USA > Michigan > Genesee County > History of Genesee County, Michigan, Her People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 30
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The navigability of our river, in common with the others of the Sagi- naw valley, was firmly believed in by the earliest settlers. Canal utility in the development of a country was firmly fixed in the common thought. The Erie canal was the great example. The guide books used by emigrants from the East advised them to take the Erie canal to Buffalo and the steamboat from there to Detroit. Many had come here by that route.
In 1839, Gardner D. Williams, Ephraim S. Williams, Perry G. Gard- ner, James Frazier, Norman Little, W. L. P. Little, Thomas J. Drake, Ben- jamin Pearson, Robert F. Stage, Wait Beach, Charles G. Hascall and T. L. Brent were authorized by the Legislature to open books for the stock of the "Genesee and Saginaw Navigation Company," which was thereby incor- porated. This corporation was authorized to enter upon the Flint river and lands on either side; to use such materials as it required to erect its dams, locks, tow path, etc .- in fine, to do anything proper to canalize the river from Flint village to a point in section 35 or 36, town II, range 4 east, near the city of Saginaw. Not only did the ambition of this company contemplate the navigation of the river from Flint to Saginaw, but it proposed to connect the Cass river by the most direct and eligible route.
So certain was the navigibility of the river fixed in the minds of the Legislature even, that when, in 1835, the legislative council of the territory gave to Rufus W. Stevens, of Grand Blanc, and James McCormick the authority to build the dam in the Flint river "at or near where the Saginaw turnpike crosses the river," it was expressly provided that they should make
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and maintain a lock for the passage of water craft, ninety feet long and sixteen wide, and from slack water below the dam to slack water of sufficient depth above the dam for the protection of the navigation rights of the users of the river.
The navigation company apparently did not succeed in its promotion plans, for in 1844, by an act entitled "An act to improve the navigation of the Flint river," there was appropriated out of the lands of the state for internal improvements a tract of five thousand acres "for the purpose of clearing the flood wood from, and otherwise improving the navigation of, the Flint river from the village of Flint to the Saginaw river." The improve- ment contemplated by this act was left to the commissioner of internal im- provements, who might dig a canal around the obstructions in case it seemed to him the better way to accomplish the desired ends.
In 1846 a new corporation was organized, "The Genesee and Saginaw Navigation Company," with Chancy S. Paine, George M. Dewey, Eugene Van Deventer, James Frazer, Henry M. Henderson, Porter Hazelton, Ezek- iel R. Ewing, James B. Walker, Joseph K. Rugg, Elijah N. Davenport, Nelson Smith and William McDonald as incorporators. This company had the same powers as the former company, but their limits were from Flint to the mouth of the Shiawassee river. Similar organized efforts were made about this time to navigate the Shiawassee and the Cass.
This company was, by an act of the Legislature of 1850, authorized to make the charges therein specified for carriage of one thousand pounds per mile, for freight of various classes; flour, salted pork and beef, butter, cheese, whiskey and beer, cider, etc., were in the same class. This act was passed on the 2nd day of April, 1850, and a few days afterwards the scow "Empire," flying the flag of the United States, had left Flint for its maiden trip to Flushing with passengers and a cargo of freight. Some later trips are recorded. But the navigation on the river was not demonstrated to be feasible and, as Mr. Bates in the "Jubilee History of Flint" says, the coming of the plank road solved the transportation question against the waterways and the attention of our road builders was turned into another channel.
The real utility of the river as a water highway began about the year 1846 when the lumbering interests commenced the operations that after- wards became so extensive. When the attention of the builders of our county was directed to the value of the timber along the river above the city, its manufacture into lumber soon became the leading industry. The first uses of the river were of little importance measured by the value of the logs transported, but the larger operations of the years beginning with 1848 made
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it a matter of vital import to the growing lumber industry. For a genera- tion after 1848 the river was the center of the greatest activity. Rafting was never a part of this transportation, as the distance was not so great as to require rafting of the logs; but the drive, in the earlier period was very important, as was later the booming of logs and transporting of same by the boom company which was organized to meet the greater needs of the growing industry.
