USA > Michigan > Bay County > History of Bay County, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 8
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From 1837 to 1850 she was the only practicing physician to the early settlers. At all hours of the day or night, when called upon, you would find her at the bedside of the sick and dying. Through storm or snow, rain or shine, it made no difference to her. Sometimes on horseback, sometimes on foot through woods. She felt it to be lier duty, and like an angel of mercy, she did it, and would have continued to do so, but as settlers began to come in, also doctors came. She still visited the sick of a few old settlers, for they would have none other but her. There was scarcely a birth for twenty years but what she was present. In that dreadful year of the cholera, which swept off so many of the inhabitants, she was at the bedside of the sick and dying, administering assist- ance and comfort without money and without price. Yes, without any remuneration, for she made no charge. She felt it a duty she owed her fellow creatures, and nobly did she do it. Oftentimes the settlers would send her something, and she would accept it thank . fully. Your humble servant was once taken with the cholera. She was immediately sent for, and but for her I might not now be here to pen these few lines as a tribute to her memory. Some time since, in conversing with the old lady, she said, "How things have changed." "Yes," I answered, "we have seen Bay City and its sur- roundings rise from three or four families to a population of 20,000." "No," she said, "I do not mean that; but there are no such noble hearted men and women now, as among the early pioneers. It seems almost as if God had chosen such men and women to make the beginning here, or it never would have been done." I thought she was right.
She said, "When we first came here, we lived in a little log house on the bank of the river, and the wolves howled so at night we could not sleep. I have looked out of my door many a time in the middle of the day, and have seen a pack of wolves playing on the opposite side of the river where Salzburg now stands." One day two Indians who had been drinking came to her house while her husband was away to work some miles from home. She fastened the door. They demanded admittance and told her if she did not open the door they would break it down. They went to the wood pile, got the ax and began breaking in the door. She seized an iron rake, opened the door and knocked the first Indian senseless; the other ran off. This is only to show what a courageous woman she was. When circumstances required, she was as brave as a lion, and when her sympathies were called into action she was as tender as a child. Mrs. Rogers died in Bay City, July 16, 1881.
CROMWELL BARNEY was born in Swansea, Mass., September 9, 1807, was married to Miss Belinda Peirce, January 3, 1830. The first year they lived in Swansea, when Mr. Barney
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removed to Warren, R. I., where he lived five years. Mr. Barney was by occupation a millwright, and being tired of the life he was then following, and having no prospects of bettering his condition where he then was, he determined to go West. He made provisions for his wife and child and they were to remain at Warren, R. I., while he would go West to try and better huis condition. He started in. 1836 for Michigan; arriving at Detroit he inquired in what part of the Territory there was the best prospect of lumbering, as he wanted to get work as a millwright, and was told that the Sag- inaw Valley would be eventually,as then there was the most pine in that region. So he started on foot for Saginaw. When he arrived there he could find no employment at his trade, but was told that parties had commenced a mill at Portsmouth. Mr. Barney obtained work here and followed it one year. The next year he returned to Rhode Island for his family, and brought them to what was then Lower Saginaw, now Bay City, and moved into the old Indian trading house of Leon Trombley, which stood on the bank of the river near the corner of Water and Fourth Streets, near where the large hardware store of Forsyth & Pierson now stands. This Indian trading house was a small affair,-too much so for the comfort of his family. He moved into the block house near by. Here their daughter Mary E. Barney was born May 22, 1838, the first female child born in what is now Bay County, late wife of Alfred G. Sin- clair, of Bay City. Mr. Barney continued to live in this block house some four or five years, when he sold out to the late James G. Birney, who was afterward candidate for the Presidency, in 1844, on the Abolition ticket. While Barney lived in this old block house he had occasion often to go to Detroit in Winter for supplies for himself and others, which would take him nine days to make the trip. What a difference from the present time! Now we can go and do our business and return the same day. Mr. Barney then bought a farm and moved on to it, which was situated where Dol- sonville now stands, comprising what is now the First Ward of Bay City. The old farm house is still standing, and the fields he once tilled are now covered over with streets and buildings. After re- siding on his farm for a few years, he went into partnership with the late James Fraser,in building the Kawkawlin Mills, and in lum- bering on the Kawkawlin River, where he soon after removed with his family, and where he lived until his death, which occurred No- vember 30, 1851. He left a noble record after him for uprightness and fair dealing with his fellow men; he was one of the most in- dustrious men I ever saw; he never could be still while there was any thing to do. He was just the man James Fraser required to assist him in carrying on that extensive business. His widow is still living with her son-in-law in Bay City, at the age of seventy- five, one of the few noble pioneers that are left.
