USA > Michigan > Monroe County > History of Monroe County, Michigan > Part 70
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THE MONROE MARSH COMPANY.
The Monroe Marsh Company was first started in the winter of 1880, with the following list of members:
George Dawson, St. Catharines, Ontario. H. G. Jackson, Binghamton, New York.
H. J. Taylor, St. Catharines, Ontario. Charles Lobb, St. Catharines, Ontario. J. B. Giles, St. Catharines, Ontario. Clarence M. Teller, New York.
Howard Soule, Syracuse, New York.
F. Brandreth, Sing Sing, New York. George A. Brandreth, Sing Sing, New York. Pierre Van Wyck, New York.
Robert B. Lawrence, New York. W. B. Lawrence, New York.
Joseph C. Willetts, Skaneateles, New York. Mathias Nicoll, New York.
Wm. Treadwell, New York.
Henry W. de Forest, New York.
J. Mack, and five or six other applicants.
On May 29, 1881, the first regular meeting of the stockholders was held at the Globe Hotel, Syracuse, and the following officers were elected :
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AQUATIC SPORTS AND OARSMEN OF THE RIVER RAISIN.
President, George Dawson.
Vice President, Howard Soule.
Secretary-Treasurer, J. Bevans Giles.
Directors, H. G. Jackson, L. Moses, Franklin Brandreth, R. B. Lawrence and Charles Lobb. Committee on Constitution and By Laws, J. B. Giles, H. C. Symmes and H. J. Taylor.
The following October, 1881, a set of articles of association and rules were adopted, which, with certain modifications, are still in force.
The officers at present are as follows :
President, Howard Sonle.
Vice President, F. Brandreth.
Secretary-Treasurer, Robt. B. Lawrence.
Directors, Lucius Moses, Hon. H. A. Conant. Trustee, W. C. Sterling.
The list of members is as follows :
1. Frank B. Austin, New York.
2. Franklin Brandreth, New York.
3. Ralph Brandreth, New York.
4. Hon. H. A. Conant, Monroe, Michigan.
5. A. N. Cowden, Batavia, New York.
6. George Dawson, St. Catharines, Ontario.
7. Henry W. de Forest, Ne v York.
8. Hon. Robt. R. Hamilton, New York.
9. ITon. Frank Hiscock, Syracuse, N. Y. 10. Robt. B. Lawrence, New York.
11. Walter B. Lawrence, New York.
12. Lucius Moses, Marcellus, New York.
13. James Rafferty, Buffalo, New York.
14. Howard Soule, Syracuse, New York.
15. William C. Sterling, Monroe, Michigan.
16. Henry J. Taylor, St. Catharines, Ontario. 17. Judge William J. Wallace, Syracuse, N.Y. 18. Joseph C. Willetts, Skaneateles, N. Y.
The original number of subscribers has been reduced from twenty-five to eighteen.
The company controls about 2,300 acres of marsh and bay shooting. The ducks embrace all the best varieties. The canvasbacks and redheads are killed in large numbers, sixty- eight canvasbacks having been killed by one member of the company on one day during the fall of 1886. Eighty-four redheads have also been killed in a day by the same member. The largest number of birds brought in by a single gun was one hundred and fifty-seven, in the spring of 1883, and one hundred and forty-five of them were lesser seaup and ring-necked scaup. Geese and swan are at times shot upon the marsh, but are not present in any such numbers as to insure sport.
The company have expended abont six 27
thousand dollars in suitable club-houses, situ- ated upon the borders of the Monroe ship canal.
The club is still young, and its history about that of all similar associations.
MONROE YACHT CLUB
Organized and incorporated May 27, 1887. Station, Monroc, Michigan. Officers :
Commodore, Wm. C. Sterling.
Vice Commodore, Seymour Reynolds.
Rear Commodore, W. C. Waldorf.
Secretary, Wing Little.
Treasurer, J. C. Sterling.
Measurer, Capt. J. W. Louttit.
Board of Directors : J. C. Whipple, Chas. R.
Wing, L. O. Goddard, R. C. Fuller, W. P. Sterling.
List of yachts enrolled in the Monroe Yacht Club :
Name. Owner. Rig.
Emma G. J. C. Sterling, et.al. Schooner.
Reynolds No.1. Seymour Reynolds. Sloop.
Nellad. Capt. J. W. Louttit. Fore & Aft.
Florence. R. C. Fuller. Cut Rig.
Reynolds No.2. Seymour Reynolds. Sloop.
L. B. Sink.
Vetal Willits. Steam.
Emma N. Capt. L. Jones. Fore & Aft.
