USA > Michigan > Bay County > History of Bay County, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 50
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THE PROFESSIONS.
The medical and legal professions have a fair representation. The doctors number four, Messrs. Baker, Chase, Reid and Randall. Of lawyers there are two, Messrs. C. P. Black and T. F. Shepard.
THE RAILROADS.
The great event that settled conviction as to the future of Wenona was the certainty of a railroad. The oldest inhabitant had hardly dared hope that such a thing would happen during his lifetime. The prospects of the road for business are good. The passenger traffic is growing rapidly, and the freight business is al- ready quite large. Some 6,000 to 7,000 barrels of salt have been sent by this route to Chicago within the past month.
SOCIETIES, ETC.
In December, 1866, a lodge of Good Templars was organized in Wenona, and is known as "Wenona Lodge," No. 446. It meets every Tuesday evening in Faxon's Hall, and has eighty-three mem- bers. The officers are: T. M. Carter, W. C. T .; Miss Lester, W. V. T .; E. H. Boynton, W. S .; D. C. Braman, W. T .; Mrs. L. Roundsville, W. I. G.
ITS FUTURE.
Of its rapid growth and the extension of business there can be no doubt. If its railroad should be extended southward to Fort Wayne, and northward to Mackinaw, it will form the most import- ant point upon a great southern and northern route. The mineral wealth of the Northern Peninsula may be brought here for forges and mechanical purposes, and the provisions of the South to sup-
ply the operatives. Such a road would intersect all the east and west railroad lines between Southern Ohio and Indiana and Saginaw.
The railroad will have here as large and as convenient a depot for shipment as any other in the country.
The following additional news items of 1868 will be of interest, as indicating the general tenor of life in the village at that time.
FEBRUARY 26 .- Matheson & Comstock, from Lansing, have erected a building on Linn Street and opened a wholesale and retail flour and feed store. They also do a general commission business in their line of trade.
A Lyceum has been organized and denominated the "Wenona Lyceum," for the benefit of the school and all who desire to join it. It meets every Friday evening at the schoolhouse and is open to all. The question for this week is: "The Expediency or Inex- pediency of Negro Suffrage at present." The prohibitory liquor law question will probably be the next for discussion.
The election which was to come off to vote on the loan to aid in the construction of the J. L. & S. R. R., failed to take place, as the election inspectors were not present and no one seemed disposed to have a board of inspectors organized.
The store of A. Chapman & Co. was closed to-day, the 27th, by Sheriff Perrott, for the benefit of their creditors.
MARCH 7-The Wenona charter election, held on Tuesday, the 3d inst., resulted in the following candidates to the several village offices being elected :- President, H. H. Wheeler; recorder, C. P. Black; assessor, J. A. McKnight; treasurer, G. A. Allen; common council, W. D. Chambers, J. G. Emery, J. B. Ostrander, M. W. Brock, L. Roundsville and W. O. Craft.
Whole number of votes polled, eighty-eight; number of candi- dates run, twenty-five; number of tickets run, four; number of tickets printed for ballots, 800, which were not quite all used.
The common council, whose term of office has just expired, assessed, collected and expended during the past year $4,500, mostly for grading and planking streets, repairing sidewalks, ditching, etc.
Trains on the J. L. & S. R. R. have been detained more or less this week in consequence of snow drifting on the track.
MAY 16-The twenty-five cottages commenced by Sage, Mc- Graw & Co., a short time ago, are nearly all completed, and are occupied as fast as finished.
Mr. Shanahan has opened a drug store on Midland Street.
C. P. Ayers is building a block of three stores on Mill Street.
Mr. J. F. Willey has established a livery and sale stable on Linn Street.
The new Bunnell House is being pushed forward with much energy, and bids fair to be soon completed.
Sage, McGraw & Co's mill commenced running day and night on the 14th inst.
On the 7th inst. John Freeman had his left leg broken below the knee and his right one fractured by a pile of lumber falling on nim, while engaged in loading a vessel. He was attended by Drs. Chase and Marlatte.
A lot of freight, destined for Owosso, was brought by Hurd & Co's line and delivered at Wenona. The course of things is chang- ing.
The Wenona & Jackson railroad is forming a union with the Central road at Jackson, by which cars with freight can go through.
JUNE 20-The formal opening of the Bunnell House will take place Thursday evening, June 25th. A supper and ball on the occasion. Tickets $5.
