USA > Michigan > Bay County > History of Bay County, Michigan, and representative citizens > Part 30
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85
Later, Ballentine & Company turned out some large and good lake craft, and with the advent of Capt. James Davidson the local ship- building industry assumed large proportions. In 1875 the product of the shipyards was placed at more than half a million dollars. In 1881 Crosthwaite's yard built three vessels worth over $100,000; Davidson's yard, two vessels, costing $180,000; Wheeler & Crane built and rebuilt five vessels, at a cost of $395,- 000, while the Bay City Dry Dock, at the foot of Atlantic street, earned $30,000. In 1883 Wheeler & Carne built a steam barge for Cap- tain Forbes, 1961/2 feet keel, 34 feet beam and 14 feet hold, a monster boat for those days, but a midget compared to the "Sylvania" with its length of 593 feet, launched at this same yard in April, 1905.
In 1883 Captain Davidson was building the largest boat then on the Great Lakes, ex- treme length, 287 feet, 40 feet beam, 211/2 feet hold, heavily trussed, and for some years the pride of Bay City. In the 10 years from 1885 to 1895, Captain Davidson built some of the finest and fastest wooden vessels in the world. The "City of Paris," "City of Berlin," "City of Venice," "City of Rome," and sister craft, are to-day the proud leaders of the remaining wooden ships on the Great Lakes. The advent of the whaleback and other styles of modern steel steamers have relegated the wooden ves- sels to the rear in recent years, but the David- son shipyard still finds plenty to do in building smaller river craft, rebuilding the worthy wooden vessels still in commission and in gen- eral dry dock work. The plant is still one of the finest on the Lakes and may yet be con- verted into an iron and steel ship-building plant.
Hon. F. W. Wheeler, now of Detroit, early foresaw the changes coming in the build- ing of lake craft, and he forthwith kept pace with the most advanced ideas of iron and steel ship-building. The immense shipyard north of the Michigan Central Railroad bridge. has nearly a mile of river front, immense work- shops, mills and power cranes, and when the shipyards of the Great Lakes were placed in a trust by the American Ship Building Company, with headquarters at Cleveland, Wheeler's modern plant was one of the first to be taken into the combine. Since then this fine yard has secured its share of the new steel ships built on the Lakes, and has the distinction in 1905 of turning out the three largest steel steam- ers afloat on fresh water. Time and again rumors have had this yard transferred to other points, but the fact that the very best craft are even now assigned to the West Bay City Ship
250
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
Building Company's yard is the very best proof that the location here meets modern require- ments.
Labor troubles, often ill-advised and work- ing only mutual injury, have blighted the ship- building industry at this yard on several oc- casions, invariably ending with loss all around and not one thing gained by anyone. It al- most proved a case of killing the goose that laid the golden egg, and it is to be hoped that the local shipyard employees will in the future receive the best wages offered similar crafts in other lake ship-building plants, as in the past, which to a layman appears eminently fitting and fair, and under no circumstances again lend themselves a lead a new and arbitrary wage basis fight, unsupported by other shipyard employees, whose chestnuts they were evidently trying to pull out of the fire. The net result in years past has been the driving of new boat contracts to these outside yards, compelling local ship-builders to leave home and follow the work in other ports. It must be self-evi- dent to all thinking men, that the local yard could not compete with these outside ship- yards, if the cost of labor here was more ex- pensive than elsewhere. Our cheap fuel, fine yards and harbor facilities will meet this com- petition, if the cost of labor is the same as else- where, and will preserve for us one of our old- est, largest, and most profitable industries.
Since the keel was laid for the monster steamer "Sylvania," the West Bay City Ship Building Company has employed nearly 1,000 skilled mechanics steadily all winter, and the work now on hand will keep the yard running at capacity until next summer. By that time other contracts are expected, and the outlook is indeed favorable. Captain Davidson during 1904 employed nearly 500 men, according to the State labor commissioner's annual report, at $2.58 on the average per day.
The Bay City Yacht Works and the Brooks Boat Pattern Company are recent additions to Bay City's boat industry, and their trade al- ready extends around the world. Yachts built here may be found in the Gulf of Mexico, on the Atlantic and the Pacific, and in far-off Japan. Both plants are constantly increasing their facilities and output, and incidentally do- ing much to advertise the city abroad.