The use of the river for log driving ceased about 1878. Since that time the river has been deserted by craft of industry, but its use for pleasure craft has grown to a considerable extent. About the year 1900, "Cap" Foster owned and ran the "Caprice," a steamer of about one-hundred-pas- senger capacity, on the slack water of the dam above the city to Hitchcock's Grove, a favorite place for picnics. Shortly after that time W. H. Smith came to Flint and he built the "Dawn," a steamer of about the same capacity, and ran it for pleasure parties on the river. He was joined later by his brother, Louis Smith, and together they have navigated the river for pleas- ure seekers since that time. Their gasoline launch, the "Mego," was a familiar sight along the river for years, and later the "Genesee" and the "Belle" have carried many thousands. The opening of Owana Park, farther up the river, made a new place of resort and there are now from seventy- five to eighty launches on the stretch of river above the dam. The limit of this navigation was the Hitchcock grove for many years, but later im- provement has made it possible to run launches five or six miles up the river and in very favorable water conditions some have gone up to Geneseeville.
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CHAPTER VIII.
GEOLOGIC CONDITIONS OF SETTLEMENT.
In its geological structure the county of Genesee presents a double aspect. The geologists of the state aptly call the first the "bed rock" geology. This is the bed rock basis upon which the other structure, consisting of glacial drift, is superimposed. If this covering of glacial materials could be removed and the basic rocks underlying be exposed in their contours, the landscape that would be presented would be of extreme interest. It is not at all easy to visualize this hidden formation that upholds the later deposits, but from the data that we have from drilling wells, from some shafts that have been sunk for purposes of coal explorations, and from excavations for quarries and clay mining, we may get a glimpse of it.
Certain river beds and smaller drainage courses would be seen, and the general course of the principal one would be found meandering across the county from the southwest toward the northeast, and at this time but partially defined, as the drillings have not been sufficiently extensive to give all the desired data.
Outcropping the rocky banks of these courses would be found sand- stone, of considerable thickness in places, interstratified with shales, thin veins of limestone and, rarely, very thin coal veins. In the bottom of these beds might also be found, exposed at intervals, coal veins of considerable thickness. The depth of this principal drainage bed has been determined at certain points to have been at least three hundred and twenty feet-in the northeastern part of the country.
It may be said that this river bed runs approximately across the towns of Argentine, Gaines, Mundy, curving eastward through Grand Blanc into Burton and toward Thread Lake, crossing the city of Flint toward the hos- pital, thence northward toward Mt. Morris, turning then into Genesee town- ship, and through that meandering toward Forest and through that town, where it reaches its greatest depth.
This pre-glacial valley, which the oil drillers of Ohio would call the "lobe," had its lateral affluent valleys. To Henry Meida, an experienced well driller, whose work has extended through many of the towns of our county
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and who has been interested to keep records of other wells, we are indebted for these facts. From his statement the various depths of hard rock under the city of Flint are as follows: On edge of Thread Lake and near Stan- ford avenue, 220 feet; on Nichols street, near Swartz creek, 20 feet; on Grand Traverse street, corner of Court, 70 feet; on corner of Beach and Ninth streets, 100 feet; on Fenton road east of G. T. tracks, about 56 feet; near M. S. D., 100 feet; a mile south of that, 150 feet; coal mine of Old Genesee Coal Company, 150 to 180 feet; corner of Detroit and Ninth ave- nue, 130 feet ; near Crosby and Detroit streets, 200 feet. Away from the principal drainage course as given above, the depth in many places runs about twenty to thirty feet.
In general terms, the hard rock formation under our county may be said to be of the Saginaw and Woodville formations, as classified by our state geologists, corresponding to the Conemaugh of Pennsylvania. It is of the upper coal measures and a part of the great central coal basin of lower Michigan, which comprises the counties of Shiawassee, Clinton, Ionia, Gratiot, Isabella, Montcalm, Midland, Saginaw, Bay, Genesee, and parts of many adjoining counties. Saginaw in particular deserves special mention, as it is there and in Bay county adjoining, that this coal region referred to has been commercially developed. If we will bear in mind the mitten shape of our peninsula, this coal basin might be' figuratively said to lay in the mittened hand.
