USA > Michigan > Monroe County > History of Monroe County, Michigan : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests Volume I > Part 50
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When Mr. Charles A. Ilgenfritz withdrew from the firm of I. E. Ilgenfritz's Sons Company, he purchased a large farm lying just outside the city limits of Monroe and established the Mutual Nurseries and threw into the business the energy and experience gained in the years of training under his father's guidance and is gradually developing an industry which bids fair to fully justify the prediction that it will become a factor in the nursery business in this already famous section of the state.
It is the outgrowth of the smaller enterprises in this line, having as its base, the early nurseries of E. H. Reynolds, Reynolds & Lewis and others. D. D. Winkworth is the proprietor of the Michigan Nurseries, conducting the business of grower and jobber of fruit trees; nurseries located on Elm avenue.
A MONROE WOMAN FOUNDS CANNING INDUSTRY
The business of preserving fruit in its fresh and natural form as nearly as possible for use long after it has, in its proper season, been marketable, has grown into a business of such magnitude as to stand abreast with the most important and lucrative industries. It will not be a statement new to some living citizens of Monroe that this industry of hermetically sealing fruits in cans originated right here in their own city. It is not strange that these canning factories are now found in every large fruit growing district in the United States and it should be absolutely logical and consistent that the largest in the world should be in operation where the process originated. To Mrs. E. F. Haskell belongs the fame of canning, hermetically sealing, the first canned fruit ever placed on a merchant's shelves, thirty years in advance of her times.
Mrs. Haskell was an extraordinary woman. She was never idle. It is a pity that she is not alive and a part of the twentieth century activ- ities of today! Among her recreations was the writing and publishing of a cook book, an octavo volume of nearly 500 pages, and it is likely that half the cook books of the last fifty years were built upon the foundation furnished by Mrs. Haskell and all the knowledge that some of the girls of the period absorbed was from Mrs. Haskell's cook book. This was the title: "Housekeeper's Encyclopedia of Cooking and Domes- tic Economy."-Somewhat heavy, perhaps, and young housekeepers were not generally perfectly crazy about encyclopedias of any kind.
Mrs. Haskell was a resident of Monroe for many years previous to 1870. She was the wife of Norman R. Haskell, once cashier of the bank of River Raisin, both well known in the early days in Monroe. The
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
large city tract located on Fourth street, near Scott, and comprising six city blocks was purchased by Mrs. Haskell and gardening on an ex- tensive scale, an orchard, fine sorts of large fruits, apples, peaches, pears, plums were planted, together with all the smaller fruits and choice vegetables were raised and the place became one of the most attractive spots inside the limits of the city, and during the summer evenings it was quite a resort for evening refreshments, temptingly served. Espec- ially to the young people of the town the fame of "Mrs. Haskell's ice cream" and other delicacies were like the dainties themselves, in every- body's mouths.
When the hundreds of trees reached the stage of yielding crops too large for immediate sale Mrs. Haskell began to consider plans to make use of the surplus. It would never do to allow such luscious fruits as grew upon her orchards to become simply a waste. Mrs. Haskell was a woman of active mind and more active body and it did not take very long for her to evolve the idea of canning this fruit for use during the winter when no fresh fruits except apples were to be obtained in the stores or markets. She acted upon the suggestion of her active and inventive brain. The local tinners were given work making tin cans and all the help obtainable was soon working under Mrs. Haskell's intelligent direction. Peaches, plums and pears, were the fruits which seemed the most practical sorts with which to experiment, but small fruits such as currants, blackberries, gooseberries, raspberries were not neglected. The next thing to be considered was the important question of marketing the products of her skill-alas! the demand must be created as well as the goods produced-alas, again! She was twenty years ahead of the age! I know a man today who was a clerk in a merchant's store in Monroe, where Mrs. Haskell endeavored to introduce her goods and have them sold. Mr. James Armitage was a kind man, and most encouraging and helpful, and he put the attractively labeled cans upon his shelves. People were not ready for this innovation, a few cans were sold to some of the best people who wished to encourage Mrs. Haskell and to oblige Mr. Armitage. But as a matter of fact the store clerks were the most appreciative customers and were given carte blanche to dispose of the delicious contents of the cans. They were delicious, but they did not move, commercially. Detroit and Toledo markets were invaded, but there was no demand. Nobody knew anything about the fruit or its canning, nor about Mrs. Haskell-she was thirty years ahead of her time. Today, she and her wonderfully wise precon- ception are almost forgotten. But the fruit and vegetable canning industry-still lives and thrives.
