USA > Michigan > Genesee County > History of Genesee county, Michigan. With illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 31
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Durhams and Devons were the first blooded animals brought into the county, and no mention of any others is found in the agricultural reports of the county for a num- ber of years after 1850. The next to make their appear- anec after these were the Ayrshires. The first full-blood short-horns were brought into the county by David Halsey, of Grand Blanc, though high grades had been kept there considerably earlier. Jonathan Dayton and Rowland B. Perry were among the earliest owners of Durhams in Grand Blane, or in the county. Full-blood short-horns were brought into Fenton township at an carly day by Elisha Larned, and also into Burton by Perus Atherton and Adon- ijah Atherton, from the Birney herd at Bay City. Gov- ernor Crapo brought in the first and finest Herefords, from Stone's herd at Guelph, Ontario. He also brought in Dur- hams and Devons, but gave preference, and his principal at- tention during the remainder of his life, to the Herefords. There is also a considerable number of this breed found in other herds in the county, as well as some Ayrshires and Alderneys.
THE HAY PRODUCT.
The production of hay is another important agricultural industry in Genesee. It began, at an early day, to be pro- duced in excess over stock requirements, and to bring a con- siderable amount of revenue by sales to lumbermen. It is only in recent years, however, that the pressing of hay into bales has been practiced in this county. This process was commenced a few years ago by the use of hand-presses, but these have been superseded, and power-presses are now in general use. The quantity of hay annually baled here for shipment is large, and the production of the article is to many farmers an important source of profit. The hay product of the county has increased from 1941 tons in 1840 to 19,883 tons in 1854, and 34,962 tons in 1873.
THE GENESEE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.
The first meeting preliminary to the formation of this society was held at Flint, on the 12th of January, 1850, and, after the appointment of a committee to draft a con- stitution and by-laws, was adjourned to the 15th of Feb- ruary next following. At the adjourned meeting, of which Rowland B. Perry was appointed President pro tem., and John L. Gage, Secretary, T. B. W. Stockton, of the com- mittee, reported a constitution, which was adopted, and the organization of the society under the above name and style was perfected by the election of the following, its first ofli- cers, namely :
President, Hon. Jeremiah R. Smith, of Grand Blanc. Vice-Presidents, Elbridge G. Gale, of Atlas; Isaac Mid- dlesworth, of Argentine; Alfred Pond, of Clayton ; Daniel Dayton, of Davison ; George W. Piper, of Forest ; James Ilosie, of' Flushing ; Benjamin Pearson, of Flint ; William
116
HISTORY OF GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Tanner, of Fenton; E. Fletcher, of Gaines; Daniel HI. Seely, of Genesee; Rowland B. Perry, of Grand Blanc; John Farquharson, of Montrose; John Richards, of Mundy ; Garret Zufelt, of Richfield; Richard Buel, of Thetford ; Daniel Montague, of Vienna. Recording Sec- retary, James B. Walker, of Flint. Corresponding Secre- tary, George M. Dewey, of Flint. Treasurer, Augustus St. Amand, of Flint. Executive Committee, Jonathan Dayton, of Grand Blanc; C. D. W. Gibson, of Grand Blanc; John L. Gage, of Flint ; C. N. Beecher, of Gene- sce ; Peabody Pratt, of Flint.
The object of the society, as set forth in the first article of the constitution, was " to promote Agriculture, Horti- culture, Household and Mechanical Arts in Genesee County, Michigan."
The first fair of the society was held on the 2d and 3d days of October, 1850, in a grove near the present Metho- dist church in Flint. The annual fairs continued to be held on ground leased by the society until 1854, when a tract of about four acres was purchased for four hundred dollars of Messrs. Fenton and Bishop, being part of the " Stockton tract" then recently purchased by them and laid out as an addition to the village plat of Flint. The tract was conveyed by deed to Grant Decker and Levi Walker in trust for the society, and the annual fair was held upon it in October of that year. The proceeds of the fair of 1855 enabled the society to pay in full for the grounds. At that time the president of the society was Benjamin Pearson, who had succeeded Mr. Smith, and who held the office till 1856, when he was succeeded by Grant Decker, who, in turn, was succeeded in 1857 by Jonathan Dayton, and he, in 1858, by Henry Schram. In 1857, the fair ground having been found inconveniently swall for the needs of the society, its arca was nearly doubled by the purchase of an adjoining tract of between three and four acres from Hon. Artemas Thayer, at two hundred and twenty dollars per acre. These two purchases, together with a small tract afterwards bought of Col. Fenton, con- stituted what was known as the "Old Fair-Grounds," on which the annual fairs were held for thirteen years. These grounds were in the south part of the city, near the Thread River.