Mr. Brentz, now of the geological department of Chicago University, when he was teacher of Flint high school made some geological explora- tions of the county. He states that the general surface of the underlying hard rock foundation of the county conformed generally to the surface of the present time, suggesting that the distribution of glacial materials over this hard rock basis was rather uniform in thickness, or relatively so.
The present surface of our county, its physiographic features, the con- tour of its hills and valleys, however, are the results of a different and later geological period-the period of glacial action, when the ice fields that covered the greater part of northern United States hid this hard rock, filling in its drainage courses, its river beds that had been eroded through the action of water during the long geological ages, and made a new surface. The old things passed away and new conditions reigned. The rugged rocky hills, that towered above these ancient valleys and ravines, with their caverns, and rivers running over rock and shingle, were hidden by the gravels, sand, till, clay and boulders that were transported by the mighty force of the moving river of ice from the north, which flowed a few feet each year over our land, and
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finally, when that ice sheet receded under the heats of an altered climate, the receding glacier, halting its retreat here and there as though reluctant to give back the land that it had conquered, standing at bay for a time, spread- ing the earth that was part of itself, here in mounds, there in ridges, damming the waters, or directing their courses, made a new land and prepared for a new life. The river that had been, ceased to be, and a new river was born, to run according to the will of the glacier that gave it being. The genius of the ice was not content to take a life, as in the poem of Goethe, but busied itself with making a continent.
When the receding glacier had so far retreated that the southern portion of the state was freed from the ice, the lobe that pushed itself up through the bay of Saginaw, lingered, and its various stages of recession and retrogres- sion made the hills and valleys, guided the waters of our county, made the soils, piled up the gravels, spread the clay, the sand and gravels, and gave potential being to the deposits of marl in the lakes; then the county of Genesee was formed and its future was determined.
This lobe, the Saginaw glacier, spread out over the entire county. Its effects upon the drainage were especially interesting and here is perhaps the best example of what the geologists have termed the "willowy" system of drainage. If we will note the direction of the streams, that together are the drainage of the Saginaw valley in its extreme extent, we will see this system in its perfect development. Turn a map of Michigan over so that we face the head of the bay of Saginaw. Note the Saginaw river entering the head of the bay, then follow the Cass river up from the entry of that river into the Saginaw, to its head waters, and we see that the main river follows along a course that almost parallels the shores of the bay, curving around southwest- erly, then west, then north by northwest, until it joins the Saginaw; then follow the course of the Tittabawassee, as it curves around parallel to the western shore of the bay, in a similar way, until it reaches and joins its waters with those of the Saginaw and Cass, and all are discharged through the Sagi- naw into the bay. This system of drainage, from its similarity to the willow tree, gives the name "willowy" to the geological nomenclature of this day. The Saginaw river forms the trunk of the tree, the two rivers named form the drooping branches, and the other affluent streams, the tree top, and the striking similarity is apparent.
The question occurs, What is the cause of this peculiar drainage system? Why did not these rivers all flow direct toward the bay which finally received their waters? The explanation is the glacier. The waters of Genesee county
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furnish a less conspicuous example of the same kind of drainage and its course is also assignable to the same cause.
The sites of the two most southern townships of our county, Atlas and Fenton, were the first to emerge from the ice of the glacier. For a con- siderable period of time after their emergence the rest of the county con- tinued to deposit its earthy materials along its edge, forming a distinct moraine across these two townships, and damming the waters that were along one edge, which, following the line of least resistance, toward the west, formed the Shiawassee river ; its course is directed by moraines of the two townships. The emergence of these two townships from the field of ice meant their general submergence by the waters of the glacier. The lakes formed by these waters still exist in the following: Copnaconiec, Long, Loon, Mud, Silver, Ryan, Pine, Squaw, Lobdell, Shina, Mecastin, McKane and Myers, together with many unnamed ponds and kettle holes.
