History of Monroe County, Michigan, Part 73

Author: Wing, Talcott Enoch, 1819-1890, ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York, Munsell & company
Number of Pages: 882

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Pointe Aux- Peaux, the only rock bound coast on the south shore of Lake Erie between San- dusky and the mouth of Detroit River, about eight miles from the Monroe light-house

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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

and six miles southwest of Mouille light- house, derives its name from the fact that at an early day the Indians sought it as the most desirable place for drying their pelts and skins.

Sanscrainte, the first white settler at the Pointe and owner of some 200 acres, is said to have become greatly enamored of a beautiful, sparkling French maiden, daughter of one of the neighboring French settlers. The merce- nary young charmer, realizing her power over one who was suing for her heart and hand, coolly bargained for twenty-five acres of her choice from Sanscrainte's land, to be deeded her as a marriage portion. He deeded her the 25 acres from the north side in triangular form, with its broad side on Lake Erie, the same premises which were in 1865 purchased from her son. Sanscrainte built for his bride a sub- stantial log house, siding it with hewn clap- boards, which still stands, weather beaten and old, upon the Pointe.

The Pointe Aux Peaux Company, consisting of four gentlemen, viz .: William A. Noble, Caleb Ives, Joseph M. Sterling and Samuel P. Williams, all early settlers in the Territory before Michigan became a State, was then formed, with a view of field planting on the main land in Monroe county, and Pointe Aux Peaux selected for the reason that it projected so far out into the lake, and the soil like that of the Islands, that it would be admirably adapted to the cultivation of the grape, and being on the main land at all times accessible. This may be regarded as the introduction of field planting that has grown to such wonder- ful proportions in Monroe county. Several cottages were built on the lake shore on this tract, which has ever been a delightful summer resort for their families and friends.

Wine-making was commenced there in 1868, and in 1870 a substantial two-story wine cellar of limestone, brought by vessels from Sandusky, was erected. In 1871 the vintage reached 67,000 pounds of grapes, from which 5,000 gallons of wine were manufactured. The Point Aux Peau wines attained a very fine reputation for their purity, and were ex- tensively used for medicinal purposes as well as a beverage. In 1874 44,000 pounds of grapes were taken from the vineyard, $1,200 worth sold to the Monroe Wine Company, and the balance made into wine.

In 1872 the total yield of grapes and wine in Monroe county was 420,000 pounds of grapes and 40,000 gallons of wine, divided as follows:

Pointe Aux Peaux Wine Co. 15,000 gals.

Joseph Weier & Sedlaczek 15,000

George W. Brackner 2,000 66

Others - 8,000

Morrison Paulding - 20,000 lbs.

In 1873 the committee appointed by the State Pomological Society to examine and report upon vineyards, reported over twenty vineyards. in Monroe county in a very flourishing condition, and the grapes and wines therefrom have annually successfully competed with vineyards of the State, and captured first prizes for the best varieties and quality of grapes.

A great quantity of roots of choice varieties of grapes have for years been annually pur- chased from the Monroe City Nurseries by the farmers in Monroe county, and it would be very difficult to give a fair estimate of the number of acres devoted to the culture of grapes therein. In driving in any direction through the county, you rarely pass farms that have not a small portion devoted to the culture of the vines.

The shipments by rail from depots in the city of Monroe in 1884 was 499,500 pounds ; 1885, 161,850 pounds; 1886, 722,655 pounds ; 1887, 1,237,944 pounds. Fully one-third of the crop is consumed at home, making the product of 1887 1,650,592 pounds.

The yield is so abundant that (independent of those shipped in baskets by rail and sold to the manufacturers of wine) it is considered a remunerative crop at 1} cents per pound. The principal manufacturers of wines in Monroe are Joseph Sedlaczeck, Anton Weier and Ernest Enteman, and their annual sales aggregate $40,000.00 and generally held at from 80c. to $1.25 per gallon.