ONE OF THE "INDIAN TRADERS.
Among the well known characters in the Saginaw region at an early day was Michael Daley, who now lives in Bay City. Stories of his extraordinary feats of pedestrianism in his younger days are still upon the lips of the old settlers.
Mr. Daley was born in New York City, May 24, 1825. He came to Saginaw in 1837, then a boy of twelve years old. He soon procured work in a tannery, grinding bark by horse power, at the salary of $5 a month. After working some time, lie saw the necessity of getting an education, and he went to live with Capt. Malden, who kept a tavern in the old block house, corner of what is now Court and Hamilton Streets, originally the barracks where the soldiers were quartered while building the fort. He was to do chores nights and mornings for his board, and go to school. He continued to live with Capt. Malden until 1848, during which time he had picked up a good deal of the Indian language. He was
then employed by Harvey Williams to go to the mouth of the Kaw- kawlin River to trade with the Indians at his trading post, and also to attend to his fishing business, where he soon learned to speak the Indian language fluently, and he felt competent to go into busi- ness on his own account. In 1846 he started in business for him- self and was very successful up to 1855. He had previously purchased real estate in Bay City, where he built a nice residence in 1857, and married a Miss Longtin, an old pioneer's daughter. He has kept on buying and selling real estate up to the present time. Mr. Daley has been a great sufferer for years with rheumatism, caused by hardships and exposure, fishing and trading with the Indians in his younger days. He has often taken his blanket and pack on his back in the Winter, as this was the season for buying up fur, and started on the ice from the mouth of the Saginaw River and followed the west shore as far north as Mackinaw, picking up all the fur he could on the route. On one of these excursions he came from Lake Su- perior to Mackinaw just as the dog train was starting with the mail for Saginaw, accompanied by two Indians or half-breeds on snow shoes. He said he would go with them. They told him it was of no use, as no white man could keep up with them, as they calcula- ted to go over fifty miles a day. He said he would try it. So they started, the half-breeds doing their best. Mr. Daley kept up with them for over 150 miles, when he left them and came into Saginaw some time ahead. When they arrived they made inquiries for the little white man. When they were told who he was they replied, "O! we have heard the Indians tell about the little white man that beats all the Indians traveling or running."
Mr. Daley is living in a neat residence on Washington Street, enjoying the fruits of his labors.
CAPT. JOSEPH F. MARSAC, one of the original pioneers of Michi- gan and the Saginaw Valley, died at the old homestead in Bay City, June 18, 1880, aged about ninety years. No man was better known in the Saginaw Valley or more universally respected by all classes for his amiable qualities as a gentleman of the old school.
Capt. Marsac was born five miles above Detroit, in the town- ship of Hamtramack. His exact age cannot be ascertained, as the records have been lost.
But at the battle of the Thames, in 1812, he commanded a. company, and must have been at least twenty-one years old. In conversation with Mr. King, an old gentleman of West Bay City, in regard to Capt. Marsac's age, he said :- "I was born in Detroit in 1800, and consequently I was a boy of twelve years when the army left Detroit to pursue Proctor, and I distinctly recollect seeing young Marsac at the head of his company, as at that time I knew him well."
These facts make it certain that at the time of his death Capt. Marsac was ninety or more years of age. He told me a short time before his death that he thought he was ninety-two years old.
His ancestors originally came from France. The original name was De Le Marsac, and his was originally one of the noble families of France. The army was pursuing Proctor up the Thames before the battle was fought; the commanding general wanted to send some dispatches to the garrison at Detroit. He called James Grosebeck, a man well acquainted with the Indian character, to be the bearer of the dispatches. The Indians being all around them, Grosebeck declined to go unless young Marsac would go with him. Finally Grosebeck and Marsac were dispatched. They had to skulk around and travel nights to avoid straggling parties of Indians. They finally reached Detroit and delivered their dispatches and started to return, when they met couriers bringing the news that the battle had been fought and won. "Then," said the captain, " I was mad, for I had lost a good fight." Although, no doubt, he had done a greater service for his country.
