USA > Michigan > Genesee County > History of Genesee County, Michigan, Her People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 20
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LAND OFFICE.
An event of much significance for the increase of settlement in Flint was the establishment of the United States land office there August 23. 1836. This institution was a center of interest wherever established, as the place where title to lands was secured. There all sales of United States lands were recorded, and reports of these were made to the commissioner of the general land office at Washington, D. C .; and in due course a patent for the land purchased, signed by the president, was sent to the local office and delivered to the purchaser. This office was continued at Flint until January 14. 1857, when it was removed to East Saginaw. Following are the officials who served at Flint: Registered: Michael Hoffman, July 5, 1836; John Barston, August 10, 1838; Cornelius Roosevelt, May 21, 1849; William M. Fenton, March 25, 1853. Receivers: Charles C. Hascall, July 5, 1836; Elijah B. Witherbee, February 23, 1843; Robert J. S. Page, October 12, 1844; Charles C. Hascall, March 21, 1845; George M. Dewey, March 18, 1849; Russell Bishop, March 18, 1853.
From East Saginaw the office was removed to Grayling, where the maps, field notes and all the records were destroyed by fire. The office was then moved to Marquette in the upper peninsula.
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ROAD BUILDING.
Another impulse to the settlement of Flint was the road from Detroit, which was first improved by the national government. It followed very nearly the old Indian trail, its purpose being originally to connect the forts at Detroit and Saginaw. It was first cut out in the winter of 1822-1823 from Saginaw to Flint by detachments of the Third United States Infantry, sufficiently to allow the passage of horses to and from Saginaw. Previous to this a road southward from Flint had been cut and partially corduroyed through the swampy lands between Royal Oak and Detroit, by soldiers under command of Colonel Leavenworth. In 1824, the territorial government authorized the appointment of a commissioner to lay out and establish a territorial road from Detroit to Saginaw. Though this was surveyed in 1826, it was four years before the construction of the road reached Genesee county and 1833 when it had reached as far as the present Kearsley street. In 1834 the swamp was filled in between Kearsley street and the Flint river, the bridge was started, and in the same year, or in the spring of 1835, the road was finished to a point about five miles north of the river, which was the end of the work done upon it by the national government. Judged by standards of today, this road was scarcely deserving of the name, but for those days it was serviceable and over it came a large portion of the early settlers to their homes in Genesee county.
With the improvement of this road and the establishment of the post- office and the land office at Flint, a line of stages from Flint to Pontiac was begun by William Clifford. As early as 1833 Joshua Terry carried the mails over the route between Pontiac and Saginaw, making weekly trips, with limited accommodations for passengers. The Clifford stage-line was a much needed improvement and was continued under various managements until the completion of a railway.
Not least among the attractions for settlers in the neighborhood of Flint were the Thread river mills. The saw-mill started at Grand Blanc in 1828 has the honor of being the first effort in a line of industry that gave Flint its initial prominence as a manufacturing city. It provided lumber for the first homes in the county. The proprietors were Rowland Perry and Harvey Spencer. According to some accounts the first saw-mill near Flint was built by George Oliver as early as 1830, but in 1833 or 1834 one was built nearer Flint by Rufus W. Stevens. In 1836 another was begun by Stage, Wright & Company. About the same time the Stevens brothers built
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the first grist-mill in Flint, at the intersection of Thread river and the Sag- inaw road. This greatly promoted immigration, by furnishing means of making flour or meal without having to make the long trips to Pontiac or to Detroit, and drew to Flint the trade for many miles around. A season's crop of grain would sometimes come from Saginaw by canoe to be ground in Flint. The grist-mill occupied the place of first importance in this budd- ing industrial community, but along in the fifties the saw-mill finally came into its own with the development of lumbering as a commercial enterprise.
In 1836 was started the first mercantile enterprise of importance in the growing village, when Messrs. Robert F. Stage and Ira D. Wright built the first store, an adjunct to their milling enterprise. It was situated on Mill and Saginaw streets not far from the bridge. The stock was valued at twenty thousand dollars, a large sum for that time. The store was a substantial frame building, the upper story of which was used as a public hall. In it were convened all the religious meetings of the day and the first court was held within its walls.
