USA > Michigan > Mason County > History of Mason County, Michigan > Part 48
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" They found the yawl boat of the wrecked schooner ' Anadogge ' and this they used to tow their raft loaded with machinery and sup- plies to the head of the little lake and up the ' Mamoosa ' or ' Lit- tle-Dog' to the site of Stronach mills. A camp was built, a road cut, a dam constructed, and by the close of 1841 the first saw mill that ever startled the silence of these unbroken forests, was ready for operations.
" With the Stronachs came some fifteen other men as employes and laborers, many of whom went away; others are dead, and per- haps a few remain.
" About this time the Chippewas were camped on their favorite ground, near Dempsey & Cartier's mill, Lot 3, Section 1, and Cam- peau, of Grand Rapids, had come to buy furs. He had a tent for a shop, and had succeeded in buying a large quantity, giving in ex- change whisky, calico, knives, etc. The peltries, as bought, were thrown in a heap in the rear end of the tent. It seemed remarkable what a yield of furs there was that year.
" There was no end to their coming, but some way the pile did not correspondingly increase. He organized himself into an inves- tigating committee, and soon discovered that while one 'poor Lo' was selling him a skin, another was stealing them from under the back end of the tent.
" Then there was war! It was the ' French and Indian ' war. Campeau seized a club, and straightway sundry and diverse ' noble red men' embraced their kindred clay-or sand.
" Peace was soon declared, and whisky and fur continued to change places as before.
" EARLY SETTLERS.
" Among the earlier settlers that followed the original Stronachs, was Joseph Stronach, who dammed Portage Creek and built a water mill there.
" The first saw mill built within what is now Manistee city, was built by James and Adam Stronach, on Lot 2, of Section 1, Town 21 and 17, and was afterwards known as ' Humble ' mill, from Mr. Joseph Humble, who owned and operated it. It was burnt many years ago. Next after this was the Joseph Smith mill, built near the site of the present gang mill of Cushman, Calkins & Co., on the north side. Next came the Bachelor mill, on the point at the out- let of Manistee Lake on the south side.
"Soon after, 1841, came Joseph Smith, and between that and 1849 came Wm. Ward, Roswell Canfield, Samuel Potter, Owen Finan and brother, Michael Finan, in 1847; James O'Connell, John Ogilvie, Cassimer Coultier, William Hall, John Baldwin, Matthias Siebert, James and John O'Neil, George Sullivan, Joseph Harper, Stephen Norman, 1846; James Phelps, Francis Norman, 1847; H. L. Brown (from whom Brown town is named, who was the first town clerk of Manistee town, and first prosecuting attorney of Man- istee County), Wm. Magill.
" This list was furnished me by Adam Stronach-I presume it is incomplete. * * = * . *
" MORE EARLY HISTORY.
" In 1847 came the Finans-Owen and Michael, to the latter of whom I am indebted for some interesting information respecting the Indians. He estimates the whole number on the reservation at this time at 1,000 souls. According to all accounts, whisky was 'the chief of their diet '-yet strange to say, ' these peskey ' old Indians ' would never be quiet.'
" It seems that either from the missionaries, or in some other way, they had imbibed some sort of religion. Every Sunday those within convenient reach assembled at the mission house near the north end of the lake, all arrayed in their best calico shirt, breech - clout and a gay shawl and feathers about the head. The hour for worship arrived, all were seated on the ground, a number of the men armed with small drums, which they had brought from Mackinaw. Everything in readiness, the exercises were opened by passing the whisky. This put them in a spiritual frame of mind. Then the Chief Ke-wax-i-cum, then already an old man, who was at once prophet, priest and king, stood up in his most impressive paint and commenced the preachment. What he inculated, friend Finan de: clares himself unable to say, but he says he was profuse and em. pathic in his gestures, and pointed frequently to the sun, and would wax eloquent, when the drummers all would rattle on the drums, the men grunt approval and the chief sit down. More whisky, more drumming, and then more whisky again, and more preaching, until either the whisky, the drummers, or the chief gave out.
" On one occasion the Pere Marquette Indians trespassed on the Chippewas reservation, stole the peltries from the traps, captured the traps themselves and commenced their retreat.