M. A. Hance, from Lapeer County, has opened a grocery and provision store in the Ayers' Block.
Sage, McGraw & Co's mill cut upwards of 1,300,000 feet of lumber last week. Who can beat it?
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HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY.
GENERAL GROWTH.
From this time on the growth of the village was rapid, and the character of improvements may be learned from the history of tlie various interests treated separately. The year 1873 was particularly a prosperous one, and it was also marked by a disastrous fire, which occurred May 6th, and by which upwards of $15,000 worth of prop- erty was destroyed. The fire started in the meat market of Van Alstine Bros., on Linn Street, and burned six business places. The fire occurred in the morning, and the same night the firm of McKnight, Craft & Avery, whose store was burned, had a small frame building enclosed, and the remnant of their stock safely housed.
WENONA IN 1875.
A birds-eye description was made of Wenona late in 1875, as follows:
"In a business point of view, the most noticeable of Wenona's advantages is her long stretch of river front, affording the best facilities for shipping by lake. This front is already well improved in many places. Upon it are located the mammoth saw mills of H. W. Sage & Co., and all the other appurtenances of a first-class lumber and salt manufacturing establishment. The Jackson, Lansing & Saginaw railroad has extensive slips just south of the Sage property, and still above these are the ship-yards of Capt. James Davidson and Capt. P. B. Hitchcock. Below Sage's is the ship-yard of Ballentine & Co., the most complete establishment of the kind in the valley. From these yards have been launched some of the finest specimens of naval architecture of which the lake ma- rine can boast. Besides the above-named establishments, there is a plaster mill operated by Smith, Bullard & Co., and supplied from their plaster beds at Alabaster, and the Litchfield estate's saw mill.
"Midland and Linn Streets are the principal business streets of Wenona. They have a number of handsome brick blocks, promi- nent among which are the Sage Block, and the Babo, Aplin, Camp- bell, Allard, Moots and Bank Blocks. These are all well con- structed business buildings, and would ornament the principal street of any Western city. Several of the best of these were com- pleted in 1874, the village sharing in the prosperity which made Bay City an exception among the cities of the state during that and the preceding year.
"In the way of educational facilities, Wenona is well provided. Her central school building is a handsome three-story brick, costing about $20,000, and capable of seating 500 pupils. There are several churches and more are soon to be built. St. Paul's Episco- pal society has a chapel and will soon erect a church edifice upon a fine site, centrally located. There is a Baptist mission, and full organizations of the Methodist and Presbyterian denominations, with comfortable and commodious church buildings. The Catholics also have a prosperous organization, and the German Lutherans have lately built a church.
"Wenona is well supplied with hotels, both in number and quality. The traveler will find few houses more comfortably and neatly provided, and better administered, than the Rouech House, a three-story brick on Linn Street, and the principal hotel of the village. It is a first-class house. The Irwin House is located on Midland Street, at the crossing of the J., L. & S. railroad, and is a commodious and well-kept house, having a fine livery stable attached, and affording generally all things necessary for the transient guest. These are the most prominent of the hotels, though there are several others to make up the bountiful supply of Wenona in this line.
"The project of a water supply, principally for protection from fire, was agitated in the Fall of 1874, and the prospect was that the village would have such a supply before long. Several plans were
under consideration, either of which would answer the purpose. At present the fire department consists of an excellent Clapp & Jones steam fire engine, with an efficient company.
"Wenona has a fine farming country back of her limits, and this is being rapidly developed. The prosperity of the village is therefore well assured. When it is known that in 1863 there were but two buildings in Wenona, the magnitude of her growth since that time will be apparent."
ANNEXATION AND CONSOLIDATION.
From about 1871 until 1875 the question of annexing Banks, Wenona and Salzburgh to Bay City was agitated. Meetings were held at intervals, and the zeal of those in favor of the proposition suffered but little abatement until the utter hopelessness of their cause was established beyond a doubt. " The people on the west side of the river were largely opposed.
In 1875 Wenona looked upon Salzburgh with covetous eyes and made an effort to change the southern boundaries of the village so as to include that territory, but that attempt failed. .
EARLY RESIDENTS OF WENONA.