Daniel Brown. Dewey Bros.
Fore & Aft.
Fuller. R. C. Fuller. Steam.
Beulah. John Stoner. Fore & Aft.
John Cooper. Duclo & Duval. Fore & Aft.
The Monroe Yacht Club joined the Inter- Lake Yachting Association, and sent yachts to several regattas given by the association. The " Reynolds No. 2," at the regatta held by the association in 1888 at Put-in-Bay, carried off the prize in her class. The " Reynolds No. 1," at the regatta given at Toledo, Ohio, by the Ohio Yacht Club in 1887, carried off the honors in her class. She is now owned at Toledo, and still carries the champion flag.
Mr. Seymour Reynolds and R. C. Fuller have been the largest patrons of yachting at Monroe, and have devoted a great deal of time to the study of models, and have had several yachts built in accordance with plans and models of their own design, Mr. Fuller giving his attention to steam and Mr. Reynolds to sail yachts. Messrs. Cooper Brothers have built most of the yachts launched here, and some of them have been very fast. They have a fine reputation all over the country as build- ers of all classes of pleasure craft, and boats of
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
their build are now owned and used in many States of the Union. Vetal Willits, proprietor of the boat house, has built one steamer and many sail and small boats. Captain Ben Whitney built the " Fuller " for R. C. Fuller, the finest steam pleasure boat ever built on the Raisin, and has built many small boats for per- sons in Adrian and different parts of the country. Captain L. Jones, formerly in the boat business and an old builder, in 1888 built the " Emma N.," the finest finished, most com- plete and fastest boat of her class on the river.
The home sailing regattas, on account of so few boats being of the same class, were never very successful or interesting. But some of the matched races were very exciting and will be long remembered by the participants and resident boatmen. The " Daniel Brown" in all these contests always maintained her repu- tation of being the fastest fore and aft craft at this end of Lake Erie.
In a matched race between the " Emma G.," "John Cooper" and "Reynolds," from the docks in the Third ward to and around the black can buoy and return, go as you please, towing by tug only excepted, the crew of the " Emma G." earned the reputation of being the best all-round sailors and watermen in the club. The race was commenced in a severe blow, and ended on the home stretch with a strong wind down the river, so that the boats could not work up. On the home stretch, from the light-house to the docks, the crews of the respective boats manned the pike-poles and used them vigorously. The tow-lines were brought out and made the best use of possible. But the crew of the "Emma G." capped the climax by taking to the water like ducks, and towed and pushed their schooner in a winner. This was one of the most novel and exciting yacht races on record.
Any account of boating at Monroe would be incomplete without mentioning Captain Joseph Guyor, who lived on the bank of the United States canal and gave it the name of " Guyor's Island." He kept an inn there for the accom- modation of sportsmen, boatmen and picnics. His fish, duck and muskrat dinners were famous, and he was never so happy as when he had served a dinner to strangers or unsus- pecting friends from the city, and after they had eaten heartily of " his chicken," to inform them that they had just finished a muskrat
dinner and that they could not tell muskrat from chicken. He was known far and wide as " Uncle Joe." On the arrival of a party by boat he always went down to the canal to take the line, and his greeting, " Bon jour, comme vous porte vous," will be long remembered by his many old friends and patrons. He was an authority in all matters pertaining to hunting, fishing, the habits of wild fowl, fish, muskrats, and other fur-bearing animals, and frequently appeared before the legislature at Lansing to advise them in regard to the legislation neces- sary for the protection of game, muskrats and fish. His inn was the headquarters for yachts- men and oarsmen ; most of the local regattas were held there. Three of the famous Sho- wae-cae-mette crew were relatives of his, and oarsmen from all parts of the country were wont to meet at " Uncle Joe's," talk boat, drink a little elderberry wine, made from berries gathered on the island, and warranted to keep off malaria and all the ills of the marsh. Sports- men came on from the Eastern States every fall to hunt, and the limited accommodations of the inn were always crowded during the shoot- ing season. But finally the hunters became so numerous that the water-fowl were hunted from daylight to dark, driven from the marshes and their feeding-grounds practically broken up. Wm. C. Sterling, after a fruitless endeavor to get residents of Monroe interested in the enterprise, joined with a number of wealthy sportsmen from the East in purchasing Guyor's Island and the surrounding marshes, and estab- lishing a shooting preserve. Joseph Guyor sold out all his interests to the Monroe Marsh Club, moved up town, and died May 5, 1886, at the age of seventy-four.
