USA > Michigan > Calhoun County > History of Calhoun county, Michigan : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 15
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At the present time there are not enough of many of the various kinds of farm products grown in Calhoun county to supply the demand at home. Our products are more diversified now, and yet the farmers must hustle, study, plan and secure greater yields from their farms to furnish our own population enough to consume in the years to come. The cities and villages are increasing in population and the country residents are decreasing in number. Each acre of Calhoun county must be made to produce more than ever before, and there are some farmers who are accomplishing this much-to-be-desired result. Intensive farm- ing is being studied and practiced in spots. Smaller farms are now more in demand as help is difficult to secure and the farmer and his family are doing more of the work with their own hands with the aid of the latest and best modern farm machinery.
Wonderful changes have taken place all through the county during the last fifty years. Fine farm houses and barns can be seen on the great majority of the farms along every highway. Years ago trees were planted along the roads and on the lawns, and it is a pleasure now to ride in an automobile and view the landscape in every direction. Many of the farm homes are finer than the average city residence and are supplied with the various modern improvements that have been found to make the country home convenient, highly enjoyable and even luxurious.
When the farmers ride into the city with their horses and carriages, or automobiles, it is difficult to distinguish them from city business men on the streets. Their wives and children dress as well and make fully as good an appearance as the city lady. The sons and daughters on the farms of Calhoun county are securing a better education in the schools and colleges than the young people in the city. In the years to come the farmer and his family will continue to rank well with the city resident and both classes will intermingle in a social as well as a business way more than ever before.
ROADS AND THE IMPROVEMENT OF ROADS
It is now almost one hundred years since General Cass as Governor of the Territory began to interest himself and the people in the ques- tion of roads in Michigan. That sagacious statesman saw that if the interior was to be reached, settled and developed there must be some semblance of roads. It is greatly to the credit of Governor Cass that he succeded in accomplishing so much in this respect during his admin- istration.
The first road surveyed through Calhoun County was ordered by the legislative council of the Territory of Michigan on November 4, 1829.
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The survey began "in the Chicago road at or near the inn of Timothy S. Sheldon in the township of Plymouth in the village of Wayne, thence west on the most direct and eligible route through village of Ann Arbor, by Samuel Clements, to Grand River where the St. Joseph trail crosses the same and also through the Cohgwagiac, now spelled Goguac, located in Battle Creek township, and Grand prairies, thence westerly on the most eligible route to or near the Paw Paw to the mouth of the St. Joseph River, Michigan." The Commissioners to establish the road were Seeley Neale, of Panama, afterward of Marengo township, Calhoun County, and Orrin White, of Ann Arbor and Jehial Enos, of Grand Prairie of the Kalamazoo. In March, 1831, the legislative council ap- proved the survey and established the same as a public highway.
In 1832 roads from Battle Creek to the mouth of the Kalamazoo River and from Blissfield to Marshall were laid out and established. The Commissioners on the second survey were Isaac N. Swayne, Sidney Ketchum and Isaac E. Crary.
In 1833 a road running from Jackson, then called Jacksonburg, via Spring Arbor, Homer, Tekonsha, Burlington and on through the south- west part of the State was established. In the same year a road was laid from Marshall to Grand Rapids and one from Marshall to Coldwater and one from Hillsdale, via Jonesville, to Marshall.
From the early surveys to the present time, every improvement upon the Indian trail with its long detours over the line of least resistance; every betterment of the blazed track of the surveyor which led by short- est route across unbridged streams and almost impassable morasses every bridge put up; every causeway built and every mile of corduroy laid; every valley raised; every hill lowered ; in a word, every improve- ment which enabled the farmer to hanl his produce to market with the least strain on his horses and the least wear and tear on his wagon; everything done to facilitate the traveler on his way has added to the happiness and contentment of the rural dwellers, to the value of the farms and to the general prosperity of the country. No equal amount of money invested has paid a larger dividend or been distributed among so many people as that expended in the betterment of the public high- ways.
The old world long ago realized the importance of this question and the roads built centuries before our republic had an existence are still monuments to the skill and enterprise of the ancients. Modern Europe has done much to improve her highways and the roads in England and on the Continent are a never ceasing delight to the local builders and users as well as to the tourists from all lands.