The Industrial Works, William L. Clem- ents, president and Charles R. Wells, secretary and treasurer, is far and away the oldest and most reliable employer of labor in Bay City. From a modest beginning in 1868, doing much marine repair work, this plant has gradually grown to its present mammoth proportions, covering two squares on the river front, from IIth street to Columbus avenue, with substan- tial and large brick buildings. The railroad cranes and wrecking cars manufactured by this concern are unrivaled and are protected the world over by patents of great value. This big plant has run to its capacity with day and night crews for many years, barring a few months last year, when matters of manage- ment were being adjusted. Nearly 1,000 skilled mechanics are on the pay-roll of this institution.
The Smalley Motor Company, Ltd., N. A. Eddy, chairman and James B. Smalley, treas- urer and general manager, is another new and substantial institution, with a plant on the river front at the foot of Trumbull street built in 1903 ; employment is given to about 200 skilled workingmen the year round.
The National Cycle Manufacturing Com- pany employs about 150 skilled men, and the product is sold all over the country, as well as abroad, a living message of our growing im- portance as a city of diversified industries.
The M. Garland Company, 83 men; Na- tional Boiler Works, 35 men ; Mackinnon Man-
251
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
ufacturing Company, 72 men; Valley Wind & Engine Company, 30 men; Alert Pipe & Supply Company, 45 men; Bay City traction car shops, 51 men; Valley Iron Works, 35. men; Bailey Metal Furniture Fixture Com- pany, 25 men; Marine Iron Company, 45 men ; Bay City Iron Company, 47 men; Bay City Boiler Company, 49 men; brass foundry, IO men ; Wilson & Wanless, 27 men ; Valley Auto Company, 19 men ; Michigan Central Railroad repair shops, 43 men; Valley Sheet Metal Works, 15 men; and Excelsior Foundry Com- pany, employing nearly 100 men, indicate the extent and value of Bay City's iron industry, enhanced by many smaller concerns, who work in the same lines of business. What we need now is smelting works for ore, made possible by cheap coal right at our doors, and our un- surpassed water shipping facilities.
The Hecla Portland Cement & Coal Com- pany, capitalized at $5,000,000, in 1902-03 constructed its million dollar plant just south of the lighthouse, with a mile of deep-water frontage on the river. Julius Stroh, the mil- lionaire brewer of Detroit, was the main stock- holder, and the little settlement nine miles from West Branch, where the marl beds are located, is named "Stroh" in his honor. The dried marl will be hauled in 50-ton dump rail- road cars to the million dollar plant in Bay City. The drying plant has a capacity of 1,000 tons of marl per day. The company located four coal fields : Hecla mine No. 4 in Frank- enlust township has proven a good producer, while the others-one near Kawkawlin, the second west of the city, and the third just east of Auburn-have not yet been developed. They are planned to produce 1,500 tons of coal daily, 3co tons for the use of the cement and kindred plants, the rest for shipment by water, for which huge and modern coal docks are to be constructed. The company owns its own rail-
way to the marl beds and coal mines and em- ploys its own rolling stock. The clay and shale used in the manufacture of Portland cement is secured in the same shafts with the coal, and the plant as now completed has a capacity of 3,000 barrels of cement daily. In 1904 the stockholders went into litigation, which is still pending, and hence our most promising new industry is awaiting the slow process of un- tangling the status of the company's affairs by legal procedure.
The North American Chemical Company is another million dollar plant, of which Bay County may be justly proud. This mammoth plant furnished the match-makers of America with the chlorate of potash used on match tips, and came to this country in 1898 from Liver- pool, England, because the Dingley protective tariff compelled them to do so, in order to hold their American trade. The company is located just outside of the city limits, on 250 acres of the old McGraw sawmill site, and also owns and operates the Bay coal mine in Frankenlust township. M. L. Davies is the general man- ager and since coming here in 1899, has be- come actively identified with the interests of Bay City and, with his charming wife, has be- come a decided acquisition to the business and social life of our community. Although Mr. Davies is a typical Englishmen, he stops the wheels at the plant just one day in each year, July 4th, the several hundred employees other- wise never losing an hour. Since 1898 this plant has paid out in wages $615,000, and to the merchants of Bay City $1,250,000, and at the Bay coal mine from 1899 to November 30, 1904, $275,800 in wages, and $150,000 to our merchants for supplies! The chemical pro- ducts of this plant include bleaches and dyes for dress goods, salt, chlorate of soda, chlorate of potash, and other chemicals, the process of making which is a secret and patented. The
252
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
main building is 550 by 220 feet with numer- ous smaller buildings of brick. Fourteen boil- ers and three Corliss engines of 1,200 horse- power run the plant and consume annually 60,000 tons of coal, mostly slack. It produces 1,000 tons of the purest white salt daily by the grainer and vacuum process.