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Soon after this, Capt. Marsac and his company were sent to Fort Gratiot to work upon the fort, and from there to Fort Malden, where he remained until the time of his enlistment expired, when he returned home to assist his father on the farm.
In 1816 he was employed by Kinzie Prichard and others to go to Chicago as interpreter and sell goods to the Indians. Chicago then consisted of five houses, including the trading post. He started on horseback on an Indian pony and took the Indian trail for Chicago. At the Indian village on the St. Joseph River, near where Niles now stands, he traded his pony with the Indians for corn, which he loaded in canoes, with which he proceeded down the St. Joseph River to its mouth, and then around the south shore of Lake Michigan to Chicago, where he remained in the employ of the fur company some time. After his time had expired he returned to Detroit on foot.
In 1819 he was called by Gen. Cass to go with him to Saginaw to make a treaty with the Chippewa Indians of northern Michigan. He accompanied Gen. Cass on horseback to Saginaw, while a small schooner had been dispatched around the lakes with a company of soldiers to protect them at the treaty, for some of the Indians still preferred war to selling their lands. After the treaty Capt. Marsac returned to Detroit in the vessel that had brought out the troops.
Gen. Cass and Capt. Marsac were always the greatest of friends, and to this the latter was indebted for the many offices of trust he held for many years under the Government, which he always filled with the strictest integrity. During many years he was engaged in the custom house in Detroit and other public offices.
At the breaking out of the Black Hawk War he received a cap- tain's commission from Gov. Porter, and raised a company of In- dian fighters and started for the seat of war, with his company, on foot, as there was no other conveyance in those days. When they had nearly reached Chicago, news came that Black Hawk had been captured, and a courier was dispatched by Gov. Porter, ordering Capt. Marsac, with his company, to return.
In 1836 or 1837 he was employed by the government as Indian interpreter, to assist in making a treaty with the Indians of the Saginaw River and its tributaries for the sale of their reservations to the United States Government, which took place where the city of Flint now is.
In 1838 he emigrated to Lower Saginaw, now Bay City, where he was appointed by the Government Indian farmer for the Sag- inaw River and its tributaries, which position he held for many years; until he was superseded by the late James Fraser.
No man in the Saginaw Valley was so well known as the late Capt. Marsac for his unbounded hospitality and fund of anecdote, and no man is so missed from the community in which he lived. He has left a record that his children may well feel proud of: " An honest and noble man, respected by all who knew him.
THERESA REVARD, wife of the late Capt. Joseph F. Marsac, was born at Grosse Point, above Detroit, July 22, 1808, and in 1829 was married to Capt. Joseph F. Marsac, of Hamtramack, by whom she had six children, viz: Charles, Octavius, Mrs. Leon Trombley, Mrs. William H. Southworth, Mrs. Thomas J. McClennen and Mrs. George Robinson, all of whom now live in Bay City.
Mrs. Marsac was a remarkable woman for the times in which she lived, and no woman was more dearly loved by the early settlers, for her motherly kindness encircled them all. Her house was a re- sort for the poor and afflicted; her chief aim was to alleviate the sufferings of others. None knew her but to love her. She died at the old homestead in South Bay City, August 9, 1881, deeply mourned by all the pioneers, and through her death earth lost a noble woman-heaven gained a saint. Her memory will be sacredly treasured in the annals of the Saginaw Valley pioneer life.
REMINISCENCE OF CAPTAIN WILSON.
Capt. John Wilson, one of the early pioneers of the Saginaw Valley, was born in Jefferson County, N. Y., September 30, 1804. In his younger days he followed the occupation of sailing and fishing. In 1837 he left his family for the season to engage in the fishing business at Thunder Bay Islands,in Lake Huron, where he removed the same year. While he was there he had occasion to visit Saginaw for supplies and was so well pleased with the country that he determined to make it his future home. He soon made preparations to remove his family to Lower Saginaw, as it was then called, (now Bay City), which he did, November 16, 1840, after a cold and tempestuous voyage, none too soon, as the river froze over the next night after his arrival and remained frozen all Winter. He removed his family into a little log house on the river bank in Portsmouth near where Albert Miller's upper salt works now stand.