In the older sections of our own country long strides have been taken in the betterment of public highways. Every traveler over the country roads in New England speaks of their beauty and perfection. The people of New York and Pennsylvania have spent large sums in this direction. Ohio and Indiana, our near neighbors, have spent many millions on road improvement and every mile of good road built creates a demand for more as they see the great advantage, particularly to the farmers.
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The people of Michigan are awakening to the importance of this movement. Recent legislatures have taken action and have put upon the statute books laws designed to encourage by standardizing different types of road construction varying in cost per mile, by requiring that the work be done in a thorough and systematic manner under competent directors and by so distributing the cost that every tax payer shares in the payment of all roads built and accepted by the State. This move- ment is so new in our State and so imperfectly understood and its general adoption is so sure to leave a visible and enduring landmark from which the future will measure progress that we feel justified in treating the subject somewhat at length.
THE COUNTY ROAD SYSTEM SUBMITTED
On the eleventh day of October, 1911, at a regular session of the Calhoun County Board of Supervisors, E. H. Puffer submitted the following :
Whereas, it is deemed advisable by the Board of Supervisors here assembled that a change in the method of constructing highways be con- sidered, therefore,
Be It Resolved : That the question of adopting the County road sys- tem be submitted to a vote of the electors of the County of Calhoun at . the general election to be held on the first day of April, 1912.
Moved by E. H. Puffer and supported by F. E. Strong that the matter be laid on the table and be made a special order on Wednesday, October 18, at 10:30 o'clock A. M.
The Board of Supervisors was called to order at ten o'clock A. M., October 18, 1911, by Ralph S. Doolittle, Chairman. On roll call mem- bers answered to their names except John Cotter, Reuben Drinkwater, Bert Milbourn, Charles Gillis, D. C. Salisbury and C. H. Clute.
It was moved by E. H. Puffer and supported by E. F. Hough that the Good Roads Resolution be taken from the table. The motion prevailed. Moved by E. H. Puffer and supported by E. E. Simmons the adoption of the report.
Mr. Puffer called to the attention of the Board that Mr. Bryant was present and requested that he be allowed to address the Board on the question of good roads. After listening to Mr. Bryant, the aye and nay vote was called for upon the adoption of the resolution with the follow- ing result: Ayes; G. J. Ashley, Julius Crosby, F. W. Culver, Ralph Doolittle, A. Emmons, R. E. Eldred, Antone Egeler, George T. Fuller, James J. Fahey, Julius S. Hall, William T. Hamilton, E. F. Hough, Burton Hunt, Otis A. Leonard, John Lidaner, C. W. Lewis, Frederick Katz, Charles Kilmer, L. Monroe, John H. Manby, J. K. O'Hara, E. H. Puffer, Milton Reed, H. J. Schwark, Frank E. Smith, E. E. Simons, F. E. Strong, C. E. Wildy, Erwin Warsop, James E. Walkinshaw, Thomas Celinsky ; Nays, Ralph Erskine, Thomas Hunt. The vote stand- ing thirty-one ayes and two nays. The Chair declared the resolution adopted.
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THE COUNTY ROAD SYSTEM ADOPTED
In accordance with the affirmative action of the Board of Supervisors, the question of adopting the County road system was submitted to a vote of the electors of the County at the general election held on the first day of April, 1912, and carried. The vote of the Supervisors ratified by the people places Calhoun County in the list of forty-four progressive counties in the State which have already adopted the County system. Elmer Thompson, Frank Mahrle and George Peet have been appointed a Board of County Road Commissioners. On the first Monday in April next, their successors will be elected by the people to serve two, four and six years respectively from the first day of May, 1913, and there- after one Commissioner shall be biennially elected for the full term of six years.
The law provides that "any road heretofore laid out, or any part thereof, shall become a County road if the Board of County Road Com- missioners shall at any time so determine." It further provides that after service and publication of such determination "the Board of County Road Commissioners shall have sole and exclusive jurisdiction and control of such roads so embraced within such determination, and the township or municipality within which the same is situated shall be relieved of all responsibility therefor."
