable river front sites on the west bank, just south of the bay. This institution built its own railroad to the marl beds and coal mines, which it will operate jointly. Great docks are planned for vessels of the deepest draught to handle their cement and coal out- put. Litigation between the stockholders has tied up the plant for some time, but the legal tangles are gradually being straightened out, and the mammoth plant will resume operations on an even larger scale, acording to the plans of the large stockholders. Its present capacity is 4,000 barrels of high-grade cement daily. The equipment of the plant is excellent, elec- tricity being made to do much of the manual labor.
The manufacturing plant known as the In- dustrial Works has for nearly 40 years been one of Bay City's mainstays. It has grown from a humble beginning, in 1868, to be one of the largest establishments of its kind in the world. The railroad wrecking cranes which the Industrial Works builds are its own special- ties. That they are unsurpassed is proven by the fact that they are known and used wher- ever the iron horse or electrical spark serve the world's commerce and industries. Their display at the World's Fair at St. Louis in 1904 attracted international attention. Orders for these cranes have come only recently from far- off Japan, and from the Siberian Railway, where the exigencies of the Russo-Japanese War make their use very essential.
Bousfield & Company's woodenware works is the largest pail and tub factory in the world. The Hanson-Ward Veneer Company is one of the latest and largest manufacturing plants in the South End.
The West Bay City Ship Building Com-
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pany's shipyard is one of the roomiest and most modern plants on the Great Lakes. For 30 years this plant has launched some of the best boats on the inland seas. Year after year the plant has been improved, and in 1905 it is building three of the largest craft afloat on fresh water in the world. The steamer "Syl- vania" of the Tomlinson-Davidson fleet, launched with appropriate ceremonies in March, 1905, and christened by Marion David- son Young, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. F. P. Young, the youngest miss ever accorded that honor on the Great Lakes, is the largest freight steamer yet floated on fresh water, being 524 feet over all, 54 feet beam, with 30 vertical hopper hatches, and triple expansion engines. Two sister ships are now in construction, a force of about 1,000 men doing the work, with a pay-roll of $8,000 weekly.
The James Davidson shipyard has hereto- fore built wooden vessels exclusively, but with the new modern dry dock just completed, a new field is opened for this pioneer ship-build- er. He began life as a deck-boy, and became in turn sailor, captain, owner and ship-builder, and is to-day the best known mariner on the Lakes. He still owns a large fleet of steamers and barges, and his colors are conspicuous at all lake ports.
Fine salt wells and cheap coal brought the North American Chemical Company's plant to Bay City, where the buildings cover 10 acres south of the city limits. The company pro- duces chemicals of high quality and ships large quantities of fine table salt, as well as coal from its mines. Most of these products are now be- ing shipped by water, and the river is again showing signs of returning commercial activ- ity. A new device for loading salt, with a ca- pacity of 100 tons per hour, is being installed by this company, and new additions are con- stantly being made to the plant itself. It is
owned and operated by the United Alkali Com- pany, of Liverpool, England, and represents an investment of $1,000,000 of foreign capital.
The Smalley motor works is one of the latest and most substantial additions to the North End industries, and the number of skilled machine hands is being constantly in- creased. The Michigan Pipe Company and National Cycle Manufacturing Company have for years taken a foremost place in their lines of business, and have done much to advertise the city. The "National" bicycle is known and appreciated the world over. M. Garland's machine shops, Bay City iron works, Walworth & Nelville Manufacturing Company's cross-arm factory, Excelsior foundry, Marine iron works, Bay City knitting mills, Mackinnon Manufac- turing Company, Smalley Brothers Company, Bromfield & Colvin's grist-mill, Hine & Chat- field's immense flour and grist-mill and grain elevator, Beutel canning factory, Beutel Coop- erage & Woodenware Works, the Stiver-Ma- ther Company (brick, plaster and cement), National Boiler Works, shade roller plant, Bel- gian chicory mills, with plants both on the East and West Side, Bay City Plow Works, Bay City Yacht Works, Standard Hoop Company, Bay City Stone Company, West Side brick- yard, Goldie hoop factory, Bay City Dredging Company, Saginaw Bay Towing Company, Wadworth & Nelville Manufacturing Company (wood turners), are leaders in their respective fields of endeavor, and suggest the number and extent of the diversified industries that followed the decline of the lumber industry. A score of box factories give employment to a large force of men and boys, and annually cut up large quantities of the local mills' out- put. In former years this lumber went East to be cut up for box shooks.