THE FISHING INDUSTRY
Fish is one of the very special crops that cannot be foretold. The principal thing about it that can be predicted with any certainty is, that if the weather is too rough, and other conditions are not right, there will not be any fish. The business is carried forward with this uncertainty ; at best the aspect of it is one of hardship, privation, risk. But there are always courageous, optimistic spirits to undertake it. The business of fishing is a serious business, one that requires men to do it- big, strong, adequate men-willing to meet the arduous toil that goes with it; to be undismayed by failure and to "take things as they come."
MICHIGAN FISHERIES
The state of Michigan occupies a conspicuous position in the fishing industry. She is foremost among the Great Lakes states in value of fishery products. All the lakes except Ontario touch upon our state, but
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
Lakes Michigan and Huron contribute the largest percentage of the state yield.
It will be interesting to note the salient points in the special report on fisheries shown in the census of 1910, for Michigan :
Total number of persons employed. 3,472
Capital invested (vessels, includng outfits) $ 594,000
Apparatus, nets, tools, etc. 821,000
Shore and accessory property, and cash. 599,000
Value of products.
1,473,000
The state of Michigan has been alive to the importance of this great industry, and the work of propagating various species of food fishes has been vigorously and intelligently followed; these are matters of public knowledge and local pride. In two years, from April, 1885, to February, 1887, for instance, there were distributed and deposited in the waters of the state from one state hatchery alone, 1,127,000 brook trout, 101,620,000 whitefish, 705,000 lake trout, 1,806,256 wall-eyed pike, 71,000 salmon, 825,000 eels, 5,510 carp. The waters in the neighborhood of Monroe have been stocked from time to time from the state hatcheries. As stated in our opening lines, enormous variations occur in the fishing business ; 1885, as a whole, is considered to have been a most remarkably prosperous year; the fisheries were prolific, and the price was favorable. Lake Erie ranks lowest in importance in the fisheries, as will be seen by the annexed table of number of men employed in 1908:
Paid
Proprie- Em-
District and class
Total
tors
plovees
Total
Vessel fisheries
501
117
384
Transporting vessels
27
7
20
5,700
Shore and boat fisheries
2,766
1,574
1,192
286,000
Shoresmen
178
178
64,000
Lake Michigan district
1,268
553
715
236,200
Transporting vessels
5
1
4
900
Shore and boat fisheries
873
454
419
103,000
Lake Huron district
1,382
684
698
196,200
Vessel fisheries
131
14
117
51,500
Transporting vessels
22
6
16
4,900
Shoresmen
81
81
25,000
Vessel fisheries
59
5
54
23,200
Shore and boat fisheries
297
200
97
27,000
Shoresmen
:15
15
7,000
Lake Erie district (shore and boat fisheries)
230
67
163
34,000
Lake St. Clair
221
189
32
11,000
Vessel fisheries
311
98
213
100,200
Shoresmen
79
79
32,000
Shore and boat fisheries
1,148
664
484
119,700
Lake Superior district
371
205
166
57,200
3,472
1,698
1,774
to Em- ployees $527,000 173,900
Twenty-three species were taken in the fisheries of Michigan. Lake trout ranked first, being twenty-nine per cent of the value of all prod- ucts of the state. Whitefish came next, including the long-jaw and Menominee varieties. Also whitefish caviar stood next to lake trout in importance, its value being twenty-three per cent of value of all the fishery products of the state. Lake herring were taken in greater quan-
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
tities than whitefish and trout combined. Gill nets and pound and trap nets are the principal kinds of apparatus of capture, except on Lake Superior, where gill nets are almost exclusively made use of. Notwith- standing the fact that the Lake Erie fish were all of the shore and boat class, fifteen species of fish were taken. No lake trout were reported as taken in the fisheries of Lake Erie and lake herring only a negligible proportion of the product. The German carp was the most important product of this lake, being over one-half of the quantity and one-third the value of the total catch of Lake Erie for Michigan and sixty-nine per cent of weight and sixty per cent of value of the catch of this specie in the state.
