USA > Michigan > Lapeer County > History of Lapeer County, Michigan : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 6
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Dr. N. B. Eldredge, now member of Congress, practiced medi- cine at Lapeer at an early day, and afterward engaged in the prac- tice of law. He removed to Adrian, where he continued in the legal profession.
Virtulon Rich, now a resident of Mayfield, became a member of the Lapeer County bar in 1857, although he had then been en- gaged in the practice of law for more than twenty years. He was born in Shoreham, Vermont, in 1811, and in 1832 went to Ohio and located in Morgan County, where he continued the study of law which he had began in Vermont. He finished his legal school education in Zanesville, Ohio. Studied law in Indiana- polis, Ind., and was admitted to practice in London, Ohio, in 1834. He practiced his profession there, and in Zanesville and McConels- ville until 1857, when he came to Michigan and was admitted to the bar in Saginaw City. He then came to Lapeer City, where he engaged in the practice of law up to 1869, when he moved on his farm on section 32 in the township of Mayfield, and has since that time devoted his attention almost exclusively to farming. He has held the office of probate judge in the county of Lapeer two years, and is now (1883) serving his third term as justice of the peace. He was married in 1835 to Miss Sarah C. Bush, of Shoreham, Vt. She died in 1850, and he was again married the following year in
Columbus, Ohio. They have five children, two sons and three daughters.
Egbert Corey and Jacob L. Green also began practice here prior to 1860. The former is still a member of the bar, and resides at Almont. The latter removed to Connecticut, and is president of an insurance company in that State. There was also an early day lawyer named Bennett, who practiced a short time at Lapeer.
The list thus made covers the fullest extent of the pioneer period. The bar in Lapeer County has had fewer changes by either removal or death than is usually the case, and with respect to rank will compare favorably with that of other counties.
The bar in 1883 is composed of the following members:
William B. Williams, prosecuting attorney; J. H. Palmer, Frank Millis, circuit court commissioners; Harrison Geer, William Hemingway, Joseph B. Moore, Jasper Bentley, E. W. Corey, F. P. Andrus, E. J. Landers, R. V. Langdon, George Mott, H. A. Bird- sall, C. A. Hovey, S. B. Gaskill, John M. Wattles, T. C. Taylor, Calvin P. Thoms, Noah H. Hart, Sidney D. Walton, V. S. Miller, George Morse, J. Lynch, R. L. Taylor.
Mallory N. Stickney, brother of Judge Stickney, was a gradu- ate of the Michigan law school, and practiced in Lapeer a short time prior to 1881, when he died.
Cass H. McEntee, studied with Judge Gaskill, and practiced a short time. He was drowned in 1878.
The Lapeer County Bar Association was organized about 1863. William Hemingway has been president since the beginning of its organization.
The first court-house and jail in Lapeer was a single building, burned soon after its erection. Here the murderer Daum was con- fined after his arrest for the murder of Ulrich. It is said that the criminal after his arrest became a prey to abject fear, and virtually acknowledged his crime to the sheriff. Then recovering himself he suddenly became violently religious, and spent most of his time in his cell in prayer and singing hymns. After his acquittal he gave the sheriff a terrible cursing, then started at once to a church where religious exercises were in progress, and gave an exhortation which produced a profound impression upon the audience. This trial lasted two weeks, and during its progress was attended by crowds of excited people. No one doubted the prisoner's guilt, and had the law been then as now he would have been convicted, but the evidence being wholly circumstantial the jury, fearing lest they might condemn an innocent man to death, acquitted him.