The following are personal sketches of some of the early resi- dents of Wenona. Others are mentioned elsewhere in conformity with the arrangement of our work :
J. H. PLUM was born in New York City in 1839. His father, a carpenter and joiner, moved to Pennsylvania when John was four years old. He was placed in a store at the age of fourteen. Earned $60 dollars and board the first year. Second year, $80, at the close of which time his father moved to Flint, Mich., where he entered the store of Grant Decker, general merchant. Salary first year, $100; second, $200, increasing $100 a year for five years. He next clerked for James Henderson, at Flint. First year's salary, $500; second $600; then two years at $700; at the end of which time 1864, he came to Wenona as manager of the store of Sage & McGraw, at a salary of $1,000 per year. At the end of a year and a half he became partner in the business, which continues to the present time, and is decidedly the leading mercantile house in the city, do- ing a heavy wholesale as well as retail business. He married Miss Marian A. Knickerbocker, of Flint, a native of Oakland County. He has five children, two sons and three daughters. In 1875 he bought lots on Midland Street, Chillson Addition, where he erected a splendid dwelling, the surrounding lawn being well cared for and ornamented. Mr. Plum has been an ardent supporter of all meas- ures for the improvement of the city, and its people. He has been a member of the School Board for the past seven years: Mr. Plum's successful career affords a laudable example to those who begin life poor. It shows what may be done by perseverance and a firmness of purpose which aims high.
LAFAYETTE ROUNDSVILLE was born in Deerfield, Tioga Co., Pa., June 24, 1833. His father was an invalid mechanic, and Lafe's boyhood days were strewn with few advantages. At ten years of age he was stricken with rheumatism of the hip, and remained partially crippled for twelve years. His father died in 1846, leaving a wife and five helpless children, Lafayette being the oldest. He left his hum- ble home that same winter on crutches, being but thirteen years of age. A young farmer by the name of Alfred Congdon, who lived near by, took a liking to the boy cripple and offered him a home, which was accepted, and in the course of a few months he was par- tially restored to health and able to help about the farm; and before the year was out could peform hard labor for a youth of his years. He remained with Congdon three years, when Congdon quit farm-
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HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY.
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ing and young Roundsville went to live with his brother, Benj. D. Congdon, who was also a farmer, and remained four years.
About a year after leaving Congdon's, he concluded to finish his education, so he attended what was known as the Union Acad- emy for three months when his health failed and his education postponed indefinitely. After recovery lie headed for a steam saw mill, a little one-horse affair in a dense forest in the township of Lawrenceville. His first position was that of a lumber piler. The mill cut from 4,000 to 5,000 feet per day. Being ambitious, he aspired to be a fireman or sawyer. The first vacancy as sawyer was given him, and he became an expert in handling the " bar," but the heavy lifting necessary in handling lumber in those days proved too laborious for his " physique," and he abandoned the saw and ob- tained a position as fireman, firing and learning to stop and start the 9x18 inch engine. This mill was owned by C. H. L. Ford, a relative of C. and B. F. Orton, of Bay City. Roundsville continued firing and running small engines in Tioga and Bradford counties during the next three years when he emigrated to Canada, and in the little village of Belle Evart, in the Winter of 1857, obtained a position as fireman in what was considered a large mill in that vil- lage on the shore of Lake Simcoe, owned by Sage & Grant. He was soon promoted to the position of second engincer. Roundsville continued in the Canada mill until the fall of 1864, when Mr. Sage induced him to come to Michigan and manage the engines in his present mill in West Bay City. He gave her engines their first steam in the Fall of 1864, and has run them up to the present time.
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Mr. R. asserted that during all these years the relations be- tween himself and his employer have been of the most friendly and cordial nature, and he feels some pride in the fact that he has so long enjoyed the confidence and esteem of a firm that ranks among the first in the country. Mr. Roundsville was married to Mrs. Isabell A. Roy, April 29, 1858. Mrs. Roy was the widow of Monroe Roy, of Wellsborn, Pa., and had one son, John M. Roy, by her first husband, and by her present husband one daughter, Ada. Both are married. Mr. Roundsville has held several posi- tions of public trust, as well as to run engines since he came to this valley. He was elected as one of trustees of the village when organized, about 1866, and served four consecutive years. After- ward he became president of the village of Wenona. He has held the position of treasurer of the Wenona Graded School continu- ously since its organization in 1867. He has also been collector in Wenona Council, No. 38, Royal Arcanum since 1878, and at present as alderman represents the Fourth Ward, West Bay City, in the City Council.