" Then there were rumors of wars. Red clay was in demand for war paint. There was a whirring of grindstones, a sharpening of knives and hatchets, that would send terror to the heart of a Man- istee attorney.
" A war party was organized, pursuit was made, the raiders overtaken, the plunder recaptured without bloodshed, and the vic- tors laden with the trophies of victory returned laurel crowned to the banks of the Manistee. (Their claim for additional bounty and pensions is waiting the action of Congress). To resume: .
" In September, 1849, as already stated, the Chippewa reserva- tion was taken up by treaty, and the land brought into market.
"In 1849 also came to Manistee, Mr. John Canfield, with his father, Roswell Canfield, took up land near the mouth of the river and commenced the erection of a steam mill, almost on the same site as the present mill of Canfield & Wheeler, on the southerly angle of the river. At this time the leading business men were the Stronachs, Joseph Smith, H. L. Brown and Wheeler & Son, for whom Mr. Canfield was employed.
" In 1849 also came Hugh McGuineas, then a ' braw Scots lad ' of nineteen or twenty, and went to work in the Canfield mill. Hugh was fresh from his native Scottish heather, and fresh from a clean Scotch home. I have never heard Hugh deliver but one temperance lecture, (though I hope he may live to deliver many,) and that was when he most graphically described the moral condition of Manistee when he came here.
"He says there was then no law here, and none of the restraints of the law.
" I dislike to insert here the pictures he draws, but when we be- come discouraged in our efforts to benefit and elevate men, it may do us good to look back and draw a comparison between these days and those earlier ones.
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" He says that John Barrett was then keeping a grocery and saloon on the north side, just back of -where the lighthouse now stands. The river then took a sharp turn almost due north, and passing to the rear of where the lighthouse stands, ran along the foot of the high sand bluff, with a long narrow spit or bar of sand between it and Lake Michigan.
" After long and severe westerly winds, the mouth of the river would almost bar up for a time, and was at all times shallow. I have been told by the late Robert Risdon, that he has often waded across the mouth of the Manistee, where now vessels drawing ten feet of water come and go with their cargoes.
" These westerly winds would drive the bar over into the river, and thus the river encroached upon the sand hill, and so, in time, the house of John Barrett, like the house of the man in scripture who built upon the sand, fell; and great was the fall of it. But this was after 1849. At the time I now speak, his establishment was in full blast. Said Hugh, (I leave out the swear words), 'The first Sunday the boys said, "Lets go over to John Barrett's," and I went.'
"It was a small room, and contained a small box stove about twenty inches long, a bunk and a bench. It was full of men drink- ing and drunken.
" The furniture of the room consisted of two whisky barrels, a wash basin and a ladle; they drew the whisky in the wash basin, and every man helped himself with the ladle, and when the wash basin was emptied it was filled and passed again, at twenty-five cents a round. ' I have seen,' said he, 'in one Sunday, seventeen cou- ples of men stripped and fighting around that place; the nearest justice was John Stronach at the old Stronach mills, and only a trail to reach there. When called on, he gravely took his statutes under his arm; the court made his way on foot or in a canoe down to the mouth, and held court in Barrett's saloon; thie exercises were introduced by a drink all around, then the case was heard; the court was not annoyed by lawyers, nor embarrassed by law. Hav- ing heard the evidence, the court delivered his opinion as follows: "Well, boys, this is a bad muss, and I guess you'd better settle it." The parties were usually of the same opinion, and a drink of whisky all around closed the exercises.' The old block mission house stood near by Barrett's saloon, but the latter had the advantage, as it ran seven days and seven nights in the week and the mission only occa- sionally. I have not been able to learn the names of the mission- aries who visited here, but I hope this poor effort at history may have the effect to bring out, while yet a few are living that know the facts, a complete history of both of the Manistee missions, and the names of those early laborers in the cause of religion.
"Here is an Indian anecdote from the same narrator as the last, which has a smack of the frontier, and may prove of interest.
"It was in the year 1851. I was headsawyer in the old mill on Bachelor Point. We were sawing day and night, and I was near time for my change of tour. It was just in the gray of the morning, when I saw four Indians in a bark canoe, with something between them, in the bottom of the canoe, paddling rapidly and silently down the stream from the direction of Blackbird Island, where was a large encampment of Chippewas; the four Indians were in their paint, and there was something peculiar in their appearance.