This Winter he spent in hunting and trapping, and was very successful, as game was very plentiful in those days. He continued to live in this little log house until he bought a piece of land of Capt. Joseph F. Marsac, lying between what is now Eighteenth and Twenty-first Streets, on the river, comprising twenty-seven acres, where he removed in the Spring of 1842, to make room for Mr. McCormick, who had purchased the property where he had lived. In the Winter of 1842-'43 he superintended the rebuilding of the little schooner "Mary," of forty tons burthen, at Saginaw, for Smith & Little, and the next Spring took command of her in trading between Detroit and Saginaw. This was the first regular trading vessel to the Saginaw Valley, and he continued in command of her until the Fall of 1844. When on his way from Detroit to Saginaw, late in the Fall, laden with goods for the few white settlers and Indian traders, he was caught off the mouth of Saginaw Bay in a terrible storm, and his little vessel was driven across Lake Huron to the Canada shore, and was wrecked. It being late in the season, snow falling heavily, and the vessel covered with ice, Capt. Wilson and his crew suffered untold hardships.
At Saginaw there was great excitement, for they knew that the little vessel could hardly withstand that terrible storm, and more- over all the provisions and goods for the few settlers for the Winter were lost, and there would be much suffering. Anxiously for weeks did the settlers watch for that little craft and her crew, until all hope failed, and Capt. Wilson and his crew were given up as lost. But fortunately this was not so. Capt. Wilson, seeing no other method of saving himself and crew, determined to beach her. She struck a rock, however, some distance from shore, and went to pieces, the captain and crew being washed ashore on part of the wreck on the Canada shore some eighty miles north of Goderich. There were no inhabitants there at this time nearer than Goderich.
They finally procured a fire and built a small hut with such materials as they could get together from the wreck that had washed ashore, and commenced picking up such portions of the cargo as came ashore intact, especially the barrels of flour, in order to save as much as they could for the owners. When they had secured all they could, they left one of the crew in charge and started for Gode- rich on foot along the beach. They had saved a package of socks and they put on four or five pairs each, believing they could get through snow and water better, although the most of them had their feet frozen. After several weary days they reached Goderich, but being unable to procure conveyances, they started on foot for Detroit, which place they had left six weeks before. Here they re- ceived assistance, and again started on foot for Saginaw, as there were no conveyances in those days, and they were necessitated to travel very slow, as their feet were very sore. On reaching Saginaw they were received with great joy, as they had long been given up as lost. To add to Capt. Wilson's distress, his eldest daughter had
John S. Willson.
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died in his absence. He now settled down and commenced im- proving his land and set out a fine orchard, of which he took great care, little dreaming that in after years it would be cut down to make room for the buildings and streets that cover his old home- stead at the present time. Capt. Wilson and his amiable wife were much respected by all the old pioneers. He was very hospitable, and would never owe a man a dollar if it was in his power to pay it. His word was as good as his note. By his frugality and the advance of property he accumulated a competency for old age.
Capt. Wilson had fourteen children, of which seven are living, viz :- Mrs. J. A. Wansey, of Marine City; Mrs. G. L. Howard, of West Bay City; Mrs. H. Laraway, Mrs. Wm. Gordon, James D. Wilson, Mrs. E. T. Bennett, of Bay City, and George B. Wilson, of Chicago. Capt. Wilson died at the old homestead in Bay City, August 21, 1879, and his amiable wife soon followed him.
Their remains lie in the Pine Ridge Cemetery, and a suitable monument has been erected to their memory.
INDIAN HOSPITALITY.