The litigation between the Monroe Marsh Club and the' trespassers and poachers was long and bitter. The question was not con- fined to the courts, but was discussed pro and con. in the newspapers, and by some treated as if it was the most important question of the times. No small part of the voters thought it a political and not a legal question, and were opposed to any candidate who believed in and favored the protection of the property rights claimed by the Monroe Marsh Club. " The Liberal Shooting Club," composed of some of the residents of Monroe, was organized for the purpose of contesting the right of the Monroe Marsh Club to preserve these lands purchased
FROGING ON THE RAISIN.
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AQUATIC SPORTS AND OARSMEN OF THE RIVER RAISIN.
of Guyor and others, and a large sum of money was raised by the " Liberal Club " for that purpose.
A test suit was commenced by William C. Sterling, trustee for the Monroe Marsh Club, against Charles Jackson, representing the Liberal Club, for trespass. The plaintiff was represented by Messrs. Grosvenor & Landon and F. A. Baker, and the defendant by John R. Rauch, Charles Whitman, A. C. Angell and HIop. I. P. Christiancy. The suit was decided in the Circuit Court in favor of the plaintiff, and appealed by the defendant to the Supreme Court, and was twice argued there before the court rendered a decision in favor of plaintiff, and then the conrt was found to be divided three to two. The principle was established in these suits, that the right of hunting and shoot- ing wild fowl was in the owner of the soil, and seems now to be pretty generally acquiesced in. This case, Sterling vs. Jackson, is reported in Mich. Reports.
POINT MOUILLE SHOOTING CLUB.
William O. Hall, formerly of Toledo, Ohio, now residing in Monroe, in 1872 purchased over two thousand acres of marsh lands and leased the shooting privilege on other lands in the township of Berlin, near Point Mouille, built a hunters' lodge, employed game keepers and established a complete game preserve, the first ever established in the Northwest. Up to this time the marsh lands along the lake shore had but little value and were considered almost worthless, and no one seems to have thought of making any such use of them until Mr. Hall established this preserve. The own-
ers of marsh lands soon saw that as the population increased and the country grew in wealth these lands would have great value for sporting purposes, and the price of marsh lands commenced to advance. Mr. Hall sold his preserve in 1880 to the Point Monille Shoot- ing Club, he being the only member who is a resident of Monroe county.
Joseph M. Sterling, John L. Hoffman, Ben- jamin Lee, H. W. Waldorf and Joseph Nadeau all own tracts of marsh lands, and maintain shooting preserves for their own pleasure and their friends.
THE BAY POINT SHOOTING CLUB
AND
ERIE SHOOTING CLUB.
The sportsmen and farmers in Erie owning marsh lands, finding that they were valuable for shooting purposes and that outsiders were reaping all the benefits and enjoying the shooting, decided that they would put all their marsh lands into one preserve, form a club and protect them from trespassers, and in August, 1878, Dr. William R. Gifford, Joseph S. Hilton, George Stump, A. J. Kenny, James C. Potter, Charles M. Rowe, Jay W. Kenny, John Wee- man, C. O. Brigham, Z. Pheatt, Geo. Hall, Levi Morrin, and others met and organized "The Bay Point Shooting Club" " for the purpose of securing suitable territory for hunting and shooting for the exclusive use of the members, their friends, etc." All the members owning marsh lands leased them to the club, in all over 4,000 acres. In 1889 this club was reorganized under the name of the " Erie Shooting Club."
CHAPTER XXX.
BUSINESS INTERESTS OF MONROE.
TO O write the life history of our esteemed fel- low-citizen, Hon. Joseph M. Sterling, would be to give the story of the rise and progress of the principal business and manu- . facturing interests of the city of Monroe from 1835 to the present time. Up to about 1838, from the peculiar advantages given it by nature, Monroe was the most prominent port on the lakes west of Buffalo and Cleveland, and all classes of merchandise were brought by water in any kind of craft to La Plaisance Bay, about four miles south of Toll's dock, to which place it was brought through the marsh from the bay in horse boats.
WAREHOUSES.
In 1837 George B. Harleston built the steamer " Alvira Smith," in which Captain E. L. Haft, at the bay and Toll's dock (Dr. Graham keeping the warehouse at the bay), received as a forwarding house (under the name of Harleston, Haft & Co.) all shipments at either end, which continued till about 1839, when J. Q. Adams, president of the River Raisin Bank, formed a company, or in fact two companies, of which he was president and the bank mostly owners, calling them the La Plaisance Bay Harbor Company, for the pur- pose of building and operating warehouses at the bay and dock; and the Lake Erie and River Raisin Railroad Company, for the pur- pose of building, operating and maintaining a railroad between Toll's dock and the bay. The road was built of wooden rails laid through the marsh on piles, the motive power being horses, and with a car for freight and passengers. Great calculations were made as to the increase of business which would result from this great improvement, so closely identified with the financial interests of Monroe.