Bousfield & Company's woodenware works, the largest in the world, is located on six squares on the river front, south of Cass ave- nue. The company employed 632 men and boys in 1904. It ships its product all over the country and is one of our oldest and best man- ufacturing institutions. The plant of the Han- son-Ward Veneer Company is one of the lat- est and largest additions to the South End, employing 242 men the year round. Handy Brothers with 218 men and Bradley, Miller & Company with 227 men, on the West Side river front, and the E. J. Vance Box Com- pany, Ltd., on the East Side, with 141 men, are the largest local box shook manufacturers. Mershon, Schuette, Parker & Company, with 13I men, Bradley Miller & Company, with 46 men, and E. B. Foss, with 112 men, lead in the lumber-yard business. The surviving sawmills employ the following forces of men, according to State census statistics : Samuel G. M. Gates, 71 ; Kneeland-Bigelow Company, 53; Campbell-Brown Lumber Company, 37; Edward C. Hargrave, 84; Morey & Meister, 55 ; Wyllie & Buell, 140; J. J. Flood, 87; Wol- verine Lumber Company, 34; Catherwood & Glover, 32; and Kern Manufacturing Com- pany, 144. W. D. Young & Company's hard- wood mill leads the country in maple flooring, employing 233 men, and running the wood alcohol plant in connection with 55 men. The Goldie hoop mill is one of the best in the coun- try, with 138 men, and the Standard hoop mill employs 95 men. The Quaker Shade Roller Company is a new institution, with 105 men
and 41 women, and the Michigan Pipe Com- pany is an old reliable institution, with 41 men. Smaller box factories are those of B. H. Bris- coe & Company, 46 men ; Bindner Box Com- pany, 53; William H. Nickless, 42; Fred G. Eddy, 30; Bay City. Box Company, 79. The following named concerns operate sash, door and building supply mills : Matthew Lamont, employing 68 men ; Lewis Manufacturing Com- pany, 53; G. Hine, 46; Sheldon, Kamm & Company, Ltd., 42; Heumann & Trump, 41. Cooper houses : Goldie Manufacturing Com- pany, 96; Beutel Cooperage & Woodenware Company, 61; Aaron Wheeler, 53; Edwin F. Rouse, 39. The Bay City Woodworking Com- pany employs 32 men and 24 women ; Maltby Lumber Company (cedar posts), 31 men, and Bay City Cedar Company, 21 men. The Creamery Package Manufacturing Company has 29 men; Walworth & Neville Manufactur- ing Company (cross arms), 59; the Beutel can- ning factory, 19 men and 36 women ; the Stone Island brick and tile works, 44 men; Bay County Rock & Stone Company, 21 men. Three large and modern breweries employ over 100 men, and supply much outside territory. The Scheurmann shoe factory is a modest be- ginning for a promising industry, with 14 men and 10 women. The Victory shirt waist fac- tory is another innovation, with 65 women. The Bay City Knitting Company now occupies a four-story brick building on First and Water streets, has the most modern machinery and is constantly branching out. It claims to-day to be the largest order-filling hosiery factory in America, has 25 men and 83 women on its pay-roll, and will practically double its out- put of "Star" hosiery this very year. The Galbraiths established this business, from humble beginnings in 1899, and by persistent pushing and good workmanship have created one of our most promising manufacturing in-
253
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
stitutions. These and a hundred other but smaller concerns are our creative industries, and the roll of employees, taken from the State labor reports, is an encouraging indication that we still have many wealth producers in our
ranks. The big sawmills have been super- seded by smaller but more enduring industries. And this must be but a beginning, for there is plenty of room for more like unto them.
14
CHAPTER XI.
THE BENCH AND BAR AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
The Bench and Bar.
No partial justice holds the unequal scales- No pride of caste a brother's rights assails- No tyrant's mandates echo from this wall, Holy to Freedom and the Rights of All ! But a fair field, where mind may close with mind
Free as the sunshine and the chainless wind ;
Where the high trust is fixed on Truth alone, And bonds and fetters from the soul are thrown; Where wealth and rank, and worldly pomp, and might Yield to the presence of the True and Right ! -Whittier.