"They landed upon the sand beach a little above the Fisher & Co. shingle mill on the north side, and quickly lifted a body wrapped in a blanket from the canoe, and each taking a corner of the blanket in one hand and a paddle in the other, they rapidly ascended to the adjacent sand hill. Here they lay their burden down, and all set quickly at work with their paddles to make an excavation.
""Quickly a shallow grave was shaped, the body deposited, the
sand replaced, and silently and quickly they returned to their canoe and paddled away up stream, chanting in low wild tones the death- song of their tribe.
"As soon as I could get away, I went over to the encampment. I found the whole camp in a wild, drunken debauch. There were two young squaws tolerably sober; but not one word could I get from man or woman. All were thickly painted and sullen and glum. Some lay drunk upon the ground. After much difficulty, I ascertained that the Indian I had seen buried had had his head cleft with an axe by a squaw, in a drunken row during the night. It was fearful, how drunk they would get. When they were too drunk to stand or fight, they would sit or lie upon the ground and fasten their hands in each other's long hair and pull as long as they had strength to do so.'
"I suppose it is hardly to be presumed that this narrative gives us the account of the first whisky murder that has reddened these shores; alas we know it was not the last.
"1852. In 1852 came our fellow citizen, H. S. Udell, and went into the employ of John Canfield. He thinks the population was then about 200 in the county. The only settlements were at the mouth, at the Smith and Humble mills on the north side, and at the Stronach mill on the Little (or Dog) River. The Humble mill was already burned, I believe in 1850, but the old Catholic Mission house was still standing near by. The reservation had been sur- veyed and brought into market in 1849 and 1850.
"The mills then in operation were the Stronach mill, Jo. Smith mill, Bachelor mill, and Canfield's two mills at the mouth.
"These mills all used the upright or 'muley' saw,-circulars were then unknown. They cut a few thousand per day with their single up and down stroke, and would have deemed the circular or the gang an impracticable vision.
"1854. In 1854 the outlet of the river was changed. In consequence of the encroachiment of the bar upon the outlet, it was impossible to get depth of water sufficient to enable vessels of any size to enter. This necessitated that lumber vessels should anchor off and load by the slow, expensive and dangerous process of lightering or rafting. A ditch was dug across the spit or tongue of land lying north of the present north pier, and on which the light- house stands, and a close row of 'spiles' was driven across the channel of the stream and the water forced into a new channel, which was soon cut to sufficient depth; the same day the Sch. Gen. Wayne entered through the new channel and by piering with slabs, a considerable depth of water was obtained.
"The job was done by Samuel Potter, then one of the business men of Manistee.
"This work of improvement has been steadily carried forward, until now vessels can sail from lake to lake drawing ten feet of water and upward.
"1855. It was late in 1854 or early in 1855 that a meeting was held to see about getting the county organized. Mr. Udell thinks the meeting was held in the old schoolhouse, which then stood near the present site of the Methodist Church; Mr. Finan thinks it was in Canfield's boarding house. The Legislature was in session or about to convene, and Lucius H. Patterson, then of Grand Rapids (this district then included Kent County), was representative in the Legislature. There were present at the meeting D. L. Filer, Joseph Smith, L. G. Smith, H. L. Brown, H. S. Udell, the Finans, and others, not now remembered. After discussion of the advantages of an organization, a resolution was passed requesting our representative in the Legis- lature to do all in his power to secure the organization of Manistee County. The resolution was communicated to Mr. Patterson, and he secured the passage of the bill organizing Manistee County as & separate municipality.
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HISTORY OF MANISTEE COUNTY.
"We have no account of the rejoicings that followed, but we may safely assume that the event was duly celebrated.
"As before stated, the county was divided into three townships, Stronach, Brown and Manistee.
"1852-'55. In 1852 and, indeed, until about 1855, there were no mails to Manistee.
"All letters or mail matter were directed to Grand Haven and brought from there by occasional vessels, or else to Milwaukee and forwarded in the same way.
"1855. The first county election in Manistee County was held on the first Monday of April 1855, and resulted in the election of the following ticket:
"Sheriff, Sam. Potter; clerk and register, H. S. Udell; (D. L. Filer ran against Udell, and received 62 votes to Udell's 71); judge of probate, H. L. Brown; treasurer, Jo. Smith; prosecuting attorney, H. L. Brown.