The Shiawasse river receives its tributaries from the south, except some of the lakes mentioned, which discharge their waters into that river. These two towns display the most striking evidences of glacial action; the names and ridges are marked, in many places, of considerable magnitude. There are few places better adapted to the study of glaciation than this portion of Gene- see county, not even excepting the region of Green Bay, Wisconsin, nor the Leaf Hills of Minnesota.
Of the Shiawassee river, Mr. Bretz says: "But a few miles north the land lies lower than the level of the stream (Shiawassee). The river does not flow north seeking this lower level, because a moraine borders its north- ern side and the valley it occupies was first formed by border drainage from the ice sheet at the time the moraine was built. The actual surface of Gene- see county at that time was much higher north of the Shiawassee river, be- cause the great ice sheet covered the land. As it melted, its waters ran along its edges through this part of the county, eroding a valley, which the pres- ent Shiawassee now occupies, though a puny successor to the glacial streams."
A further recession of the Saginaw glacier, and a temporary stand of its field of ice, is marked by a line running through the townships of Forest, Richfield, Genesee, Flint (city and town), the corner of Clayton, and per- haps Gaines. This stand is evidenced by morainic deposits along the north- ern banks of the Flint river and the Swartz creek. This moraine holding back the waters, and the glacier itself, which as Mr. Bretz suggests, made the northern part higher, dammed the waters, forming an extensive lake cover- ing the greater portion of Burton, Mundy, Grand Blanc, Davison and Rich- field. And this lake finally, after the glacier had further receded, found an outlet through the great moraine where the city of Flint now stands and in
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the fifth and third wards, forming the Flint river as the trunk of the willow, which with the upper Flint river, the Swartz creek, the Thread river, the Kearsley creek and the smaller streams, make up our local willowy drainage. This drainage basin is made up of gently sloping general surfaces, all tend- ing toward the eroded outlet of the ancient lake at Flint, and coming from the east rather than from the west, as the general slope of the county towards the northwest would lessen the drainage from the west. The Swartz creek, because of these facts, furnishes the smaller contribution to the waters of the outlet, the Flint below the city, than the other side of the willow tree.
To quote Mr. Bretz again, "Thus, practically the whole drainage of the southern half of Genesee county, excepting the Shiawassee river, comes to one point where the Flint river cuts through this moraine in the west part of the city of Flint. North of this barrier, the Flint moraine, the streams again take the consequent course with minor deflections. Since the surface is more or less irregular with small moraine ridges and the beaches of a second glacial lake, the adherence to a strictly consequent course is not marked."
This covering of the basic rock formation by the glacial detritus, be- longs to the pleistocene period. In this drift may be found the rounded boulders from the granitic rocks of the far north, the sands and gravels, decomposed remains of the sandstones, clays of various kinds, in which the blue clay predominates, and which, in some of the lower portions, assumes a semi-stratified appearance.
The materials of this period have been of great importance in the econ- omic development of the county. The absence of exposures of stratified rocks made the quarrying of stone impossible except in the township of Flushing and along the lower stretches of the river; the boulders entered into the building of the foundations of the early homes of the city and rural portions of the county. Sand of suitable quality for building purposes is found in nearly every town. In many places it was not uncommon to find sand in the excavation for the foundation, of suitable grade to make the mortar for the walls. Gravel for road-making was also common as a part of the glacial materials. In 1913 there were thirty-three dealers in sand and gravel for commercial purposes in the county of Genesee; the townships of Atlas, Burton, Davison, Fenton, Flint, Flushing, Gaines, Genesee, Mundy, Richfield and Vienna were all represented in the list.
The lakes of the southwest part of the county contain marl of a high degree of purity and great commercial value. The deposit is both rich and of great depth. In the early days the settlers used it to a limited extent for burning lime, and it entered into the building of foundations and the plast-
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ering of houses of settlers. The lime used in the early building activities of the city of Flint came for the most part from similar marl deposits in similar glacial lakes of Lapeer county near the line of Genesee. Of these, Lime lake furnished perhaps most. This marl was also used by the house- wives for scouring materials.