About the same time a copartnership was formed by and between A. Lambert, W. C. and J. M. Sterling, under the firm name of A. Lam-
bert & Co., and basing the price upon the pre- vious year's business, rented both railroad and warehouse for $1,500 per year, and at existing tariffs they expected to realize largely on their rental.
This may be said to be the turning point in the history of Monroe. Up to this time there had been no exports. The country being new, the settlers had been compelled to import the necessaries of life, and fluttering sails caught the early spring and late fall breezes on the lake, and Monroe was the principal point to which they made their consignments; but in 1840 the most of the imports ceased, and the total of the exports amounted to only about five hundred barrels of flour. In 1841 the first products of the West came in from Adrian on the Michigan Southern Railroad, being six car- loads of wheat of one hundred bushels each. These were landed in Monroe at a point near where Hurd's elevator now is, and Patrick Golden had the contract to dock the shipment. As a contrast with the present methods they then carried the grain in bags on their shoul- ders, weighed the wheat and emptied it into the bins, working till about two o'clock in the morning, and when done taking their supper at the bay.
A gradual increase from year to year has shown that with all the competition from other points Monroe still held her own, as during the year 1888 one firm alone exported over $250,000 worth of grain.
In the spring of 1842 J. M. Sterling, Cole & Disbrow, Fifield & Sterling, and Morton, Birch & Co. had warehouses, making most of their shipments by lake to Cleveland and Buffalo. Bronson & Colton then moved from Conneaut, Ohio, and in 1843 the La Plaisance Bay ware- house was moved to the dock, and the ship- ments made through the new canal, the ware- house being operated by Stolham Wing, and is now used as an icehouse.
[412]
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BUSINESS INTERESTS OF MONROE.
In 1844 Chas. Noble built a warehouse for Strong & Scott, which was used by Albert Lee and was destroyed by fire in 1883. During the same year Noble & Sterling built what was long known as the old block warehouse, and now forms a part of the plant of the Sterling Manufacturing Company.
During the years 1843-4 Monroe was one of the largest produce markets in this section of the country and wheat was brought in from Jack- son and points in Washtenaw and Lenawee counties, in wagons, and what was not used by the Monroe mills was sent to the warehouses for shipment to Buffalo. With the opening of the railroad through to Chicago from the lake, and the tariff being the same to boat or ware- house, five cents per barrel on flour and three cents per bushel on wheat, the profits on ware- housing were so reduced that with the excep- tion of Noble & Sterling they were all discon- tinued. But they had come to stay, and Mr. Sterling said that for the next thirty years he proposed to have a pail of fresh drinking water in his warehouse office on the dock.
During the next few years, owing mainly to the unsettled state of currency, nearly all the business transactions of the day were in the nature of dicker, and in 1842-4 the flour wait- ing shipment at the dock was stored in sheds and piled up, at times on account of the scarcity of vessels there being as much flour stored and waiting as there are now poles on the yards on the dock. The track to the bay was of the hardest kind of wood that could be procured, 2x4 in size, and in the trip from the dock to the bay it was no unusual thing to "jump the track " five or six times. In those days the boys liked to have their fun and save work as well as now, and in 1840 they rigged up a hand car with a sail in order to save " pumping," thinking to take a trip to the bay in this railroad sailboat. J. M. Sterling was the first to board it, and just for fun started alone for the bay; but he had reckoned without his host, as he soon found that it was one thing to start but quite another to stop the novel machine. On approaching the warehouse at the bay, and seeing no way of getting control of the sailboat, he " took a header " and left the car to run its course, which it soon did, the momentum carrying it through the warehouse and into the lake, from which it was afterwards fished out. As this involved more work than
" pumping," it is needless to say that the boy's did not again use the sail as a motive power.
Many trips were made in those days from the bay to Detroit in small boats, and an incident is told of one starting out in the spring of 1845 from Detroit, and the "sailboat " ride recalled to Mr. Sterling's mind the remarks of Mr. Joseph Campeau when told that the boat had floundered about in the ice, tore her paddle- wheels to pieces, but finally brought up in a demoralized condition at Erie. Mr. Campeau says with his French accent :
" Well, I t'ot so. Now when ze Englishman he want to go anywhere, he set down and t'ink how he get dar; and ze Frenchman he want to go, and he stop and t'ink how he get dar; but ze American, ze Yankee, he want to go, and, be gar, he go. He go heaven, he go hell, he go anywhere !"