The present fair-grounds of the society were selected and purchased (except the small addition hereafter men- tioned) in 1870. On the 14th of April in that year, William Hamilton, executor of John Hamilton, deceased, sold to Grant Decker and Levi Walker, trustees of the Genesee County Agricultural Society, lots seven and eight of " MeNeil's out-lots," and lots eleven, ten, nine, eight, and parts of lots six and seven of " John Hamilton's out- lots," for the consideration of ten thousand dollars. The buildings from the old grounds were removed to the new, the former being sold and platted by the purchasers as city lots. Additional buildings were erected on the new grounds, and the annual fairs of the society have been held upon them until the present time. They were enlarged by the purchase from William Hamilton (Nov. 8, 1877) of a part of lots six and seven of " John Hamilton's out-lots," for the sum of five hundred dollars.
The fair-ground-which contains an excellent half-mile
trotting-course-is situated in the Second Ward of the city of Flint, between Seventh and Ninth Streets, with its main front on the street known as the Northern Wagon-Road. Its area is about twenty-three acres.
The legal incorporation of the Genesee County Agricul- tural Society was effected on the 8th of February, 1871, under the provisions of Chapter 54 of the compiled laws of Michigan ; the corporators and trustees being Elijah W. Rising, Francis HI. Rankin, Oren Stone, Charles C. Beahan, Charles Pettis, Henry Schram, William J. Phillips, Frederick II. Kellicutt, Jesse M. Davis, Grant Decker, Levi Walker, and John L. Gage.
The officers of the society for the year 1879 are: Pres- ident, Sumner Howard, of Fiint; Secretary, HI. C. Van- dusen, of Flint ; Treasurer, George Hubbard, of Flint. The Hon. Francis II. Rankin held the office of secretary of the society for twenty-six years consecutively.
THE CRAPO FARMI.
In 1852, two farms in Genesee County were entered to compete for the premium offered for the best, by the Agri- cultural Society in that year. These were the farms of Rowland B. Perry, of Grand Blanc, and Daniel Curtis, of Genesee ; and the premium was awarded to the former, though the latter was mentioned as being scarcely inferior.
From that time the agricultural improvement has been great and constant, and to-day there are in the county scores of farms worthy of premiums for their excellence, and all deserving of separate and especial description. As it is impracticable, however, to notice all such in detail, we shall make particular mention of only one,-a large and in every way a very remarkable farm, a great part of which was, only a few years since, a worthless and malarious swamp, from which condition it was reclaimed and brought to a state of the highest cultivation and productiveness by the late Governor Henry II. Crapo.
The " Crapo Farm," as it is called, is situated in the town of Gaines, township 6 north, range 5 cast, upon por- tions of sections 3, 4, 9, and 10, and contains about eleven hundred acres. About one-half of this farm consists of upland, with a rich and strong soil, capable, as are most of the farms in this locality, of producing continuous crops of the finest wheat. The remainder, about six hundred acres, consists of reclaimed marsh, which has been thoroughly drained, and which is now in a condition of the highest cultivation.
This farm, originally projected by Governor Henry HI. Crapo, is a monument of his far-seeing sagacity, his practical agricultural wisdom, and his vigorous business ability. In his drives through the country he had frequently crossed on the rough corduroy-road passing through the Gaines Swamp. The rauk growth of wild grasses indicated a luxuriant soil, and he believed that by drainage this " Dead Man's Swamp," as it was locally called, on account of its miasma, might be converted into profitable fields. This was prior to any gen- cral draining of swamp-lands in Michigan, and prior to the enactment of the drainage laws now in force. Governor Crapo, in order to satisfy himself of the feasibility of drainage, caused levels to be taken from Swartz Creek to the upper end of the marsh, and ascertained thereby that a sufficient
11%
MANUFACTURES.
descent for the water existed if an outlet was opened for it. llis plan for drainage was practicable. It involved a large outlay, but an extensive acreage, absolutely worthless, was reclaimed by it, and other lands, more or less damaged by the dead water of the marsh, were rendered capable of much higher cultivation.