The Michigan State Board of Fish Commissioners, consists of three members appointed by the governor for a term of six years. The board is entrusted with the supervision of the fishing interests of the state, and is composed of the following: Delbert H. Power, Sultin's Bay ; Fred Postal, Detroit; Walter I. Hunsaker, Saginaw.
MONROE COUNTY FISHERIES
The fisheries of Monroe County are confined to the west end of Lake Erie extending along the eastern shores of the townships of Berlin, Frenchtown, Monroe, Lasalle and Erie, along whose shores are a number of bays where the pound and net fisheries are established. The first set- tlers along our shores were not slow to discover the fact that the waters which opened up beautiful vistas of landscape in every direction, were alive with many species of most delicious game fish that ever populated fresh water. They were not long in becoming familiar with the white- fish which Charlevoix, the explorer, declared to be the "greatest deli- cacy to be found in any waters" (and in which confident assertion he has never yet found any one to quarrel with him), the blackbass, the pickerel and the pike, the maskononge (muscalonge), the sturgeon, they were all here to delight the newly arrived settler and must have done much to reconcile the emigrant to less pleasurable features of his daily menu. So we may say that the fisheries of Monroe county began when the first man landed here.
But alas ! times and conditions have changed. The catching of fish in these bays and streams is not for home consumption only,-other less favored localities clamor for the products of these waters, and cold stor- age, refrigerator cars and rapid transit have made it possible to gratify them. In the old days, these delicacies formed the staple article of food; then they were taken by "hook and line," however crude the lure- there was the home-made dipnet-but no such wholesale methods of capture as the gill net nor seines, nor pound nets.
COMMERCIAL FISHING
Just when commercial fishing commenced in the waters around Mon- roe it would be difficult to say, but there is no data to prove that any was undertaken here previous to 1856, on any considerable scale; but about that time John P. Clarke, the veteran fisherman of Detroit, who had been engaged in this business for some years, in the Detroit river and along Canadian shores, became interested, and took steps to prosecute the business on a scale not before attempted. A few men interested in the eastern fishing business were also on the ground to secure a footing in the trade of the famed whitefish. Chittenden & Co. established a new system, and the pound net appeared.
This firm was very successful, and added to their equipment, plant-
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
ing a series of pound nets from a point north of the government light at the piers to Brest Bay, where ideal conditions prevailed for securing large hauls of whitefish which were found there in great numbers, also both black and white bass, pickerel, lake herring and other species of fish, not heretofore found in this part of Lake Erie. A catch of two thousand whitefish at one haul, was not phenomenal, but even this was magnified to a degree that was only limited by the Munchausen gifts of the narrator of the "fish stories."
The social and business status of the people engaged in this pursuit was not always a demonstration of "good will to men" or "peace on earth." There were claims and counter claims-backed by muscle and brawn; for there were no such things as "riparian rights," and other legal obstacles and regulations. It became highly important that there should be such, and in 1869, the legislature passed an act, establishing the riparian owner in the exclusive rights of fishing and driving stakes for pounds, in front of his property on the great lakes in Michigan within one mile of low water mark. The result of this statute was to greatly increase the value of property fronting on the lake, which was taken up at once by fishermen for the fishing rights alone.
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The late Major A. J. Keeney and E. B. Hedges of Erie were among the first residents in the vicinity of the lake to recognize the importance of the lake fisheries and began active operations to establish themselves in the business, and acquired extensive holdings of land (and water). Mr. Hedges died in 1880 or 1881, and his partner, Mr. Keeney, as executor of the estate and for the firm of Hedges and Keeney, sold to J. N. Dewey & Co., what is known as the Pointe Mouille (pronounced "Mouyay") fishery. Mr. Keeney owned an interest in the Bay Point fishery which had been a profitable property, but in 1887, he sold out to Alexander St. John of Sandusky. The Deweys are the oldest fishermen connected with the business, on the western end of Lake Erie, having been continuously engaged in it since 1860, when Joseph B. and Jesse N. Dewey were in the employ of John P. Clarke at Stony Point. Many others have been engaged in the business during subsequent years, among whom, Henry Paxton, Duclo and Duval were perhaps the most prominent. In 1887 the fisheries in the vicinity of Monroe were very prosperous, the number of fish taken being in excess of any previous season for two decades. There was also observed a marked improvement in the size and quality of the fish. Some of record size being seen in this market, one of which was taken by John Duclo, a male, 311/2 inches in length and 203/4 inches around the body, weighing 211/2 pounds when caught. The haul of which this specimen was a part weighed something over nine tons, aver- aging from two pounds to three and one-half pounds each up to the mammoth size mentioned.