A huge fleet of fishing tugs and schooners reaps annually a rich harvest of the finny tribes
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from the river and the bay. Farther north are the fishing grounds for lake trout, white fish, lake herring, sturgeon, and other choice deni- zens of the deep, while the Saginaw river teems with pickerel, bass and perch. The State game and fish laws are rigidly enforced, in order to preserve so vital an industry, and the State plants millions of these fish in the lakes each year. The fishing industry is growing annually, as new markets are opened in the far East. The rivers north of here afford rare sport in an- gling for brook trout, grayling and river bass. The shores of the river and bay are still the fa- vorite breeding grounds of wild ducks and geese, and in the rural districts quail, part- ridge, snipe and grouse afford sport for the hunter. Rabbits and similar small game abound, but deer and larger game are now rare- ly found in Bay County, although but recently an Indian was arrested at Pinconning and fined for running down a deer with dogs, the antlered victim finally leaping into an inclos- ure where he fell an easy prey to the pot-hunter. In winter hundreds of idle workingmen and fishermen find profitable sport spearing fish through the ice in Saginaw Bay. Their collec- tion of little shanties on sleds forms annually one of the most unique communities on the American continent. The fishermen have named its shifting scenes "Iceburg, U. S. A."; from January to March, 1905, it contained about 700 spearmen.
In 1905 we find the transition from a crude frontier lumber town to a modern business and manufacturing center quite complete. The community by dint of pluck, perseverance and industry has tided over the critical period in its municipal existence, and with the united energies of both sides of the great river will soon mount another tidal wave of prosperity and enterprise, which will carry us farther and higher than ever before. The scarcity of
homes suitable for the mechanic and laborer describes, better than pages of facts and figures, the steady revival and progress of the Bay Cities, commercially and industrially.
The natural position of Bay City at the head of navigation on the Saginaw River is one of great advantage. A glance at the map of Michigan will show that Saginaw Bay cuts into Lower Michigan until it reaches a point far in toward its geographical center. Bay City is by many miles the farthest inland har- bor from the general outline of the State, of any point reached by deep-water navigation. This favorable position gives us a large extent of tributary territory, east, north and west. As the pine barrens to the north are cleared and the settlements thicken, the importance of Bay City as a trading center will increase. In this very month of April, 1905, the Bay City Board of Trade is negotiating for a big pas- senger and freight steamer for the long neg- lected shore route between here and Detroit, with every prospect of success. The West Side will be made to realize the truth of the proverb, that "In Union There is Strength," for another large chemical company, the Faulk- ner Chemical Company, has accepted the site offered by the Board of Trade, with a condi- tional bonus, and the plant is to go to the West Side, where it will grace the river front. So the dawn of Greater Bay City will be ushered in by the advent of significant events in our business annals. The tide has turned! Prog- ress and enterprise will again come to their own, and permanent industries take the place of the lumber and salt industries, which cre- ated Bay City. The farming country all about is rapidly becoming productive, and "ALL ROADS AND GOOD ROADS L'EAD TO BAY CITY!"
Our location has ever been a fortunate one. The wide sweep of the bay prevents gathering storms from doing damage here. Cyclones,
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hurricanes or floods are unknown in our an- nals of the past 70 years! Our climate is sa- lubrious, our winters crisp and long but equa- ble, while the summers are cool and made de- lightful by the lake breezes, even during the most heated periods. Verily Nature has done much for this valley. Let us rise to a full realization of all these unbounded natural ad- vantages and future opportunities !
Much of this new vitality, enterprise and faith in the future of these once divided and weak communities, is based on the culmina- tion of long years of endeavor for the union of the sister cities. From 1877, when the three villages across the river from Bay City joined forces and became West Bay City, until the actual consolidation consummated in April, 1905, the progressive and far-seeing forces of both communities sought to bring about the united action which augured so well for both sides of the river. For nearly 30 years the benefits of such a union have been acknowledged on both sides of the river, but at every critical juncture little differences would arise,-mu- nicipal indebtedness, the vexed question of tax- ation and personal considerations,-to keep alive the imaginary dividing line in the river.
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