For about eight years after the first settlement was made, this county formed a part of Oakland County. For the first two or three years there were no towns organized, and the settlements were so small and so remote from each other that what little civil law there was in the days of Territorial legislation could scarcely be enforced; and if difficulties arose between neighbors, they were generally settled by compromise, arbitration or an appeal to arms- or rather fists-when of course the strongest of the doughty cham- pions won the day. And it was well for our growing common- wealth that our first settlers were a law abiding class of citizens. Had they not been such, in this unsettled state of society, with the absence of local supervision and the local prejudices which the settlers had brought from their former homes, "border ruffianism" would have been as rampant here as it has been in some of our sister States. One prolific cause of disagreement which might be mentioned among our early settlers, arose from cutting and gather- ing marsh hay from government lands. This was absolutely neces- sary. The very existence of their cattle depended upon it, and as all cut and drew away as much as possible, endless disagreements arose, which usually culminated in fights. The scene of many of these conflicts still bears the name of "squabble meadow." How-
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ever with the adoption of the State constitution and the organiza- tion of the county a new order of things began, and lawyers, law- suits and office seekers appeared upon the stage. Then too, specu- lation in real estate and paper money was rife. Wildcat banks sprang up in every backwoods hamlet, and populous cities were mapped upon paper and city lots sold in Eastern cities for high prices. But by and by the bubble burst. It was soon ascer- tained that one keg of specie served as capital for many wildcat banks, and that the bills of those institutions were worth scarcely more then the paper they were printed upon. Then came the buy- ers of city lots to look after their purchases; and when they found that those eligible city lots, for which they had paid fabulous prices, were located in the depths of the forest, or on the bosom of some of the little lakes, which dot the surface of the Peninsular State, their rage knew no bounds, and of course recourse was had in many cases to fruitless litigation to obtain satisfaction for the swindle. This was useless, for at this time the country was bank- rupt and the poor pioneer suffered far more in those days of utter business prostration after the collapse of the wildcat banks, than their children have from the present financial depression. At this time there was almost no money in the country. Prices of produce were so low at one time, that if a man marketed his grain, he must board himself and team during the necessarily slow journey, per- haps fifty miles to the nearest market town, for the price of his load would barely pay the expenses of his journey.
The following is but one of the many amusing incidents re- lated of the manner in which justice was administered in those early times. After the collapse of the Lapeer wildcat bank its officers were arrested on a charge of swindling, and brought before a justice of the peace residing in Hadley for examination. After the prisoners had been brought into court and the preliminaries gone through with, the justice, who was at times a sufferer from rheumatism, found himself too lame to proceed with the case, and it was accordingly adjourned till next day. Two of the prisoners were removed to a neighbor's house, where they retired to an un- furnished chamber for the night, two constables remaining at the foot of the stairs to guard them. During the night a son of the host brought a ladder to the open chamber window, by means of which the prisoners made good their escape. A witness who had been left in charge of the justice for the trial of the ensuing day, that kindly official turned over to the custody of his daughter who took pity upon him and allowed him to quietly depart. Of course when the constables found their prisoners had gone they started in pursuit, but did not succeed in re-arresting them, although they were at their homes as usual the next day, and one of them rode 'back to inquire concerning the squire's health. The suit was finally discontinued.
EARLY DOCTORS.
Dr. J. S. Comstock, one of the early physicians of Lapeer County, mentions the early doctors as follows:
"In 1839, when I came into the county, there were but two physicians within its limits, Dr. Leete, who had been in the county previously, having just removed to Rome. Dr. M. Y. Turrill was in Lapeer, and Dr. Carpenter at Almont, both of whom are now dead. Soon after, Dr. Powers came to Lapeer from Oxford, stopped about one year, removed again to Oxford, and from thence to De- troit, and is now dead. Dr. Miller then took Powers' place, and a Dr. Jones came to Almont. Dr. Miller stopped at Lapeer about two years, thence removed to Flint, and from there to Chicago. Dr. Jones soon removed farther West, and his place was supplied by Dr. Bailey, who soon after removed to Joliet, Ill., and from there to Memphis, Tenn. Next came Dr. Trowbridge, to Almont. Next came to Lapeer, Dr. Loud, followed by Dr. Kenney. Dr. Loud
long since removed to Romeo, where he now resides. Dr. Kenney still remains at Lapeer.