In December, 1833, Judge Miller went to Midland upon some errand, and while returning to his home along the highway of the Tittabawassee, passed through an experience which he relates as follows:
"When I started for home, about sunrise in the morning, I put on my overcoat and thought a few vigorous pulls at the oars would warm my blood so that I should be comfortable the rest of the day. I had just pulled far enough to get into deep water, when my oars slipped from the rowlocks, I lost my balance, and plunged heels over head into the icy fountain of the Tittabawassee. After much ado, I got on board the boat again, but the prospect for a comfortable day was not very flattering. Twenty-five miles of rowing before me, to get home, and sixteen before I should come to a house where I could warm myself or dry any of my clothes. After pass- ing down the river two or three miles I saw an Indian wigwam on the bank, where I landed, and being able to converse in the Indian tongue, I told the woman of my mishap and requested the privil- ege of warming myself and drying some of my clothes. She made up a rousing fire and furnished the best facilities she could for me to dry my clothes. When I first went in she sent a little girl to the river with an earthen plate to wash; after the plate (which was an unusual piece of furniture in a wigwam), was made clean, she took some meat that was cooking over the fire, placed it on the plate and offered it to me to eat; but I told her I was not hungry, and she put it back in the kettle. Presently a neighboring Indian woman came in, and after learning why I was there, and not seeing any signs of my having partaken of any food there, she inquired of her neighbor with much surprise if she had not given me any- thing to eat; the woman told her she had offered me something but I had told her I was not hungry. That circumstance and all my experience in my contact with the red man led me to believe that the virtue of hospitality was never wanting among them. My experience was, that whenever I was at an Indian's camp, so far away from home that I could not get there at meal time, I was in- variably offered the best they had to eat; and if I wished to stay all night, the best place in the camp for sleeping was allotted to the white stranger, and for that reason, though their begging propensi- ties are sometimes annoying, I can never have the heart to turn them empty away. After getting my clothes partially dried, I re- turned to my boat, and soon after leaving the Indian's camp, had an exciting chase after a deer that was swimming in the river; so I got home without experiencing so much inconvenience as I antici-
pated when I was bumping my head against the bottom of the boat, endeavoring to find the end so that I could climb into it."
ANOTHER EXPERIENCE.
" I have mentioned in a subsequent article having a stock of cat- tle and horses feeding on the rushes of Quanicassee in the Winter of 1835-'36, with a camp near for the convenience of the men who cared for the stock. At the breaking up of Winter, when it was no longer practicable to get supplies to the camp, it was broken up, and the cattle and horses, for the time being, left to themselves. One bright morning in April, 1836, I started from my home, near Crow Island, accompanied by B. F. Trombley, to cross the prairie and timber. to the point where the stock was kept. The water on the prairie averaged about ten inches in depth, but the weather was warm, and we passed along without much inconvenience from it, and crossed the Cheboyganing Creek on a fallen tree, and at night ar- rived at an Indian camp, near our place of destination, where we remained during the night. The next day, during a heavy rain storm, we spent in looking after the stock. We found the cattle all doing well, but some of the horses had died, after the men had left the camp. At night the rain still continued to fall, and we en- camped without any shelter on the driest spot of ground we could find near the Quanicassee prairie, preferring that to traveling three or four miles out of our way to reach one. The rain continued until about twelve o'clock, when there came such a change in the weather as is known in but few localities outside the Saginaw Val- ley. In the morning, our blankets that we had slept under, were frozen hard, and all our clothes being saturated with the recent rain, we were not in a very good plight to encounter the fierce north west wind that swept over the prairie, but after partaking of a scant breakfast, we started for home, and when we got to the prai- rie, we found that the rain had greatly increased the volume of water, and before we got across the Quanicassee prairie, we some- times had to wade waist-deep in the water, but when we reached the timbered land we had four or five miles of comparatively com- fortable traveling; but when in the afternoon we reached the Che- boyganing prairie, the prospect was rather disheartening for tired pedestrians; the wind was blowing a fierce gale, accompanied by frequent snow squalls. The water on the prairie was a foot deep, covered by ice that would bear us about every tenth step. There was five miles of that kind of traveling, and the Cheboyganing Creek between us and home; and it was presumptuous for us to undertake to perform it under the circumstances, for we could have built a fire in the timbered land, and subsisted till a change came in the weather; but we thought of nothing but to push ahead, and started out. Trombley wore moccasins which the ice soon cut in pieces. He then tied his mittens on his feet, and walked in my tracks, so as to protect his feet as much as possible. Our limbs soon became completely benumbed with the cold, and our movements seemed mechanical, and we passed along in great suffering till, at the dusk of evening, we reached the Cheboyganing Creek, the volume of which had been greatly increased by the recent rain; and nothing could be seen of the bridge that had carried us over safely two days be- fore. I walked into the water till I could progress no further, when, without any motives or thoughts of why I did so, I sent forth a shrill Indian whoop or yell, which was immediately answered by an Indian, and in a moment a canoe hove in sight, paddled by an Indian who had been out on the creek hunting for ducks. He came and rescued us from our perilous situation, and in a few minutes landed us on a dry spot of ground on the opposite side of the creek, where he had encamped that day with his family, prepara- tory to making maple sugar. We were so much exhausted that we could hardly walk from the canoe to the wigwam, but the In-
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