The law. section 19, further provides that the "Board of County Commissioners shall have authority to grade, drain, construct, gravel or macadamize, any road under their control or to place thereon any other form of improvement, which in their judgment may be best, and may extend and enlarge such improvements; they shall have authority to construct bridges and culverts on the line of such road and to repair and maintain the roads, bridges and culverts; they shall have all the authority in respect to such roads, bridges and culverts which is inves- ted in highway officers in townships."
In determining the County tax, section 20 says: "On or before the first day of October of each year the said Board of County Road Com- missioners shall determine upon the amount of tax which in their judg- ment shall be raised for such year in said County for the purposes afore- said, specifying and itemizing the roads and parts of roads upon which such moneys are to be expended, stating the amount asked for each of such roads. *
* Such tax shall not exceed two dollars on each one thousand dollars of assessed valnation according to the assessment roll of the last preceding year in counties where such valuation is, (as in Cal- houn, Ed.) more than twenty millions of dollars." At the annual meet- ing of the Board of Supervisors in October, the determination of the County Road Commissioners for their consideration and if a majority of the Supervisors approve the same, then "such tax shall be apportioned among the several townships and cities of said County according to their equalized valuation."
The law provides in section 21, that the "said Board of County Road Commissioners shall have no power to contract indebtedness for any amount in excess of the moneys credited to such Board and actually in the hands of the County Treasurer. Provided, that the board may
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incur liability upon contracts after a tax is voted to an amount not ex- ceeding three-fourths of the said tax." Even the Supervisors cannot contract indebtedness or issue bonds to raise money for the construction and maintenance of roads without first submitting the proposition to and receiving the endorsement of the electors of the County at a general or at a special election called for that purpose.
The law further provides, section 28, that "The Board of Super- visors of any County, which has adopted or may hereafter adopt the County road system, may, upon petition of ten freeholders residing in each of the several townships, incorporated cities and villages in the County, submit the question of rescinding the vote by which it was adopted and the resolution to submit and all proceedings thereto, shall, as nearly as may be, follow the forms and manner of proceedings pro- vided for voting on the question of adopting the County road system."
When any County votes to rescind the action whereby it adopted the County road system, "this act shall cease to be operative except for the purpose of completing work under contract at the time of such re- scission."
The rewards allowed by the State are $250.00, $500.00, $700.00 and $1000.00 per mile, the reward varying with the style and cost of con- struction.
THE PEOPLE THE MASTERS
A careful reading of the laws relating to good roads will show that the people are the real masters of the situation. There can be no Coun- ty road system instituted in any County without the expressed assent of a majority of the people, and the system when once adopted, can be rescinded at any time by a majority vote of the electors.
The rate of taxation for road improvement under the County system is limited by law. In Calhoun County, it having more than forty million dollars of assessed valuation, the tax cannot exceed, it may be less, two mills on the dollar. It will be seen that if a man's property is assessed at $1,000.00 he would pay $2.00 good road tax. If a farmer or city dweller is assessed at $5,000.00, he would pay a road tax of $10.00 a year.
The Board of Supervisors controls the entire system. Not a mile of road can be built nor a dollar raised by taxation, for this purpose, with- out their approval. The Board of County Road Commissioners are the servants of the Supervisors and the Supervisors are the servants of the people; any member of the board being subject to recall at any spring election.
The advantage of the system is greatly with the farmer. For under the County Road law, all County roads end at the corporation line of cities and villages, whereas the burden of taxation for the building of such roads is divided between the State, cities and villages and the agri- cultural property ; whereas under the law as it was, the burden falls en- tirely on the agricultural property.
The law provides that no township can build more than three miles in any one year and receive therefor a state reward; but the County
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system makes continuous main roads with no breaks at the township lines.
It is worthy of note that if a County does not adopt the County road system, it submits to a State tax for the good of those who do, without any direct benefit to itself.
Of the forty-four counties in Michigan which have, up to this time, 1912, adopted the County road system, not one has submitted or pro- posed to submit the recall, while a number, seeing the great benefits de- rived, have asked that the maximum tax be imposed.