INFLUX OF SETTLERS.
These impulses to the early settlement of Flint are reflected in the marked increase of settlers from 1835 to 1838. Among others who came in 1835 were Oliver A. Wesson and John M. Cumings, men of much im- portance to the early growth of Flint. Among those who settled here during the years 1836-1838 were the following: Samuel Alport, Asa An- drews, John Bartow. Chauncey Barber, Rev. John Beach, Wait Beach, Lewis G. Bickford, James Birdsall, Giles Bishop, Sr., Giles Bishop, Russell Bishop, Rev. Daniel E. Brown, Lewis Buckingham, William Clifford, Thomas R. Cumings, Grant Decker, George M. Dewey, Dr. Elijah Drake, Thomas J. Drake, Willard Eddy, William Eddy, George W. Fish, David Foote, Daniel S. Freeman, Miles Gazlay, Ward Gazlay, J. C. Griswold, George H. Hazelton, Charles Heale, Henry M. Henderson, James Henderson, George J. W. Hill, Waldo Howard, Dr. John A. Hoyes, W. Lake, Robert D. Lamond, Daniel B. Lyon, James McAlester, R. McCreery, Edmond Miles, William Moon, William A. Morrison, Robert J. S. Page, William Patterson, Chauncey S. Payne, Benjamin Pearson, Nicholas Russell, Orrin Safford, D. S. Seeley, Charles Seymour, Robert F. Stage, Addison Stewart, Col. Thomas B. W. Stockton, Artemas Thayer, Edward H. Thomson, John Townsend, Eugene Vandeventer, James B. Walker, Henry C. Walker, Ephraim S. Williams, Elijah B. Witherbee and Ira D. . Wright.
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Thomas P. Wood, later a resident of Goodrich for more than sixty years, came to Whigville, Genesee county, in 1834, when only twelve years of age. He returned to New York state later, finishing his education, and removing again to Genesee county after his marriage to Paulina M. Hulbert, of West Bloomfield, New York, residing at Goodrich more than sixty years.
Particulars about some of these families may be of interest. Benjamin Cotharin was engaged in boot and shoemaking, in a shop just north of the city hall. Messrs. Seeley and Howard conducted a tailor shop over Stage & Wright's store. Beyond the Thread river was a brick yard owned by Reuben Tupper and Silas Pierce. William A. Morrison was engaged in the primi- tive lumbering industry. The Bishop brothers, Russell and Giles, were em- barked in commercial pursuits. Daniel B. Lyon was also engaged in business. The year 1836 witnessed the advent of a small colony from Batavia and the adjacent parts of Genesee county, New York. Among them was Willard Eddy, who was instrumental in establishing the first bank in Flint. He was the father of Hon. Jerome Eddy, later mayor of the city of Flint and one of the representative business men of the city. Robert Patrick assisted in the construction of the first grist-mill. Orrin Safford was one of the first justices of the peace in Flint township. One of the first lawyers was Col. E. H. Thomson. Ephraim S. Williams and George M. Dewey were early mer- chants and were largely engaged in land operations. Among those whose names appear conspicuously as givers of liberal gifts to encourage the growth of the city is Chauncey S. Payne, a large landowner and one of the parties in the litigation involving the Smith reservation. Henry M. and James Hen- derson contributed much to the growth of early Flint, building later a block of stores and conducting a large mercantile business. Few early citizens were better beloved than Rev. James McAlester, who for many years was engaged in ministerial labor, helping to organize several Methodist churches in the county. By trade he was a wagon maker, devoting his Sabbaths to clerical work. Another local preacher was Daniel S. Freeman, who in early years in Flint, followed blacksmithing. Hon. James B. Walker was for many years engaged in commercial pursuits, but afterwards identified himself with the state charitable institutions and was active in promoting enterprises for the welfare of the city.