"The practice of medicine is but mere child's play at present, compared with those early times. The population was scattered and poor, many of them had spent their last dollar for land, and it was not an uncommon thing for a physician to rise in the middle of the night for a ride of seventeen or eighteen miles, with no roads but an Indian trail, which nothing but Indian ponies could follow, while the woods echoed to the dismal howling of the wolves. These are the hardships of which the present generation can have no con- ception. No class of men know more of the hardships and suffer- ings of the pioneer people than the pioneer physician."
BIOGRAPHY OF DR. COMSTOCK.
Dr. J. S. Comstock was born near Providence, R. I., April 2, 1813. When he was very young his father removed to Tioga County, N. Y., and his youth and early manhood were spent here and in his native State, where he taught for a year or more in one of the factory villages near Providence.
He studied medicine with Dr. Angell, and graduated from the Geneva Medical College in 1838.
In May, 1839, he came to Michigan by rail from Detroit to Birmingham, then to Flint but not being pleased with any of these locations he came to Lapeer, thence to Farmers Creek, where he es- tablished himself as physician and has remained here ever since. September 16, 1840, he was married to Miss Elizabeth C., daugh- ter of J. B. Morse, They had one son and three daughters. The son, O. F. Comstock, enlisted in the United States Construction Corps, and started with Sherman's army in his march to the sea, and died June 29, 1864. The oldest daughter is unmarried; the second, Sarah F., married F. W. Goodale, and removed to Kintner, Tuscola County, Mich .; the youngest, Mary E., died May 8, 1873, at the age of eleven years. Mrs. Comstock died May 16, 1875. October 22, 1876, he was married a second time to Mrs. Sophronia Wetherell, of Mt. Morris, Mich.
During a severe thunder storm in May, 1880, his dwelling was struck by lightning, and he received a terrible shock, which caused him several months of suffering, and from which he has never re- covered. Since this he has given up his profession, and resides on his farm. He is the oldest physician in the county, and the only survivor of those who came here prior to 1840.
FIRST EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS.
All the schools established prior to the admission of Michigan as one of the States of the Union, were, of course, private schools. After the adoption of the State constitution and the munificent grant of land amounting to one thirty-sixth of the public domain within the bounds of the new Peninsular State, and which was kept sacredly for the primary schools, the private schools were su- perseded by those of the district organization; and when the system was so perfected as to enable the adoption of the union high school as the center of all educational effort, the numerous academies es- tablished all over the land for the most part succumbed to the pressure.
The private schools and academies of the early days were a great blessing, and but for them the present excellent system of free schools would not have been so speedily perfected. In those days the public school was an impossibility, for there was yet no fund, the ever increasing interest of which could be applied to such a purpose, and even if there had been, the settlements were too small and too widely scattered for the people to receive any practical benefit from it.
The early settlers of Lapeer County knew the value of good schools, and the importance of educating their children. As soon
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as there were a few children in a neighborhood, some person was found to teach them. Schools were kept before school buildings were built. The first school in Lapeer was kept in a building erected for a shop.
The first school-houses were rude log buildings erected by sub- scription, and the teachers were frequently paid in a like manner. Wages were very low. If a teacher was paid $2 a week with board it was considered a good salary.
The first schools in the county were taught in Lapeer village; in 1833, a select school by a Miss White, and in the fall of that year Captain N. H. Hart taught in a little building on the ground where White's Opera House now stands.
The first school in Almont Township was taught at the present village of Almont, by a Miss Freeman, who received a salary of 75 cents a week. In the winter of 1836-'37 Elijah C. Bostwick taught a school in the Deneen neighborhood.
Mr. H. M. Look also taught a private school at Farmers Creek, at the house of J. B. Morse, in the winter of 1836-'37. But as soon as the townships were organized and school inspectors elected, as provided by statute, the work of organizing districts began, and these private schools were superseded at once by the district primary school. Still the academies held their place, for no one expected to gain anything more than the rudiments of an education at these primitive district schools. After the county was organized and the two court-houses built, and the "lower town house" had been accepted as the "seat of jurisprudence," the up- per town court-house was occupied as an academy building, and while from its rival, human beings were sent forth to the shame of jail and prison, from the other, young men and women were being educated for lives of honor and usefulness. When a union school district was formed in the city, this building became the high school building, and was used as such until replaced by the present elegant and commodious brick structure. The old house, soon after its re- moval from the old site, was destroyed by fire. Like many other things it had survived its usefulness; but we fancy all who had been educated within those old walls regretted its fall. In 1844 an academy was established at Almont by Rev. E. Parker, which was for years a successful institution. Some years afterward a house was built there for an academy, which was taught for a time by Mr. Charles Kellogg. This building afterward became the prop- erty of the district, and was the high school up to 1867, when it was superseded by an excellent brick school-house.