Independent of the nurseries and vineyards heretofore mentioned, a large income is an- nually realized by the cultivators of small fruits. Our citizens prominently engaged therein are :

Daniel Ilgenfritz, who commenced twelve years ago and has under cultivation 85 acres, 65 acres of which is in raspberries, strawber- ries, blackberries and grapes, the remainder in

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BUSINESS INTERESTS OF MONROE.

choice apple and pear trees ; his sales are all made in foreign markets.

Fred. Gurtz, an extensive producer, sold 50,000 pounds of grapes, and from one acre 90 bushels of strawberries, in 1889.

Edgar C. Ilgenfritz has under cultivation and now in bearing 20 acres of raspberries, in rows 6 feet apart and plants 2 feet apart in the rows, and is annually extending his acre- age ; his shipments this year (1889) were 485 bushels, and he realized a large sum for supplying families in the city.

Messrs. Soleau & Roberts, dealers, shipped 300 bushels of raspberries.

Monroe county has ever been famous for the culture of apples and pears of nearly every variety grown, and this year (1889) the crop of cach has been very abundant, and it is difficult if indeed possible to estimate the quantity shipped by rail and transported otherwise by sail and wagon to Toledo and Detroit.

The culture of grapes for the past twenty years has been constantly increasing, and re- munerative to those who are properly engaged in it. The county of Monroe is largely indebted for what there is of grape growing to its enter- prising citizen, the Hon. Joseph M. Sterling, who first introduced its field culture, and he was induced to try the experiment by the simi- larity of soil to that on the Put-in Bay and Kelley's Island of Lake Erie, with which soil and grape culture there he had been for years familiar.

Others have followed his example, and in the course of five years the culture of grapes in the county ceased to be an experiment, and

there are at this time over one thousand acres under enltivation. The fact is already fully demonstrated that our soil and climate are fully as well, if not better, adapted to the raising of the early ripening varieties of grapes than any point on the lake shore, or even on the islands.

This fact being demonstrated, quite a large number of vines have been annually set out for the past twenty-five years. Monroe county is now second to no place on the lakes in this particular. The varieties grown are the Dela- ware, Concord, Catawba. Ives Seedlings, Nor- ton's Virginia, and Hartford Prolific.

One of the many successful business ventures quietly conducted in the midst of Monroe is that of the wine farm of Mr. Joseph Sedlaczek, owning about four acres of vineyard in the fourth ward. Mr. Sedlaczek is a Bohemian, being born in 1831 at Munchengraetz, and coming to Monroe in 1852 engaged in the manufacture and sale of cigars, which is still carried on by his brother. In 1865 he began experimenting as a wine grower, being one of the first to engage at it in Southern Michigan, and the only survivor of the original experi- menters. His business is altogether wholesale, shipments being to New York and Chicago, and some idea of its magnitude may be formed, as it takes three years to do anything with the wine. Each year's crop being about fifteen thousand gallons he has at all times two crops in the cellar and one on the books, or a total of nearly fifty thousand gallons. Mr. S. was married in Monroe and has six children, all of whom are living.

CHAPTER XXXI.

MONROE WATER COMPANY.

0 NE of the latest enterprises undertaken in the city has been the construction of a complete and thorough water system, entirely adequate for fire protection, and so planned as to afford facilities for nearly if not quite every family in the city to avail itself of the oppor- tunity of a supply of pure water for domestic purposes.

The need of an enterprise of this kind has been recognized for many years. A decade ago an enabling aet was passed by the legislature, permitting the city to maintain water works, and a number of times previously the subject has been publicly agitated, but without avail. But as the time passed the need grew more ap- parent. The entire fire protection of the city consisted of the river, which furnished means of extinguishing fires for a narrow area on either side of the channel, four artesian wells and a few storage cisterns. It only needed the conjunction of a strong wind and a fire in a thickly built portion of the city, to produce an almost irreparable loss. The dependence for water for domestic purposes was entirely upon wells. These were shallow, being from eight to twenty feet in depth, extending through a stiff clay soil to the limestone rock, which is sometimes struck within three feet of the sur- face. It would naturally follow that in an old settled city like Monroe, the soil would become saturated with impurities from stables, out- houses, chicken yards, pig pens, cow stables, and cesspools, and the concentrated essence of this filth leached into the clay, would eventually appear in the water supply.