FISHING NOT ALL PROFIT
Some of the disagreeable incidents, as well as the severe losses which are inevitably a part of the fishing business are due to violent and unex- pected storms which sweep down upon the defenseless fishermen. One of these destructive visitors appeared off Monroe piers on the 12th of November, 1911, which was one of the worst and most disastrous that had been experienced in late years. So violent was the gale that swept out of the northeast and to such a height did the waves pile up, and with such force did they tumble about that all attempts by the fisher- men to reach their nets was prevented for several days, and when, finally, they managed to do so, they found only fragments of nets here and there at the pound stakes, and in some cases stakes and all were torn
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
up and scattered about on the surface, and eventually strewn along the beach. The loss was practically total, and represented an investment of from $20,000 to $30,000 at Monroe. This was a severe blow to the local fishermen, wiping out the hard earned profits of more than one prosperous season and entailing months of winter work by all hands in preparing anew for the coming season. This severe storm ravaged the whole western coast of Lake Erie, and caused other heavy losses in boats and equipment.
Sturgeon were wont to frequent the waters of the River Raisin in almost incredible numbers, sixty years ago and still further back, to the days of the very earliest settlement. Indeed the name given to the stream by the Indians was in the Pottawottomie tongue, Numma-Sepee, "river of sturgeons," and which it retained until it became "the river of grapes" (Rivière aux Raisins) of the more romantically and poeti- cally disposed French in honor of their native vines. A former resident, whose privilege it was as a boy, to enjoy the arcadian beauty of this region, and whose father's farm fronted on the river, enthusiastically recounts a sturgeon story which is singularly apropos at this point : "When the first warm days lured the sturgeon and muskalonge from their home deep in the waters of the lake, to ascend the Raisin, I was always among the first on the large platform, below a certain mill dam (washed away many years ago) with spear in hand. Many a noble sturgeon five and even six feet long have I seen extended upon the green banks and the stony shores. I will admit that my ambition was not strong enough to prompt an attack upon one of such formidable size and I confined my efforts to those of more easily handled proportions. Once, however, I was tempted to strike one of heroic size; he was a whopper. My spear fastened upon his body just back of the head, and before I realized the full extent of the adventure, I was landed astride the monster, still holding tenaciously to the spear handle, and hugging the fleeing sturgeon with my bare legs in the effort to escape drowning. It was a wild race for several rods until a shallow spot was reached in the river, when I 'cast off' and reached shore safely. The spear and fish both, were recovered by fishermen further below. I have often thought of the ex- citing, if not ridiculous picture which this unsought adventure upon a sturgeon's back must have presented to those who witnessed it from the shore."
WINTER SPORTS ON THE ICE
One of the welcome winter occupations of the Indians and the early Frenchmen on the river Raisin and the bays along the western shores of Lake Erie combining sport and profit, was spearing fish through the ice and it was by this means, too, that the winter's slender stock of pro- visions was often replenished and varied, and given enjoyment afforded by the multitude of muskalonge, pike, perch and other varieties that were found in abundance in these waters and contributed to the family larder. This sport is still found in favorable seasons attractive and remunerative in some localities, but the primitive methods of the Indians in the early days differed, of course, from those commonly employed now. It was a great novelty to the newcomers from the New England states, who, often watched the proceedings with interest and astonish- ment, as well as amusement. One of the visitors wrote a very clear and amusing account of what he had witnessed in the following words : "As soon as the ice had reached a thickness to make it safe, I saw on
· the river and on La Plaisance Bay, every day, a curious lot of black dots on the ice,-in the retired nooks and coves along the shore. 'What are they ?' I asked; and the invariable reply was 'They are Indians
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
fishing.' This puzzled me still more, and I resolved to investigate. So one day I crossed the frozen river, and approaching one of those myster- ious black dots, found it to be apparently only a bundle in a blanket, scarcely large enough to contain a human form. But looking closer, I could see, first from one bundle and then another, the quick motion of a pole, or spear-handle, bobbing up and down. A word, a touch, even a gentle push, only called out a grunt in reply, but at last one bundle did stretch into a bright young Indian brave, with wondering and won- derful eyes peering at me from under a mop of black and glossy hair. A little tobacco, a little pantomime, and a little broken English succeeded in making him understand that I wished to know how he carried on his fishing under that funny heap.