C. F. CORBIN was born in Scipio, Tioga Co., N. Y., He was the youngest of four children, and the fourth generation from Eng- lish emigrants who settled in Berkshire Co., Mass. When three years old he removed with his father to Batavia, Genesee County. He remained at home, attending district school as other farmers' boys, working Summers, after ten years old till sixteen, when he went to work at carpenter work. The next year he carried on plain work, building barns, putting up house frames, etc. In 1830 he attended two terms of school at Wyoming Academy, and the follow- ing Winter commenced teaching district school at $11 a month and "board round." He followed teaching till the Spring of 1834, when he engaged in traveling and collecting for the firm of Petti- bone & Howe, clock dealers. He traveled in the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and the then Territory of Michigan, for five years, with the exception of teaching for three Winters in Ohio. He returned to Batavia in the Spring of 1839. He continued teach- ing till 1842, when he married Miss Julia A. Joslyn, a native of Leroy, Genesee County, and settled on a farm near Batavia, still teaching Winters, and in the Summer of 1847 most of the time
in the village of Batavia, teaching fourteen terms in the school- room, successful in all respects save in growing rich. In 1847 he bought wild land in Erie Co., N. Y., and in the Spring of 1848 commenced improvements thereon. He also bought soon after, in company with his brother-in-law, a shingle mill. His health failing in 1854, he sold out and returned to Batavia, purchased land and a home near the village and engaged in the raising of grapes and other small fruits. In the Fall of 1863 he came to the Saginaw Valley to visit a brother. Soon after his return he sold out, and came to Bay City in the Spring of 1864. The same season he purchased twelve acres of land on Section Twenty, which is now known as Corbin's Addition to Wenona. He commenced building in the Summer of 1866, and took up his residence there in 1868, where he still lives, surrounded by the comforts, if not the luxu- ries, of life. He has two daughters. At the first election under the city charter of Bay City he was elected justice of the peace. He served one term and a portion of second. He was under sheriff two years, under P. J. Perrott, member of the School Board of Wenona graded school for seven years, president of the village one year, recorder one year, assessor one year, supervisor of Second Ward two years. He is still in active business at the age of seventy.
David Corbin may be mentioned as one of the early farm pioneers of the valley. He was born in New York in 1805. He served as an apprentice at the shoemaker, tanner and currier trades from the age of fourteen to twenty-one receiving only board and clothes and at the end of the term $100 for his services. He learned the trade after the good old style, filled out his contract, accumu- lated some means by journeyman work, married and set up business for himself. He came to Michigan, Lapeer Co., in 1853, and in 1855 made the first purchase of land of the government in Town Fourteen north, Range Six east. He settled thereon, where he remained, carrying on his farm to the time of his death in 1880. A man, held in the highest esteem by all who knew him, often entrusted with public responsibilities, but preferring a life of quiet and seclusion.
JAMES A. MCKNIGHT is a native of Niagara Co., N. Y. In 1862 he entered the United States service in the Sixteenth Michigan Regiment. After his discharge he came to West Bay City in 1865, where he engaged in mercantile business-built the third store building in town. He has been chief revenue clerk for the Sixth Congres- sional District, gauger of spirits and inspector of tobacco and cigars for five years, after which he engaged in the wholsale liquor business. He has held nearly every town office, including county treasurer, president of village and school director. He is now engaged in lum- bering and putting down cedar block pavement-he has done nearly all the cedar block paving in West Bay City. He was married to Miss Kate Atchison, of Pontiac, Mich.
WILLIAM SWART came to West Bay City in 1864, and as that date will suggest, was one of the pioneers. Soon after his arrival he opened a general store and continued in the business till 1876. He built the second store in West Bay City. In 1877 he was elected town clerk for the town of Bangor, and served one term. At present Mr. Swart is engaged in farming, market gardening and looking after property interests in West Bay City. He was born in New York, June 8, 1835, and in June, 1872, was married to Miss P. A. Burtless, of East Saginaw.
EVANDER S. VAN LIEW, of West Bay City, is a civil engineer, and one of the most noted men in his profession in the West. He is a native of Ovid, Seneca Co., N. Y., and was educated in the seminary in that place. He came to Wenona in 1866, and has been prominently associated with the affairs of West Bay City and Bay County. From 1875 to 1882 he was recorder of the city and
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HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY.
is city surveyor at the present time. Mr. Van Liew is a master of his profession, and has been in the employ at different times of several of the largest railroad corporations in this country. His lo- cal business now is but a small part of the interests entrusted to his judgment and management. He is married and has a family of four children.