When the University of Michigan was being established it was proposed to establish preparatory schools, as auxiliaries to that in- stitution, at convenient points throughout the State. What was then known as the northeastern portion of the State, consisting of the counties of Oakland, Macomb, Lapeer and St. Clair, would be entitled to such a school. These institutions were to be known as branches of the University of Michigan, and there was quite a strife among the new formed settlements to secure the establishment of such an institution in their midst. Farmers Creek, among others, sent in a bid for the school; and to assist in the laudable enter- prise an academy was started under the auspices of Mr. James R. Taylor, a man of liberal education. His school was for a time a flourishing institution, and pupils gathered there from almost all the settlements in the county, but this academy did not succeed in gaining the expected aid from the State and soon died a natural death, as did also the system, whose aid it invoked, not many years after.
Many of the teachers of these early seminaries of learning have died, and the very names of some have perhaps been for- gotten, but the influence they exerted over the minds of the genera- tion then coming on the stage will not soon pass away. It is to
those labors in the early history of our State that we owe our magnificent high school buildings and those neat and commodious primary school-houses which may be found in every country neighborhood throughout the Peninsular State.
CHAPTER V.
EARLY LUMBERING-LAPEER COUNTY SOCIETIES-STATISTICAL INFORMA-
TION.
The subject of lumbering finds a very proper introduction in the language of Judge Albert Miller, of Bay City, as follows:
"The pioneers of Michigan, who settled in the northern part of the State fifty years ago, were fully aware that there were vast forests of pine timber lying around their settlements and to the north of them, but could not have anticipated the great value which the rapid improvement of our whole country, and especially the western portion of it, has found those forests to possess. The early settlers of that portion of Michigan of which I am writing were principally from the New England States and from New York, and when they looked back to the large amount of pine timber they had left behind them, they did not suppose that in their life-time it would be exhausted, and that large amounts would have to be transported from a thousand miles interior to supply the Atlantic States. At that time Maine was of itself considered a 'world of pine forests,' and its proximity to Boston gave that city and the State of Massachusetts a supply of cheap lumber; and passing along farther west and south we find the Connecticut River reach- ing far up into the region of pine forests in northern Vermont and New Hampshire, and large quantities of pine in every shape, from the tall spar used in fitting out our Atlantic marine, down to manufactured clap-boards and shingles annually floated down its rapid current to supply western Massachusetts and the State which adopted the name of the said river, without a thought on the part of the consumers that the supply was ever to be exhausted. The supply of pine timber on the banks of the Connecticut River was considered by the early settlers in that region as inexhaustible. The writer has seen large quantities of pine logs near the banks of the river, not over one hundred miles from its mouth, which had been hauled from the land by the early settlers while clearing it for cultivation, rolled into a ravine and suffered to decay, which, if they were now sound, would be worth more than the farm from which they were cut. If the man is not now living, he has but recently passed away, who was hired by the proprietor of this same farm to fell the pine trees on a certain tract of land for no other purpose than that they should not draw sustenance from the soil and thereby impoverish it and lessen its value for future cultiva- tion. It must be admitted that said proprietor was not a skillful woodsman, nor an experienced agriculturist, he being an English sea captain. I mention this reckless destruction of a commodity which time and circumstances have made so valuable, as a warning to prevent the proprietors of Michigan forests from permitting any waste of their timber; for in less time than has passed away since the circumstance transpired that I have related above, a good pine lumber tree will be as great a rarity in Michigan as it is now in that part of Vermont. I believe that every sound forest tree in Michigan, of whatever kind, is of more value to the proprietor than the ashes it will make, after bestowing much labor to convert it into that commodity. If more land is required for cultivation, let it be supplied by the boundless prairies of the West, but let our Michigan forests remain till the timber is required for some useful purpose, and then let the land be put into the highest state of cultivation. But to return to the pine forests of the Eastern States forty years ago. Passing over the Green Mountains we come to the pine region of Lake Champlain and the waters emptying into