"At this election the whole number of votes cast in the county was 136.
"The next county election occurred at the presidential election of 1856, where the following officers where elected
"Sheriff, E. W. Secor, 177 votes; clerk and register, D. L. Filer; probate judge, J. F. Chase, 170 votes; treasurer, Jo. Smith; prosecuting attorney, H. L. Brown. At this election W. T. Thorp ran against D. L. Filer for clerk and register, receiving 33 votes.
"For representative in the Legislature, Perry Hannah received the whole vote, 194. For state senator, Thomas W. Ferry, (now acting vice president of the United States) received 188 votes to one for I. V. Harris. For Congress, D. C. Leach received 184 votes to 12 for Flavius J. Littlejohn. For president, Fremont, 185; Buchanan, 13.
"It is interesting, to look over these old returns and watch the history of these names. Some have gone up, some have gone down. Some have gone to that bourne whence no traveler returns.
"1858. Was a lively time at Manistee. It was noted for the first Manistee war, known as the timber war. It happened in this way:
"In those days there was a good deal of land in the United States; much of it belonged to the government, and of necessity a good deal of it had to be left out of doors nights.
"Now there came to be a general opinion abroad that this was & 'free country.' This opinion was supposed to be derived from the glorious Declaration of Independence, which we this day celebrate.
"People reasoned like this:
"This timber belongs to the government. This is a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
"We are the people. Ergo, this timber belongs to us.
"Quod erat demonstrandum! The very thing to be proved! Therefore we will take our timber,-and if history can be credited they did.
"Our venerable Uncle Samuel arose in his wrath; he sent out his officials. . One Williams was United States timber agent, and Durkee was United States marshal. All Michigan was one district, with seat at Detroit. The marshal came on with his cohorts; he shut down mills; he seized logs; he gobbled shingle bolts; he went on the booms and put U. S. on all the logs; he forbade the sawing of logs until a settlement was effected; the mill men were contumaceous, and the war was vigorous. At this time the Hon. Stillman Stubbs was keeping a sort of a tavern on the north side, near Shannon's place. The United States marshal made his headquarters there. He was greatly lionized. The hands from the mills on the other side of the river resolved to give him a special display of fireworks. So they prepared large balls of
wicking saturated in spirits of turpentine, and after his excellency had retired for the night, the night being warm and the windows being open, they threw their lighted fireballs into the marshal's windows, and so gave him a grand illumination. To add to the vexation, the marshal's boat was sunk in the lake. Some arrests were made and some refused to stay made. There is a tradition which has come down from that remote period, of one who was sleeping, like the apostle of old, bound between two soldiers, and how he 'slid out' in light marching order! but I am not aware that he ever claimed supernatural deliverence.
"1854. In 1854 the timber war came to a head. The mill men carried 'the war into Africa', and the marshal, instead of 'seeking new fields to conquer', was finding all the employment he needed in defending himself. The war ended like most wars, in & compromise, and I believe that it has never since been renewed. The idea that this is a free country has suffered an eclipse.
"In April, 1855, the first board of supervisors of Manistee County met at the house of William Magill. Andrew C. Sherwood was chairman and Henry S. Udell was clerk.
"From 1856 to the beginning of the rebellion I have heard of no incidents of especial interest. A steady growth in business and population; and at the outbreak of the rebellion the population of the county had reached nearly a thousand. In 1860 the settlement was mostly at the mouth. There was a nude trail ran along up river near the present line of River Street, to the Bachelor mill, near the Little Lake, and a wagon road on the north side. There was a small clearing around the Bachelor mill, a clearing on the north side around the Smith mill, about an acre and a half cleared and fenced at the corner of Maple and First Streets, and considerable of the Third Ward had been logged off, but not cleared. The old jail- I believe a log building-stood near and a little above Sorensen's boarding house. One of the first acts of the new board of super- visors in. 1855 was to establish a ferry across the river near the old Bachelor mill. Joseph Smith owed and run it. At this time there was, in addition to the mills I have already enumerated, the Mc Vickar & Co. mill, which stood where Joseph Bauer's ice house now stands, just above Bedford's dock, which is a part of the old mill dock. This mill had a tramway, which ran back near the site of the old Milwaukee House, to Jack's boiler shop, where the slabs were burned. This mill was owned by J. L. McVickar and Michael Engelmann. The late Nathan Engelmann was their clerk and book-keeper.