One of the first institutions required in a community of pioneers has invariably been some court of justice, where law could be expounded, justice administered and other duties of a public nature performed. Hence the justice of the peace in this settlement was an important personage, who applied the prin- ciples of law and justice to the whole range of offenses, from neighborhood quarrels to murders, who tied and untied nuptial knots, and most of whose time was taken up in set- tling land claims and controversies.
Michigan's judiciary system has undergone many changes since the French first settled Detroit about 1701. Edicts of kings, orders of military commanders, decrees of imperial parliaments and of provincial governors, ordi- nances of the Congress, enactments of territo- rial governors and councils, provisions of State constitutions, and law's enacted by the Legisla-
ture, these and more have constituted the su. preme authority in this part of the globe from the "Contume de Paris" through the devious pathways of 200 years down to 1905.
The lurid experiences of Bay County's first justice court, in a dingy blockhouse on the river front, would, if fully compiled, compare with some of the court scenes portrayed in the Ari- cona Kicker. Land lookers, roving sailors, In- dians, frontier rowdies, these and worse at one time or another looked over the settlement, and invariably bumped against some one or some- thing in their explorations, that would end in the justice court.
More dignified but none the less strenuous were the duties and sessions of the 10th Judi- cial Circuit, to which Bay County belonged in 1859, the circuit comprising Bay, Isabella, Losco, Gratiot, Midland, Alpena and Saginaw counties. The first sessions were held by Judge
255
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
Wilber F. Woodworth on and after April 3, 1859, in a building on the river front where the Denison Block now stands.
On January 31, 1859, Peter Van Gestle killed his countryman, Peter Van Wert, and at the April term of court the murderer was con- victed and sentenced to solitary confinement for life. This was the first murder trial in Bay County, and the settlers attended the court ses- sions en masse, many of them sitting patiently outside, as the court room was too small to admit all. picking up the trial crumbs that fell through the doorway.
The first lawyers in Bay County were Hon. James Birney, Chester H. Freeman, W. L. Sherman, Stephen Wright and James Fox, the last two remaining but a short time. Judge Andrew C. Maxwell came from Pontiac in 1857, and for nearly half a century was one of the best known practitioners and the most unique figure before the local bar. Certainly his sharp wit and droll manners furnished more anecdotes than all the other members of the bar combined. He took an active part in the devel- opment of the city and county. Hon. Luther Beckwith came here in 1860, directly after graduating from the University of Michigan. He was prosecutor from 1863 to 1867, was alderman for years, an able jurist and a good citizen. Judge Isaac Marston came here in 1862, having studied under Judge Cooley at the University of Michigan, and for 20 years he was an honored member of the local bar, removing to Detroit in 1882. In March, 1863. Hon. Herschel H. Hatch came here to enter a partnership with Judge Marston, and in 1864 Judge James Birney joined the firm, which under the title, Birney, Marston & Hatch, was considered one of the strongest combinations of legal lights in Michigan. Judge Marston's election to the Supreme Court in 1875 dissolved the partnership, Mr. Hatch later taking in Ed-
gar A. Cooley, at present president of the Bay County Bar Association. The late Cushman K. Davis, Ex-Governor of Minnesota, studied here under the late Judge Andrew C. Maxwell in 1863-64. C. H. Denison was here from 1863 to 1879. and then became a leading attorney of New York City. Hon. Emil Anneke was a graduate of the University of Berlin, took part in the revolutionary struggle in Germany in 1848, and with hundreds of other liberal- minded young men sought his fortune in this country. In 1862-65 he was Auditor General of Michigan, and became a notable addition to the local bar in 1874.