What a contrast between carly transporta- tion and navigation and that of the present time ! The Indian pony and the lumber wagon have given place to the railroad, the small boat and Mackinaw bateau to immense ironclad levia- thans ; but some will doubtless feel that notwith- standing these improvements, these increased conveniences and facilities, that the good old times when they made journeys through the country by the old fashioned stage coach or rockaway were far more to their liking and en- joyment; and there is, somehow, an air of inno- cence and ingenuousness, wholeness and com- pleteness associated with those old-time manners and customs that is lacking in the modern improvements and conveniences, and of which we are strongly reminded when we see the farmer of to-day driving into the city with his comfortable old wagon, in the back of which is his crock of fresh butter, or basket of eggs, covered with newly mown fresh grass with which to feed the old family horse. It reminds one of old times, of healthful country breezes, and speaks of our forefathers' frugality and thrift and the wise and prudent laying-up for a rainy day.
FUEL.
Up to about 1846-7 the forests furnished fuel, and charcoal was largely used. In 1847, J. M. Sterling began bringing coal on steamers in hogsheads and barrels for the use of blacksmiths, and for many years supplied most of the coal
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
used by that trade to points as far west as Goshen on the Michigan Southern Air Line. In the fall of 1848 he built his first coal shed and stocked it with forty tons of blacksmith and grate coal, which at that time was con- sidered to be more than enough to last for the next decade. The business increased slowly but surely, until in 1860 nearly two hundred tons were used in Monroe. In 1865 over four hundred tons were sold by him, and in 1870 over twelve hundred tons found a ready mar- ket. The next five years showed an annual increase of about one hundred tons, while in 1880 the mark was made at nearly three thou- sand tons, which increased over four hundred tons a year for the next five years. In 1888 the receipts of coal at Monroe station for all parties were over five hundred carloads, or nearly ten thousand tons, an increase in forty years of about nine thousand and eighty-six tons. A large portion of this is handled by W. C. Ster- ling, dealer in coal, wood, salt, hay, straw and ice, at the same place where J. M. Sterling put up his first coal sheds in the fall of 1848.
MONROE GAS LIGHT CO.
The books of the Monroe Gas Light Com- pany were opened for subscription in the com- mon council room on Friday and Saturday, November 11 and 12, 1859. The capital stock was placed at $40,000, and divided into eight hundred shares at fifty dollars. The company was incorporated December 10, 1859, by I. R. Grosvenor, B. F. Fifield, J. R. Rauch, C. K. Green and E. A. Lansing, under the provisions of an act of the legislature of the State of Michigan, approved February 12, 1855, and entitled " An act for the formation of Gas Light companies," the charter to run for thirty years. Ira R. Grosvenor was elected president, B. F. Fifield treasurer and secretary, and with J. R. Rauch, C. K. Green and E. A. Lansing, formed the first board of directors.
A contract was at once made with Sylvester S. Battin, of Newark, New Jersey, to construct the works at a cost of $36,000, payment to be made in the stock of the company. The work of construction was commenced April 9, 1860, B. F. Fifield being chosen superintendent. November 24th of the same year the work was completed, and the resignation of I. R. Grosve- nor as president, and Green and Lansing as directors accepted, Joseph M. Sterling being
elected to the former, and S. S. Battin and Benjamin Dansard to the latter positions.
From this date (November 24, 1860) to De- cember 31st, the receipts from consumers were $305.76. During the twelve months ending December 31, 1861, the total consumption of gas was a little over 662,000 feet at $3.50 per thousand, the receipts being $2,317.31, with about 45,000 feet of main pipe. For the year ending December 31, 1888, the price was $2.00 per thousand feet, and a little over 4,339,000 feet used, for which the company received $8,678.76, and to supply which required over three and one-half miles of main pipe. During this time the service has been made without any accident of note except an explosion in the year 1862, which left the city without gas for about three months.
STERLING MANUFACTURING CO.
The Sterling Manufacturing Company was incorporated in January, 1888, with a capital stock of $10,000, the incorporators being J. M., J. C., W. C., F. S., and W. P. Sterling. They began building in 1887, their plant consisting of a saw, shingle, lath and planing mill, with engine, power and necessary yard room. The mill buildings proper are two stories high, 90x80, or about 14,400 square feet of floor space, in which they conduct the business of general contractors and builders, having in process of construction over thirty houses in Toledo, be- sides a large number in Monroe and Wayne counties. The docks of this company, with the pole dock of F. S. Sterling & Co., furnish the only landing in Monroe for boats drawing over seven feet of water.
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