"It may be of interest here to call up a scrap of personal biography, which has been furnished me by one of the oldest living settlers at Manistee. Some time prior to 1849, but the date I am unable to give, there came to Manistee on a vessel, a large framed, fresh faced, timid German lad, with a pack on his back to peddle. He was treated with roughness by some of the denizens, who threatened to go through his pack. In alarm, he took to the water and waded up to his neck to reach the vessel, in order that he might get away from his persecutors. Disgusted with Manistee, he returned to Milwaukee, but was immediately sent back by his guardian, and he hired out to Jo. Smith. After working two days he was dis- charged, and came down to 'the mouth' and hired out to James Stronach for ten dollars per month. After working four days he was again discharged and returned again to Joseph Smith's. Here he hired out for 'chore boy', but soon took sick and was discharged a third time, and returned a second time to Milwaukee, but was again sent back to Manistee, and once more hired out to James Stronach as chore boy and man of all work, and continued to work for him until he died.
"I will not follow the history through the intervening years, but only say that he has made his mark, not only at Manistee, but
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all along this shore, and for years his steamers have been the chief connection between Manistee and the rest of the world. He still lives, rotund, broad-faced and hearty, and always likes to come back to Manistee, to the scene of his boyish trials and manhood's triumphs, and is always glad to meet the companions of early days. "1859. There were jokers in those days, as well as before and since. The following is a specimen of how they did it. The first part of April, 1859, Erastus B. Potter was keeping a general grocery near the mouth, on the north side. Jo. Smith was running a saw mill at the outlet of the little lake. He also owned a schooner, the 'Whirlwind', I believe. In the course of the morning, Potter sent word to Smith that his schooner was on the beach, the men in the rigging, in great distress. Immediately the mill shut down, all hands were called and started post-haste to the beach, over the sand hills. Considerably 'blowed', the men reached the lake shore, but no wrecked schooner could be found.
"In considerable dudgeon, Smith and crew returned to Potter's store for an explanation. Potter indicated by reference to the almanac that it was the first of April, and allowed that it was Smith's treat. Smith conceded the point, but strange to say-and this is the incredible point of the story-nothing could be found in Potter's store available for a treat, but a barrel of eggs. By this time a large crowd had assembled, and before the treat was com- pleted the better part of a barrel of eggs had been consumed. Everybody was merry at Smith's expense, and were about ready to depart, when Potter signified to Smith the amount of the egg-bill, when Smith sympathetically referred Potter to the almanac, with the remark that seeing it was the first of April, he believed the eggs were already paid for, which, under the circumstances, Potter could scarcely deny.
"THE BAR.
"1860. Early in 1860 came a young attorney with a one-horse sleigh and a box of law books. 'Manistee' was then located below 'Canfield's Hill'. There was no hotel. He brought up at Canfield's boarding house. D. L. Filer was then boss, and the young lawyer was informed, that in order to be taken in, he would need to see Filer, and that Filer was up to the rollway scaling logs. Young lawyer had an idea that 'scaling logs' was 'peeling the bark off'.
"With some misgivings, he unpacked his box of books, and stuck out his shingle, down at 'the mouth'. He was the pioneer of that noble fraternity who, by learning, large views, strict morality and integrity and a wise interpretation and enforcement of the laws, have done as much as any class of men to bring law out of lawless- ness, to educe order from chaos and to foster public morals and intellectual progress.
"That young attorney was the Hon. Thomas J. Ramsdell. His old gray horse and sleigh he traded with D. L. Filer for the forty acres of land on which the residence of John M. Dennett stands, near the trotting park.
"The first document that appears upon the records of Manistee County was drawn by him; is a deed and acknowledgment of Hugh and Susan McGuineas, executed March 26, 1860.
"The first retainer paid to a lawyer in this county was paid by Hugh McGuineas, and for this he deserves a monument. He has always remained a patron of the bar. In November, 1860, Mr. Ramsdell was elected representative in the lower house of the Legis- lature, and this one term is all the representation that Manistee has ever had in the legislative or judicial branches of the government in the twenty-one years since the county was organized.
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