Looking back over this span of 30 years we find that in 1875 there were 42 members of the Bay County Bar Association, including Judge Sanford M. Green, then presiding over this 18th Judicial Circuit. Thus early do we find, in ad- dition to the earliest arrivals already named. the men who in future years were destined to pre- side over the local Circuit Court : Judge George P. Cobb, who came here in September, 1868, after graduating from the University of Michi- gan. did not finish his schooling until peace re- leased him from the 5th Michigan Cavalry in 1866. In 1870 he became associated with Judge T. C. Grier and the late dean of the local bar. Hon. Archibald McDonell. Judge Theodore F. Shepard, at present presiding over this cir- cuit. came from New York to Bay County in 1867, being the first attorney on the West Side, and although his offices for the greater part of the time since have been mostly on the East Side, he has done much toward the development of his home community, taken an active part in the educational work, and has ever been one of the county's sterling citizens. Hon. Thomas A. E. Weadock, who for three terms represented this district in Congress, earned enough money teaching school to allow him to graduate from the University of Michigan in 1873 and the
256
HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
next year he came here to enter a partnership with Graeme Wilson, later taking his brother, John C. Weadock, now one of Michigan's ablest corporation lawyers, into partnership with him. In 1905 this firm is still among the leaders of the profession in this State. Chester L. Col- lins, just elected circuit judge for the term 1906-II, is another of the patriotic class of men, who served their country in the Civil War, be- fore taking up life's work in other fields. Graduated from the University of Iowa, he began the practice of law in Knoxville, Iowa, in 1869, coming to Bay City in 1875, so that his local practice just falls within the scope of the three decades. Griffith H. Francis, present judge of probate, and graduate of the Univer- sity of Michigan, also came here just 30 years ago, and in that long period has acquired a host of friends by his sterling worth. Thomas E. Webster, judge of probate 1880-86, graduated from the University of Michigan in 1873, and forthwith began practice in Bay City, and in 1905 is still one of our leading attorneys and citizens. W. French Morgan, the courteous and able deputy under three administrations of the probate office, is a scion of Kentucky, glad to escape the prejudices of his native heath in 1861, coming direct to Bay City, where 30 years ago he was studying law, being admitted to the bar in 1878, and in 1905 he is still the indispensable walking encyclopedia of the Pro- bate Court. Fatio Colt, now of Midland; Ed- gar A. Cooley, John L. Stoddard, Daniel Man- gan, Henry Selleck, John Golden, Samuel L. Brigham, and John Brigham are among the veterans who can look back on more than 30 years of practice before the bar of Bay County. In 1905 we find the activities of these veterans and their professional associates of younger years extending far beyond the confines of Bay County. The fame of Bay City lawyers has gone abroad, and they will be found in import-
ant litigation before practically every Circuit Court in Michigan, and their ability has long been recognized and acknowledged before the highest tribunal of our State,-the Supreme Court.
The following review of the attorneys who have practiced and acquired prominence and success in their profession, together with the Bay County Bar Association's officials and their work for 1905, is from the pen of one of Bay City's rising young attorneys, whose father achieved a splendid professional record on this very same field little more than a decade ago.
The history of the bench and bar of Bay. County commences with the settlement of Lower Saginaw, as the trading post near the mouth of the Saginaw was called in the early days. Bay County was organized in 1857 and at that time extended far up the lake shore and formed a part of the Seventh Judicial Circuit. Two years later Bay County was added to the Ioth Judicial Circuit, over which Hon. Wilber F. Woodworth presided until he resigned in 1861, his unexpired term being filled by Hon. James Birney by appointment of the Governor. Judge Birney was succeeded in 1865 by Hon. Jabez G. Sutherland, a jurist widely known as an authority on general practice and a text- book writer of high standing, who held the office until 1870, when he resigned to accept an election to Congress.
The most noteworthy of the pioneers of the Bay County bar was Hon. James G. Birney, a gentleman of birth, culture and education, who- had already attained national prominence as candidate of the Free Soil party for the Presi- dency, and who had spent the best part of his life and freely expended his ample fortune in the struggle for the abolition of slavery. In his declining years, seeking rest and relief from
257
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
the burden which he felt he was no longer able to bear, desiring only rest and oblivion from the hatred which pursued those who attacked the "peculiar institution," he found peace and quiet on the banks of the placid Saginaw and observed from a distance the progress of that struggle the result of which was to him never in doubt. While never again engaging in ac- tive practice, his advice and counsel were eager- ly sought, and fortunate indeed was the hardy woodsman or pioneer farmer whose claim or title rested upon the opinion of the hardy patriot Birney. He lived to see the beginning of the end of the contest and to know the greatness of the success for which he had so long contended, apparently in vain.
His son, Hon. James Birney, for a few years filled the vacancy in the judgeship of the cir- cuit, which comprised the counties of Bay, Mid- land and Arenac. He presided on the bench with distinction and remained in active practice as counsel for many years thereafter, retiring in 1892.
Hon. Chester H. Freeman, another of the early lights of the bar, settled on the banks of the Saginaw when the world hereabouts was young, and until very recent years con- tinued to reside in the community which he had seen spring from the wilderness.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.