If the County road system shall continue in force through a series of years, it will gradually work a revolution in the condition of our highways; it will make the farm home more accessible and more desirable as a place to live; it will beautify and cause more of the urban people to come in contact with and enjoy the country, and last but not least, it will advance the value of all farm property.
CHAPTER VIII BANKS, BANKING AND BANKERS
BANK OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA-WILD-CAT BANKING -- A NATIONAL CURRENCY-OLD NATIONAL BANK OF BATTLE CREEK-THE FIRST NA- TIONAL BANK OF BATTLE CREEK-THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF MARSHALL-CENTRAL NATIONAL BANK, BATTLE CREEK-CITY BANK OF BATTLE CREEK-MERCHANTS SAVINGS BANK OF BATTLE CREEK- THE COMMERCIAL AND SAVINGS BANK, ALBION-ALBION STATE BANK -FIRST STATE BANK OF TEKONSHA-ATHENS STATE BANK.
Banks, as places where money is deposited for safe keeping and where loans for a consideration are made, are among the most ancient institu- tions of which we have knowledge. The children of Israel, according to the Book Exodus, 22:25, not only had banks but indulged in exacting excessive interest. The money changers flourished in the time of our Saviour.
Banking reached a high stage of development among the Grecians and the Romans. Bankers in Greece and Rome seem to have exercised nearly the same functions as those of the present day, except that they do not appear to have issued notes. They received money on deposit to be paid on demand by checks or orders or at some stipulated period, sometimes paying interest for it and sometimes not. Their profits arose from their lending the balance at their disposal at higher rates of in- terest than they allowed the depositors. Among the ancients, as in our days, bankers were highly esteemed and great confidence was placed in their integrity.
With the revival of civilization, banking reappeared as one of the business customs. The bank of Venice is said to antedate all others in Europe. Banking was' not introduced into England until the 17th century. The Bank of England, which has long been the principal bank of deposit and circulation in England and, indeed, in Europe, was founded in 1694. Among other things under its charter, the corpora- tion is "prohibited from engaging in any sort of commercial under- taking other than dealing in bills of exchange and in gold and silver." Since 1833, the notes of the Bank of England are a legal tender every- where in that country, except at the bank. The Bank of England does not allow, either at its home office in London, or at any of its branches, any interest on deposits.
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BANK OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
In 1816, Congress passed an act authorizing the establishing of the Bank of the United States of America with a capital of thirty-five millions of dollars, divided into three hundred and fifty thousand shares of one hundred dollars each. Seventy thousand shares, amounting to seven millions of dollars, were subscribed and paid for by the United States government and the remaining two hundred and eighty thousand shares remained to be subscribed for by individuals, companies or cor- porations, but no individual, company or corporation could subscribe for more than three thousand shares. The subscribers to the stock were created a corporation and body politie by the name and style of "The president, directors and company of the Bank of the United States," For the management of the affairs of the corporation, there were twenty- five directors, five of whom were appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the advise and consent of the Senate. This bank in the course of the years became entangled in politics, it was one of the storm centers of President Jackson's administration, and finally on June 15, 1836, an act was passed by Congress in effect repealing its charter. The government deposits were shortly after withdrawn and the Bank of the United States went out of existence.
WILD CAT BANKING
Previous to the Civil War, it had been the uniform practice of the different States to allow banks to be established for the issue of notes, payable in specie on demand. In cases where the liability of share- holders in banks was to be limited to the amount of their shares, they had up to 1838 to be established by the local legislatures. Charters, however, were easily obtained, and banks became comparatively numer- ous. Paper currency was issued in greater volume than in any other country. From 1811 to 1820, 195 banks in the different States failed and ruin and distress followed in their wake.
The "Wild Cat" banking and the disastrous panic of 1837 were long remembered by the people of that day, while the historic recital of them seems almost incredible to the later generation. There were a number of causes that contributed to the universal wreckage in the country at large and in particular to Michigan, which historians agree was the worst hit of any State in the Union.