ISAAC E. RANDALL, M. D., was born in Saratoga Co., N. Y. He graduated at the Albany Medical College, in 1866, also at the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, in 1873, between which dates he had been practicing medicine in Wenona, where he settled in 1867. He married Miss Elizabeth Campbell, daughter of the late Rev. D. B. Campbell, and their family consists of three children.
HENRY C. THOMPSON is a native of Ohio, and came to Bay City in 1862. Moved to West Bay City in 1864. He was elected city recorder in 1882, also surveyor for Bay County in 1878, and still occupies that position. He also held the office of school inspector prior to attaining his majority.
MARTIN W. BROCK was born in Danby, Tompkins Co., N. Y. His early days were passed partly in New York and partly in Penn- sylvania. He came to this state in 1856, remaining in Oakland County until October, 1865, when he removed to Bay County. He was elected an alderman when Lake City (afterward Wenona) was incorporated, and continued to hold that office for four years-he was a supervisor from 1871 to 1874. In 1874 he was elected sheriff of Bay County, holding that office four years, Is now manager of the West Bay City Manufacturing Company, and also farms. He was married in 1860 to Miss Sarah J. Armstrong, of New York State, and they have a family of two children living.
W. O. CRAFT was born in Palmyra, N. Y., November 7, 1832. He came to Oakland Co., Mich., at four years of age with his par- ents. His father named the town of Rose, in said County. Re- mained there one year then moved to Plymouth, Mich., where his father engaged in the hotel business and afterward continued the business at Swartzburg, four miles below, and subsequently at Leoni, Mich., where he remained five years, at the end of which time he returned to Plymouth and engaged in distilling. A year later he returned to the town of Rose, and was on a farm for a year and a half. About this time W. O. Craft came to Saginaw and thence to Bay City, helping to start the Drake Mill, and was in Drake's employ two years. He afteward engaged in fishing two or three seasons for his health. In 1861 and 1862 he was filer for Moore, Smith & Co. After leaving their employ built a residence in West Bay City. In 1866 he engaged with Sage & McGraw as filer, re- maining with them till the Winter of 1871, when he formed a part- nership, known as Mcknight, Craft & Avery, for carrying on a wholesale liquor business. After being burned out in 1872 the firm was dissolved. He then built on Linn Street, where he now does a retail liquor business. He was married to Mary Sheley, who died in 1872, and afterward to Carrie Gardiner, of Greenbush, Mich. They have four children.
GEORGE A. ALLEN was born in Macomb Co., Mich., May 4, 1835. His parents removed to Clarkston, Mich., where he spent his early days. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he was in the southern part of Mississippi, and to escape being conscripted into the Southern army he returned to the North. He enlisted in Company A, Tenth Michigan Infantry, from Shiawassee County, in the Fall of 1861,as a private. He was in camp with the regiment at Flint, Mich., until April, 1862, when it went to Pi.tsburgh Landing, Miss. He was with the regiment during the fighting around and taking of Corinth, Miss., when it was sent to Nashville, Tenn. Here he received a commission as second lieutenant, dated March 31,1863. He was one
of the first to "veteran," and marched with General Sherman on his famous "March to the Sea," meeting with many narrow escapes-once having his horse shot under him-but escaping without a wound, nor ever having been made a prisoner. Was mustered out February 5, 1865. Remained in Detroit a year and moved to Wenona in 1866, engaged in the mercantile business, continuing in it for several years, during which time he held the office of township clerk for several years, also city treasurer, and at different times was a mem- ber of the Common Council. Selling out his mercantile business he engaged in that of fire, life and accident insurance and real estate agent. Is married to Miss Emma Hicks, of Southfield, Mich., and their family consists of three boys and one girl.
JUSTUS ACKERMANN was born in Kurhessen, Germany, in 1845. At the age of fourteen he commenced service to learn the tailor's trade. He served three years. He served the government two years as soldier, and then worked at his trade in Germany for two years. He came to America at the age of twenty-five, stayed a short time at Saginaw City, and then came and established business, merchant tailor, in Wenona. In April, 1880, he bought the Wheeler brick block on Walnut Street, where he now resides and carries on a popular clothing establishment, manufacturing to order from an extensive stock of the best quality of goods. He was married in 1872, to Miss Margaret Keiser, of Salzburg, a native of New Jersey; has five children, two sons and three daughters, all living. Without parental assistance Mr. Ackermann has accumu lated a comfortable property, and is one of West Bay City's pros- perous self-made men.
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