As there were no general drainage laws nor drain com- missioners at that time, the first requisite was the passage of an act which should authorize the construction of the desired ditch. This was procured by Governor Crapo. An act of the Legislature was passed March 15, 1861, giving the necessary authority, and appropriating two thousand acres of the swamp-lands of the State to the county of Genesee, " for the purpose of cutting a ditch or drain through a cer- tain swamp in the north part of the township of Gaines, the same to be not less than four feet in depth, and eight feet in width at the top, and three and a half feet at the bottom ;" the work to be done under the direction of the supervisors of the county. On the 15th day of June, 1861, the board entered into a contract with Governor Crapo for the ditching of the swamp according to the provisions of the act, for which work he should be entitled to receive the two thousand acres of swamp-land donated to the county. The report of the committee appointed by the supervisors from their board, prior to the making of the contract, said : " Your committee are satisfied that the making of said drain would lay the foundation for not only entirely reclaim- ing and making dry this portion of the Gaines Swamp re- ferred to, but would be the main artery for successfully draining a large amount of contiguous lowlands, and would be the means of finally adding largely to the value of real estate in that region ; also greatly improving the sanitary condition of that locality."
The ditch was constructed in accordance with the act, ex- cept that it was made ten feet in width at the top instead of cight feet, and four feet at the bottom instead of three and a half feet. The main ditch is between three and four miles in length.
A portion of the Crapo farm is a part of the Gaines Swamp, and was purchased of the State of Michigan as swamp-land. In addition, Governor Crapo made purchases of several adjacent farms, in order to obtain the desired acre- age of upland to use in connection with the marsh-land.
The construction of the ditch was a complete success in the removal of the surplus water, a descent of twelve feet from its source to its outlet furnishing a reliable and rapid current. The main ditch runs through the centre of the farm, and numerous lateral ditches have been made, in- suring such perfect drainage that the land can be worked as easily and readily as the upland.
Upon the Crapo farm is a large and commodious dwell- ing-house, together with several smaller houses for the laborers. Although it has three barus, two of which are one hundred feet by forty-six feet each, and one of one hundred and fifty feet by thirty-six feet, with an L sixty feet in length, it is necessary to stack several hundred tons of hay yearly in the fields. The farm is under a high state of cultivation ; its crops of wheat, oats, corn, and roots at- testing the richness of the soil and its admirable management.
The farm is now owned by William W. Crapo, the ouly
son of ex-Governor Crapo, who has carried out the intentions of his father in making this one of the best stock farms in the State. During the last winter there were kept upon the farm two hundred and eighty-one head of horned cattle, twenty horses and colts, and one hundred sheep. Mr. Crapo has for many years made a specialty of pure-blood Ilerefords, and he has one of the largest and best herds of this superior breed of cattle in the country.
MANUFACTURING INTERESTS.
LUMBERING.
Among the manufacturing interests of Genesee County, the chief place is properly assigned to the business of eut- ting pine logs into merchantable lumber. In past years this business has been of more importance, and productive of a greater revenue, than all the other manufacturing indns- tries of the county combined; and although it is now greatly shrunk from its former vast proportions it still holds its relative rank at the head of the manufactures of Genesce. A volume might be filled with an account of the growth and fluctuations of this trade, and its influence and effect on the general development of the county, but it is hoped that the following brief notice of some of the more suggestive facts in its history may not be thought valueless or uninteresting :
The saw-mill which antedated all others ever built ou any of the tributaries of the Flint, or upon the river itself, was a small establishment erected about 1828 by Rowland B. Perry and E H. Spencer ou the Thread River, in Grand Blanc. This, however, cut very little, if any, pine lumber, being intended only to saw the hard-wood logs of the vi- cinity for the small local demand. It was but a poor affair at best, and was discontinued after a very few years. Next came the comparatively efficient mill built by Rufus W. Stevens in 1830 on the Thread, a short distance above the present " Thread Mills" of Fint. This mill ent a consid- erable amount (for those days) of pine taken from the splendid pinery which is in part, or wholly, within the present limits of the Fourth Ward of Flint City, and it was from the Stevens' mill that the lumber was taken to form the first raft which ever descended the Flint River .* About 1836 an attempt was made by Aklen Tupper to build a mill on the river below Flushing, but this project never pro- gressed farther than the erection of the frame, and no ma- chinery was ever put in. Then came the erection of the first really efficient mill of this section,-that built by Stage & Wright in 1836 at Flint River. An account of this, as well as of the other and far more extensive lumber-mills which have succeeded it at that place until the present time, will be found in the history of the city of Flint, in this work.