The complete payment of the national debt, the accumulation of a relatively large surplus and the subsequent division of this surplus among the States, contributed to the wild spirit of speculation, every- where prevalent from Maine to Michigan. The withdrawal of deposits from the National Bank and the placing of them in a large number of State banks, made money easy to obtain and being eagerly availed of was another contributing cause to the speculative epidemie which seemed to seize all classes and conditions of people. Legislatures and legislation partook of the prevailing spirit among the electors. Many schemes of internal improvements were devised. Some of them possessing real
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merit, but mostly ahead of their times, others were reckless, extravagant and inexcusable under any conditions.
Michigan had a most virulent case of the prevailing disease. In 1837, the legislature passed what was termed the General Banking Law. The declared intent of this law was to allow competition, where is was charged there had been a monopoly enjoyed by a few individuals. The law allowed any ten freeholders, with a capital of not less than fifty nor more than three hundred thousand dollars, to associate themselves together and form a banking corporation. Scarcely had the act gone into effect, when the panic of 1837 burst upon the country. The fifteen old banks, then doing business in the State, suspended specie payments. Though the legislature had been called in special session, and though the Governor had reviewed the situation with alarm, he did not recommend nor did the legislature, acting on its own initiative, repeal the General Banking Law. The result was that while existing banks were in a state of suspension, new banks were being organized in every part of the State. Forty-nine banks were organized before the legislature on the third of April, 1838, suspended the act. Doubtless a good percent- age of them were organized in good faith and with honest intent, but with others the base deceptions resorted to, the dishonest devices inven- ted to mislead the people and evade the plain provisions of the law, could leave no room to doubt the purpose of their promoters. These dishonest speculators on the credulity of the people succeeded in foisting a million dollars of worthless money upon the general public, Large sums were sent by these fake banks into other states for circulation. While at home there was a sharp decline in prices of every commodity. Wheat, for example, dropped from two dollars and fifty cents to one dollar a bushel; other farm products in like proportion. Distrust seized upon the people. Every kind of busines seemed paralyzed. All classes suffered, but laboring men and farmers, particularly, were made to feel the ill effects. The happy but deceitful illusion of manufacturing money with the printing press and creating prosperity by a constantly depre- ciating currency, even to the point of worthlessness, followed the usual fate of the over-inflation. Our older people still remember the days of "Wild-cat" banks and "Wild-cat" money, as a delirious dream from which they awoke to a horrible reality.
This was aggravated by the fanciful schemes of internal improve- ments recommended by the Governor and undertaken by legislative en- actments. The first Constitution declared that "Internal improvements shall be encouraged by the government and to this end, it shall be the duty of the legislature, as soon as may be, to make provision by law for ascertaining the proper objects of improvements in relation to roads, canals and navigable rivers." In obedience to this supreme mandate, the first session of the legislature, after its admission to the Union, pro- vided for three lines of railroad extending across the State; for two canals connecting the eastern and western waters of the State; the construction of a steamboat canal around the falls of the Saint Mary's River at the "Soo"; to improve the Grand River from its mouth to Lyons, in Ionia County, and to build a canal with locks around the rapids at what is now Grand Rapids; the improvement of the Kalamazoo
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River from its mouth to Kalamazoo, and the Saint Joseph River was to be improved from its mouth to Union City, in Branch County. Surveys were made, estimates were given, and on a number of the projects work was begun. The State's share of the surplus from the General Govern- ment, with other available funds, was exhausted. A five million dollar loan, duly authorized and partly negotiated, was used and still none of the great undertakings were completed, and some but little more than well begun, when the speculative bubble burst. In addition to the enter- prises entered upon the State, there were not less than twenty-four railroads and navigation companies, projecting lines in all directions and designed to connect nearly every village of any consequence with the main system. These were to be constructed by private corporations, chartered for the purpose. Among the many projects of this period of rampant speculation and of internal improvements was the building of a ship canal from Union City to Homer to connect the waters of the Kal- amazoo and Saint Joseph Rivers, and another from Kalamazoo to Dex- ter, which should unite the Kalamazoo and the Huron Rivers. With this object in view, surveys were actually made and favorable reports re- turned by the engineers.
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