The great majority of the early pioneers of Flint and Genesee county brought with them from the East the staunch old New England equipment of mind and morals-intelligence, education, the qualities that make for a wholesome society, and the sweet remembrance of family ties; for this rea- son Flint has won fame among her sister cities as a community of honor-
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able, hospitable and law-respecting people. Churches and schools were early built in the clearings. And though education was often dispensed in the cramped cabin of the settler, and never in any edifice more pretentious than the single-roomed log school house built in a day by the combined labors of a few earnest heads of families, yet in these rude institutions of learning there have been laid the foundations of many an honorable and useful career.
FIRST SCHOOLS.
According to Edward A. Todd, the first school teacher in Flint was a man by the name of Billings, whom he describes as a "tall, raw-boned, red- headed fellow," whose school was across the road from Todd's tavern. But Col. E. H. Thomson gives the generally received opinion that the first school was kept by Daniel O'Sullivan. This was in 1834, in a shanty on the river's bank, near Hamilton's dam, or upon the site of the present Genesee mills. His terms were ten cents per week for each pupil. There were about a dozen pupils, sons and daughters of John Todd, James McCormick, R. W. Stevens, James W. Cronk, Lyman Stowe, and his own. He thus netted for his labors less than one dollar and twenty cents per week.
In 1835 a man by the name of Aaron Hoyes taught a school in the same place and during his illness a young woman by the name of Lucy Riggs temporarily filled his place. At that time the pupils were the three Stevens children, Leander, Albert and Zobedia; the Cronk children, Corydon, Wal- ter and Abagail; Edward Todd; Adeline and Emeline Stowe, and the Mc- Cormick children, William, Ann and Sarah. In 1836 a small school house was put up on the corner now occupied by the Fenton block, in which the first school was kept by a Miss Overton. She received a dollar a week.
EARLY RELIGIOUS INTEREST.
As with education, so with regard to religious observance. The pio- neers recognized it as being among the necessities of life, equally with food, raiment and shelter. As soon as they had secured these in the most primi- tive form, they embraced every opportunity to enjoy the privilege of divine worship. It is told of a lady living in Flint in the seventies, that when she first came to the place with her husband their first inquiries were concerning religious services, and when informed that such were to be held in a barn at the Grand Blanc settlement on the following Sabbath, they prepared to at-
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tend. They learned that the distance of the place of meeting was fully seven miles, over bad roads, with streams to be forded, requiring more than a day of difficult, slow and unpleasant travel, but, with others, they set out in an ox-wagon on Saturday, reached their destination the same night, attended service on Sunday, and arrived back in Flint Monday afternoon. So intense was their longing for religious companionship that they had taken three days of difficult travel and precious time before a tree had been felled or other step had been taken towards building them a roof to shelter their heads.
Among the earliest of the pioneer preachers in Genesee county were the Rev. W. H. Brockway, a Methodist missionary to the Indians; Elders Fra- zee and Oscar North, Methodists; Benedict and Gambell, both Baptists; Rev. Isaac W. Ruggles, a Congregationalist, and others. The first religious meetings were held at Grand Blanc, whence they extended northward to Flint and other points. The first services at Flint were held by the Rev. Oscar North. The neighboring "Coldwater settlement" was a favorite point for traveling preachers who passed through the county. One feature that specially distinguished the spirit of these early services was the small atten- tion paid to denominational differences. Any Christian service was eagerly welcomed by the pioneers, who fully appreciated the value of the church privileges they had left behind when they emigrated from their old homes in the East.
Among the first Catholic clergymen to visit the field were Rev. Law- rence Kilroy and Rev. Martin Kindig, afterward vicar-general of Milwau- kee, Wisconsin, who figured so conspicuously in the cholera epidemic which decimated Detroit in 1834. The reverend father was indefatigable in his efforts to alleviate distress among all sects and classes and used his private means so liberally as to impoverish himself and contract an indebtedness which it required years to liquidate. After a long life of ceaseless toil and benevolence, he died at the ripe age of seventy-two years.
SOCIAL AMUSEMENTS.