From the time of the establishment of the first saw-mill at Flint that point became practically the centre of him-
# The raft here mentione ? (which was not only the first upon the Flint, but also the first lumber raft run on any of the tributaries of the Saginaw) was composed of ten thousand feet of pine lumber,-prin- cipally one-inch hoards,-purchase lat Stevens' mill, on the Thread, in 1832, by Eleazer Jewett, who ran the raft down the river withont any assistance. With the lumber he built his dwelling-house at Green Point,-the first frame building erected in that region.
118
HISTORY OF GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
bering operations for the Flint River and its tributaries. In 1838-40 the price of lumber was quoted there at ten to fifteen dollars per thousand feet, which was regarded as an extraordinary price. It soon after, however, fell from four to eight dollars per thousand, and was very difficult of sale at those prices. In 1850 there were at Flint two saw-mills, and their product for 1849 was placed by the United States census of 1850 at three and a half mil- lions of feet. In 1850 the lumber sawed at this point aggregated five million two hundred thousand feet. In 1854 the business had increased so that there were seven mills (Four steam and three water), with an aggregate an- nual capacity of sixteen million eight hundred thousand feet (an increase of nearly four hundred per cent. in four years ), and yet the price had advanced from the former low figures to from seven to fifteen dollars per thousand,-a fact in great measure due to the improved facilities of trans- portation afforded by the opening of plank-roads.
The completion of the railroad in 1862, and the subse- quent opening of other lines, gave a great impulse to the business here by affording practicable communication with outside markets ; and this, with the increased demand cre- ated by the great civil war, inaugurated for the lumbering interests of the Flint River Valley an era of prosperity (extending from about 1866 to the great revulsion of 1873) such as they had never known before, and in all probability will never experience again. The zenith of this prosperity was reached in the period from about 1869 to the beginning of 1871, when there commenced a gradual decline, which was greatly accelerated by the events of 1873; so that of the nine mills reported as being in operation in Flint in 1870, having an annual capacity of ninety millions of feet, giving employment to over five hundred men, and valued at half a million dollars, there now remain but three in operation, employing a few more than two hundred men and having an aggregate annual capacity of about thirty-eight millions of feet. This is still a very large business (except as com- pared with that of former years), and might indeed be re- garded as very satisfactory but for the fact that the supply of logs is rapidly diminishing, though by no means ex- hausted, on the upper waters of the Flint. The quantity of logs put into the Flint River and its tributaries for mills in Genesee County, during the past winter (1878-79), is stated by the Saginawian newspaper as follows :
FLINT RIVER.
Feet.
Begole, Fox & Co
6,000,000
A. MeFarlin ..
3,000,000
W. W. Crapo ..
12,000,000
W'm. Peters
8.000,000
Busenbark & Co.
8,000,000
Total ... 37,000,000
Of the foregoing all go to Flint mills, with the excep- tion of those put in for Peters, which will be cut at Colum- biaville.
OTTER LAKE.
Feet.
C. B. Benson ....
2,500,000
W. C. Cummings
2.000,000
Total ...
4,500,000
OTISVIL.I.E.
A. K. Hunton.
2,000,000
The same authority proceeds to mention a number of other mills on the upper river, for which nearly fifty-five million feet have been put in, and then closes its mention of the lumbering operations of this year on the Flint by saying, " The foregoing gives a grand total for Flint River and contiguous territory of ninety-one million three hun- dred and fifty thousand feet. This year marks the crisis of forest production in all its branches in this section. Never again will any two years put so much material on the mar- ket. Lumber production is almost at an end for export, but shingles are being extensively made from old logging fields." The prediction contained in the above is undoubt- edly correct, that no succeeding season will ever equal the one just past in the magnitude of its logging operations on the Flint. The pine in Genesee County is already so far exhausted that of all the vast quantity which was growing here forty years ago there remain now only two small tracts,-one standing on section 15, in the township of Forest, and the other, less than fifteen acres in extent, in the town of Richfield. This is stated on the authority of the Hon. Josiah W. Begole, himself one of the principal lumber manufacturers of the county and thoroughly ac- quainted with the facts.
But the entire exhaustion of the pine timber of the Flint River Valley (which is clearly inevitable in the near future) will not necessarily cause an abandonment of the business of lumber manufacturing at Flint, for the heavy operators in that city have long foreseen that contingency. and pre- pared for it by the purchase of large tracts of pine in the new counties northwest of Saginaw on the line of the Flint and Père Marquette Railway. From these tracts logs can be brought to Flint in large quantities, by rail, at a rate of freight sufficiently low (one dollar per thousand) to enable the mills to continue in profitable employment; but it does not appear probable that they will by this process ever again realize the same degree of prosperity which they en- joyed in former years.
OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.
Besides the lumbering industry, Genesee County contains a considerable number of other manufactories of various kinds, which will be found mentioned, in detail, in the his- tories of the townships or city in which they are located. In this place we merely give a brief summary of the several manufacturing establishments existing in the county in 1873, as reported in the State census of 1874, viz. :
Woolen- and cotton-factories (steam)
3
Capital invested.
$110,000
Value of product ..
$153,000
Number of hands employed .. 85
Paper-mill (steam and water). 1
Capital invested
$1,500
Value of product $7,000
Hands employed
13
Capital invested.
Value of product (72,200 barrels) $500,010
Run of stones.
53
Planing-mills (steam 9, water 1) ..
$366.400
Value of product
$251,900
Han Is employed.
123
(The above inslo les sash-, door-, ant blind- factories. )
Foandries an I machine-shops (steam 6, water ]) ... -7
Capital investel.
$89,000
Flouring mills ( steam 6, water 9) ..
$175,500
Persons employed
Capital invested.
000
-
-
A G SNELL
LL DEL
FLINT HIGH SCHOOL.
119
FLINT CITY.
Value of product. Hands employed.
$177,200
60
Agricultural implement works Capital invested.
$8,300
Value of product ..
$11,000
lands employed .. 5
Wagon-, carriage-, and sleigh-factories 5
Capital invested.
$39,500
Value of product
$69,501)
Hands employed
34
Furniture- and chair-factories
Capital invested
$7,500
Value of product Hands employed.
6
Stave-, heading-, and hoop-factories.
$10,000
Value of product ..
$72,100
lands employed ..
77
Barrel-, keg-, pait-, and tub-factories.
Capital invested
$10,100
Value of product.
$24,300 19
Tanneries ...
I
Capital investedl.
$5,000
Value of product.
$5,000
Hands employed ..
2
Capital invested.
$1,100
Value of product.
$4,300 1
Pot- and pearl-asheries
Capital invested.
$1,000
Value of product
$1,500
Hands employed
2
Pump-factory
1
1837 2,754
1860 22,498
1840
4,268
1864
22,047
1845 9,266
1870.
33,895
llands employed.
1850 12,031
1871 34,568
Breweries.
G
1854
15,629
FLINT CITY.
THE city of Flint, the seat of justice of Genesce County, may, from its thriving industries, substantial busi- ness structures, its many elegant private residences, and ex- cellent local government, be regarded as one of the most important and growing municipalities in the State of Mich- igan.
It occupies a central position in a county attractive and rich in agricultural resources. Its corporate limits extend into the Congressional townships of Flint and Burton, cm. bracing a large portion of the territory known as Smith's Reservation, granted in the treaty of Saginaw, Sept. 24, 1819, all the ground covered by Francis Campau's patent, dated June 12, 1825, and the lands purchased from the general government by Rufus W. Stevens, March 10, 1829, Levi Gilkey, May 11, 1831, Dr. Olmsted Chamberlain and Whitmore, Sept. 10, 1832, and James W. Cronk, Sept. 2, 1835.
Portions of its site-although the surface is diversified, affording beautiful locations for private residences and abundant opportunities for lawn and landscape gardening- rest in natural basins, wherein the surplus flow of the Thread River, Swartz and Gilkey Crecks find their way to the Flint and noisily commingle their waters with those of the latter stream.
The Flint, which meanders in a very picturesque man- ner through the city, in a general course from northeast to southwest, forms natural ward boundaries, supplies excel-
lent motive-power for propelling the machinery of numer- ous mills, furnishes part of the city water-supply, and is also the dividing-line between those portions once known as the villages of Flint River and Grand Traverse.
ORIGIN OF ITS NAME AND LOCATION.
Flint, like many other towns and cities throughout our country, seems to owe its location to an accident, and its name to an unaccountable caprice. The Chippewas, who have sent so many Michigan towns soaring into endless notoriety, called the region now occupied by the city Mus- cu-ta-wa-ningh, or "open plain, burned over," and the stream which flows through it Pe-won-nuk-ening, or " the river of the flint," though just why they should have done so is unexplainable. The surface hereabouts was cov- ered with heavy forests, and the river, though having a rocky bed, has nothing suggestive of flint about it.
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