Transported boulders of limestone sometimes occurred of sufficient size and frequency to use for lime burning. One instance of this was an especi- ally large boulder of that stone on section 7, township 9, range 8, east, Forest township.
CEMENT INDUSTRY.
The growth of the Portland cement industry in Michigan from a single plant in 1896, with an output of seven thousand dollars value, to ten plants in 1912, with an annual output of more than three millions value, has caused the marl deposits in the glacial lakes of Genesee county to become of great industrial importance. Before the year 1900 options were taken upon the marl rights in several of these lakes, and in 1900 these options were taken up and the rights secured from the farm owners of the lands around and under the lakes. That year the Detroit Portland Cement Company and the Egypt- ian Portland Cement Company began building operations on the shores of Silver and Mud lakes. Since then their operations have increased. They first began to produce cement in 1902 and, with some exceptions caused by re-organization and litigation, have done an increasing business. The Aetna Portland Cement Company, under the management of Mr. Simmons, has been especially active and prosperous. It now has eight kilns and a daily output of about thirteen or fourteen hundred barrels. They are now instal- ling two new kilns of great capacity, and their prospective output when these are in operation will be about eighteen hundred barrels of cement per day. The market is practically all in the state of Michigan, about fifty per cent going to Detroit. Their marl runs over ninety per cent of carbonate of lime and an analysis of this marl some time ago shows as follows:
Silica
.96
Alumina and Iron
.44
Lime
52.43
Magnesia
I.66.
Carbon ioxide
42.99
Difference
1.52
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
100.00
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The depth of this marl deposit is in some places as great as twenty-seven feet, and enough is in sight, as stated by Mr. Simmons, to assure the active operation of their plant for thirty years. The clay, sufficiently rich in com- bined silica, has not as yet been found in quantities in Genesee county, and at the present time it is brought from the vicinity of Corunna. The estimated possible production of one of these companies in 1900, after a careful examin- ation by competent persons, was over twenty-eight million barrels, and the present output of the two companies must run near eight hundred thousand barrels per year, with prospect of over a million next year.
The salt industry has never been a part of the activities of this county, although some attempts were made in the days of the saw-mills. The salt- bearing strata underlie our county, and about fifty years ago a well was drilled by H. H. Crapo near the present lumber yard of the Randall Lumber Company with a view to salt-making. The use of sawdust for fuel to evapor- ate the brine was one of the plans of the mill men. The well was sunk fifteen hundred feet or more and brine was found, but the plan was abandoned, the brine being insufficiently rich in salt to make the manufacture of salt an allur- ing field. Somewhere in the boulevard between the lumberyard of the Ran- dall Company and the river, you may walk over this buried salt well.
One of the mining industries of the county is the clay mining of the Saginaw Paving Brick Company, of Saginaw, which for some years has operated a clay mine down the river from the village of Flushing. The clay is called "fire clay," and it forms a stratum beneath some overlying strata of sandstone and shale. It is taken out by a power plant on an inclined tram- way and shipped to Saginaw. The extent of this mining has resulted in an excavation of large dimensions, and to a depth considerably below the level of the river which runs nearby. This excavation furnishes one of the very few exposures of hard rock in the county, and the strata consists of sand- stone and shales. It is said that a thin coal vein was also tapped that fur- nished coal sufficient to run the engine for power. The mine is on the southwest quarter of section 22, township 8 north, range 5 east.
Following are the chief physiographic characteristics of the townships of Genesee county, and some of the ways in which they have been related both to the red men and to the white settlers.
BRICK CLAYS.
There is hardly a township in the county of Genesee where clays suit- able for brick making are not found. In the earliest times, when the city of
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Flint was just beginning to grow and brick stores were coming into use, the brick was made near Detroit street, in the present fifth ward. Later it was also made in various portions of the second, third and fourth wards. At the present time a sandstone brick is made in large quantities on the western side of the city of Flint by the Flint Sandstone Brick Company. This brick, unlike the other makes, is of sand and stone lime. The sand is taken from the lands of the company just outside of the city, and is rich in silica, while the lime comes from the northern part of the state. The annual output of this company is over six million brick, and all of this product finds a market in the city of Flint.
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