"Then I saw it all. Seated, Turk fashion, on the border of his blan- ket, which he could thus draw up so as to entirely envelop himself in it, he was completely in the dark, so far as the daylight was concerned ; and, thus enshrouded, he was hovering over a round hole in the ice, about eighteen inehes in diameter. A small tripod of bireh stieks erected over the hole helped to hold up the blanket and steady a spear, which, with a delicate handle nine or ten feet long, was held in the right hand, the tines resting on the edge of the hole, and the end of the pole sticking through an opening in the blanket above. From the other hand, dropped into the water was a string on the end of which was a rude wooden decoy-fish, small enough to represent bait to the unsuspecting perch or pickerel which should spy it. The decoy was loaded so as to sink slowly, and was so moved and maneuvered as to imitate the motions of a living fish.
"Crawling under the blanket with my Indian friend, I was surprised at the distinctness and beauty with which everything could be seen by the subdued light that came up through the ice. The bottom of the river, six or eight feet below us, was clearly visible, and seemed barely four feet away. The grasses, vegetable growths and spots of pebbly bottom formed curious little vistas and recesses, in some of which dream- ily floated a school of perch and smaller fish. Each little air-bubble spar- kled like a gem, and the eye delighted in tracing and watching the mys- tery of beautiful water formations, where every crevice seemed a little fairy world, with changing lights or shadows made by the sunlight through the transparent ice."
The same results are obtained by the French in a more comfortable and convenient manner by the use of a small fishing house roughly made of boards, only large enough to contain the fisherman and a very small sheet-iron stove for warmth. This little shanty is made as tight as possible, to exclude every ray of sunlight, through the slanting roof a hole is pierced large enough for a spear handle to protrude, and to work easily through it. A pair of rude runners are fastened to the bottom of the house, for the purpose of moving it easily about on the ice or snow from place to place as it becomes desirable to change loca- tion. The fisherman prepares his lure or bait, attached to a long line and properly weighted which he gently drops into the water beneath, through a hole twenty or thirty inches square, cut in the ice, and with his long handled four tined spear held firmly in his right hand, the upper part running up through the hole in the roof, he silently watches for the appearance of his victims. The general difference in the two methods consists in the substitution of the more comfortable little house for the Indian's tripod and blanket, the other circumstances described in the . letter, it will be noted, being very similar. In the latter, too, the smallest imaginable sheet-iron stove and a rude seat is provided for the comfort of the fisherman, and on this he can sit and smoke his pipe to pass the
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
time while silently waiting. The decoy is usually made from some light wood and brilliantly colored with fins of tin, which seldom fails to attract at once within reach of the deadly spear, a fine pike or pickerel, which are far the more numerous, though other species wandering about in the depths are sometimes taken in this way, but whitefish or black bass very seldom indeed.
THE GERMAN CARP
Some thirty years ago the German carp was imported, mainly for the purpose of stocking small ponds and lakes, its edible qualities being lauded by the press generally, and its peculiar tameness and adaptability to life in show ponds and other restricted waters arousing much enthusiasm for the experiment. The fish, however, fell far short of what had been expected of it in almost every respect, for not only did it fail to find favour as a food in comparison with the more delicately flavored local varieties of fish, but also chiefly owing to ignorance of the proper methods of handling it on the part of the majority of those into whose ponds it was introduced, it appeared at first even to flourish none too well. As a result the enthusiasm for the carp very soon subsided, but little attention was paid to it even where it had been introduced, and its introduction into public waters, either by deliberate plantation or through its escapes into them from the ponds in which it was confined at times of flood or freshet, created but little stir or comment. To-day there is, in the fresh waters of this continent at least, no fish against which more scathing or widely divergent indictments have been hurled.
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