The pioneers were not averse to the lighter and gayer side of life. The craving for social enjoyment comes from one of the deepest instincts of human nature. The outsider is lonesome. Good cheer has always been an important element in normal human life. Feasting and making merry went along with the more serious things, and of all the places to feast and make merry in early Flint, the chief was Todd's tavern. "Aunt Polly" Todd, if
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we may believe half that is told of her, was abundantly able to shine in the social sphere of white traders, half-breed and full-blooded Indians and thrifty pioneers. And the landlord of Todd's tavern could easily set a good table with venison, with turkey and fish, abundantly supplied by the Indians. Talking was not one of the lost arts at the board of "Uncle John" Todd, and good stories never failed.
One of the first social events of Flint took place in this old tavern. In the winter of 1831 Mr. and Mrs. Todd gave a wedding reception in honor of George Oliver and Miss Keziah Toby, both of whom had been in the employ of my lord and lady of the inn. That same winter Mr. and Mrs. Todd gave a "house warming." An adequate idea of this grand occasion was given years afterwards by "Aunt Polly" Todd herself :
"In February, Mr. Todd had the frame addition to his house all fin- ished, and as Sam Russell -- the only violinist in the county-was procurable, Mr. and Mrs. Todd determined to give a housewarming. For this purpose all the settlers in Flint and Grand Blanc-about thirty in number-were invited to the 'Flint Tavern,' to pass the following evening. Meantime all the ladies put their best garments in readiness, and Mrs. Todd-who had better facilities for importing new articles into the settlement than many of the others-had a full new suit and a splendid new dress cap, ready for that special occasion, all purchased some weeks previously by Mr. Todd in De- troit. As the evening advanced, the guests commenced arriving, and 'Aunt Polly' concluded to dress up. As she appeared among the ladies they all expatiated on her becoming dress and 'perfect love of a cap.' Mrs. Todd, having a light in her hand at the time, stood opposite a looking-glass and, casting an admiring glance at herself therein, mentally agreed that she did look well, and that it was 'a love of a cap.' While elevating the light to get a more correct view of the beautiful piece of finery, it caught in some of the delicate borders or ribbons, and a fire ensued which reduced the gay head- dress to a few burned rags in less than three minutes. However, the tuning of the fiddle previous to the dance set the gentlemen to looking up their partner, and Mrs. Todd, who loved dancing, was on the floor one of the first, looking just as well and as happy in another cap of less pretentions than her lost beauty. In those times a dance was the only amusement looked for at any gathering, and when an invitation was given, it was sure to be accepted."
Other centers of hospitality and social life in early Flint were the Northern Hotel and the Genesee House. The Northern Hotel, which was built and kept for a short time by Captain Crane, was conducted by William
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Clifford, who founded the River House, which he had taken over from John Todd in 1838, too small for his increasing business. The Northern Hotel then became headquarters for the Flint-Pontiac stage-line. The Genesee House was built in 1837 by Thomas J. Drake, and stood at the angle formed by Detroit and Saginaw streets. Mr. Drake's successors were Cornelius Roosevelt, S. W. Gibson, W. R. Scoville, Mr. Allen, Mr. Pettee and Jared Mason. Mr. Mason subsequently built the Carlton House, which stood upon the site of the present Bryant Hotel, and was first opened January 1, 1836. This hotel was afterwards changed to the Irving House, and was destroyed by fire.
THE PROFESSIONS.
The professions of law and medicine were not represented in early Flint. The first resident attorney in the county, however, lived in Fenton- ville. He was Philip H. McOmber. About 1832 he came to Michigan from Saratoga county, New York, practicing first in the Oakland county courts, but removing in 1834 to Fenton township. Hon. William M. Fenton, who knew him very well, says of him that his talents as a lawyer were of a superior quality. He not only stood high as a lawyer, but was most highly esteemed as an honest and public-spirited citizen and a hospitable gentleman. He was the first prosecuting attorney of Genesee county. His death oc- curred about 1844. The first resident attorney in Flint, who settled here in 1836, had also previously practiced law in Oakland, to which, after a few years, he returned; this was Thomas J. Drake. According to Judge Baldwin, Mr. Drake was connected as counsel with most of the leading cases in northern Michigan during a long term of years, and was always happy and in his element when advocating the interests of the people. He was senator from Genesee county from 1839 to 1842. The same year Mr. Drake settled in Flint, 1836, came John Bartow, who was soon after ap- pointed register in the land office. He was elected state senator in 1837. In partnership with Mr. Bartow was Edward H. Thomson, who had been a student in the office of Millard Fillmore, afterwards President of the United States. He had practiced in New York. He came to Flint in 1838. In 1845-6 he was prosecuting attorney for Genesee county and was state sena- tor from Genesee for the years 1848 and 1849. He also served in the lower house and filled many other important offices.