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it, which, with regions on the head-waters of the Hudson, produced such quantities of lumber, finding a market at Albany, that that city was for a long time the great lumber market of the United States, and she still maintains an ascendancy in the trade, although the great source of supply is now in the west and Canada. We might continue and mention the regions of the Delaware and Susque- hanna, as the great source of supply for the more Southern and Atlantic cities, and then pass on to western New York and look at the head-waters of the Genesee and its branches. I was recently told by a pioneer of northern Michigan, that a little more than forty years ago he was in the town of Dansville, which is situated on a branch of the Genesee River, and that within four or five miles of that town good pine lumber could be bought at the mills for $2.50 per thousand, and paid for in almost any kind of barter, and that in 1826, after the Erie Canal was open and in use from Albany to Buffalo, pine lumber was sold in the city of Rochester for $6, $8 and $10 per thousand. In view of the circumstances related above, it cannot be supposed that at that time the idea could have been conceived of doing a profitable business by manufacturing lumber in the forests of Michigan and transporting it to the Atlantic cities.
"The first saw-mill that was ever built on waters that are tributary to the Saginaw River was the one built on the Thread River at Grand Blanc, in 1828 and 1829, by Rowland Perry and Harvey Spencer. The object of building the mill was to supply the want of that settlement, the nearest mill to it then being at Water- ford, about twenty miles distant. There was no pine timber in the immediate vicinity of the mill, the nearest being a small pinery four or five miles distant, in a northeasterly direction, from which the farmers used to haul logs, to be manufactured into lumber for their own use. The mill was a poor affair, not profitable to the owners, and after three or four years was wholly abandoned, and the land which was occupied by the pond has been cultivated for over thirty years. The second mill was built by Rufus Stevens in 1829 and 1830, on the same stream, four or five miles north of the one first mentioned, and within two miles of the Flint River, just above the present location of the 'Thread Mills.' That mill was run a portion of each year for several years, but without much profit to the owner. The supply of pine logs was procured from the pinery heretofore mentioned, the pinery being within about two miles of the last mentioned mill. The first raft of lumber that ever floated on the tributaries of the Saginaw was manufactured at this mill, and hauled across to Flint River and floated down that stream. There was an attempt made in 1830 by Alden Tupper to build a mill on the Flint River, below Flushing, but it never progressed any further than to erect a frame, which was suffered to stand without covering till it rotted down. No mills were built on any of the tributaries of the Saginaw except those above mentioned previous to the building of the steam mill by Harvey and G. D. and E. S. Williams in 1835. Harvey Williams had previously been engaged in Detroit in building the engines of the steamboat 'Michigan,' which in her day was the finest boat that had ever floated on the Western lakes, and after completing his contract in winding up his business in that city, he took a steam engine and machinery for a saw-mill, which he transported to Saginaw, and in company with G. D. and E. S. Williams erected in 1835 the mill at Saginaw City, which was the first steam mill erected in the Saginaw Valley, if not the first in the State of Michigan. Joel L. Day, late of Bay City, performed the millwright work and put in the first muley saw that was ever used in this part of the country. During the winter of 1835 and 1836 a fine stock of logs for the mill was pro- vided on the banks of the Tittabawassee, near Sturgeon Creek, and run to the mill, and owing to the local demand for timber, I think
the Messrs. Williams did a profitable business with their mill dur- ing the season of 1836.
"When the Messrs. Williams began to operate their mill, so little was known about running steam saw-mills economically, that when they commenced to build their new mill they contracted for large quantities of cord wood to be delivered for fuel with which to run it.
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