As with the lawyers so with the doctors-the first physicians who served the settlers of Genesee county came from the neighboring Oakland. Among these pioneers of the profession were David L. Porter, J. B. Rich-
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ardson and Olmstead Chamberlain. The one most frequently employed was Doctor Chamberlain, although he was not compelled to rely on his pro- fession for a livelihood and did not follow it as a regular business. He was present with Colonel Cronk in the fatal sickness of the latter at Flint in 1832. The first physician to locate and practice in the county was Dr. Cyrus Baldwin, who settled at Grand Blanc in the spring of 1833, where he became a deacon in the Presbyterian church. In the following year Dr. John W. King located in the same settlement and for many years was a mighty influence for moral and spiritual, as well as the physical, health of Genesee county. The first resident physician in Flint was Dr. John A. Hoyes, who settled here in 1835. He was a graduate of the medical school at Fairfield, Herkimer county, New York. About 1847 his health began to fail and two years later ,on December 20, he died at Flint, aged forty-three years. Another of the earliest physicians in Flint was Doctor Richardson, who came about 1837, but removed west soon after 1840. Thus in the professional as well as in the business and social life of Flint there has been considerable progress by the time Michigan was formally admitted to state- hood.
The rapid growth of Flint, and its condition at the time Michigan became a state, is fairly reflected in Blois' "Gazetteer of Michigan":
"Flint: A village, postoffice and seat of justice for Genesee county, situated on Flint river. It has a banking association, an edge tool factory, saw-mill, two dry goods stores, two groceries, two physicians, a lawyer and the land office for the Saginaw land district. The United States road passes through it. There is a good supply of water-power in and around it. The emigration to this place has been very great the past two years, and still continues. The village is flourishing and the country around it is excellent. It is estimated to contain three hundred families."
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CHAPTER V.
PIONEER DAYS IN THE TOWNSHIPS.
The county of Genesee as laid out by the act of 1835 embraced all of its present area except the eastern range of townships, which then belonged to Lapeer. The oldest township in the county is Grand Blanc, organized March 9, 1833. It was larger than now, including its present area and all of the present townships of Fenton, Mundy, Flint, Mount Morris, Genesee, Burton, Atlas and Davison. The second township was Flint, erected March 2, 1836. It, too, was larger than now, embracing not only its present area and that of the city of Flint, but also the present townships of Burton, Clay- ton, Flushing, Mount Morris, Genesee, Thetford, Vienna and Montrose. Argentine was organized July 26, 1836, which included the township of Fenton besides its present area. On March 1I, 1837, was organized the town- ship of Mundy, which then included also the present township of Gaines. By the same act Vienna was organized from the northern part of Flint, to include also the lands now in Montrose and Thetford. Thus, in 1837, all of Genesee county was included in five townships, Grand Blanc, Flint, Argentine, Mundy and Vienna, the latter having been added only a few weeks after the state was admitted to the Union.
The remaining townships of the county were organized in the following order :
1838, March 6, Genesee, Fenton and Flushing.
1839, April 19, Kearsley, covering territory absorbed later by Genesee and Burton.
1842, February 16, Thetford and Gaines.
1843, March 9, Forest, Richfield, Davison and Atlas were added from Lapeer county.
1846, March 25, Clayton and Montrose; the latter was first called "Pewanagawink ;" changed to "Montrose" by act of January 15, 1848.
1855, February 12, Mount Morris.
1855, October 12, Burton.
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