For some years past another discomfort has been added. Probably owing to the clearing up of the forests and the consequent drying up of the springs, the supply of water in the wells has been failing every summer. Fevers and zymotic diseases have made their appearance each year.

With this state of affairs present in their

minds the city officials in 1888 began a move- menttoward the creation of a system of water works. The press and public opinion urged them forward. Several attempts were made and a number of plans submitted. Finally J. D. Cook, a hydrographic engineer of national repute, was employed to make plans and speci- fications suitable for the city. The source of supply was determined upon as Lake Erie, at a point between the light-house and Stony Point, where a depth of sixteen feet of water could be obtained. This is far enough re- moved from the channel which the Raisin takes into the lake to obviate all danger from sewage, and at the same time sufficiently remote from the mouth of the Detroit River to be reasonably secure from any contamination which that stream might bring.

With these plans, and an elaborate system of distribution, so planned as to reach all parts of the city, both for fire protection and domestic supply, the council advertised for bidders to build these works, accepting a franchise, and the city to agree to rent a specified number of hydrants, at an agreed annual price, with pro- vision for extension of the system, if needed or desired.

The various proposals were opened on Feb- ruary 18, 1889, and the lowest bidders were found to be W. S. Parker & Co., of Pontiac, Michigan. Upon the acceptance of their propo- sition by the common council, the " Monroe Water Company # was organized, with W. S. Parker as president, George M. Landon secre- tary, and George Spalding as treasurer. This company was duly incorporated, but owing to delays in getting at work a reorganization was effected later, Mr. Parker retiring from the com- pany. The works are now being rapidly pushed to completion.

Commeneing at a point in the lake where a depth of seventeen feet of water can be ob- tained, a crib is sunk into which the water

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MONROE WATER COMPANY.

supply is admitted from the lake. Thence it is taken by twenty-inch mains, submerged in the lake and carried in a closed trench when the land is reached, about a mile to the northwest. where the influent pipe opens into a well, divided into two sections. The pumping sta- tion is contiguous to this well, and supplied with two direct pressure engines of the Worth- ington pattern, capable of forcing 3.000,000 gallons of water every twenty-four hours. From this supply well the water is carried in a sixteen-inch cast iron main to the city limits. and there connection is made with the distribu- tion system, consisting of twelve, eight. six and four-inch pipe.

The original plan contemplated the use of 61,256 feet of pipe of the different sizes, or a total length of pipe in distribution and supply of over thirteen miles. This has been but slightly modified in the actual construction.

One or more fountains in the public square and elsewhere are included in the rental, to- gether with drinking troughs for teams. The rental paid by the city for one hundred and thirty-two hydrants, as contemplated in the modified plan, is $6,200 per annum, and the franchise provides for the purchase of the works by the city at any time within a year from their completion to the satisfaction of the city and Mr. Cook, or at any time after ten years, upon favorable terms.

Under the energetic direction of the chief' engineer of the company, Mr. Fuller, the works are rapidly approaching completion. The benefit to the city cannot fail to be great and permanent, and their inception and construc- tion are indicative of the spirit of safe and con- servative progress which actuates the Monroe of to-day.

CHAPTER XXXII.

BENEVOLENT AND SOCIAL CLUBS AND SOCIETIES.

ST. MICHAEL'S COMMANDERY, KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN.

ȚI THE object for which this commandery is organized is the relief of sick members, in cases where such sickness has not been caused by immoralities; the visitation of the sick ; the burial of the dead ; in the discretion of the commandery to relieve destitute families of deceased members ; to connsel and direct its members to the utmost of its ability in the manner best calculated to promote their spirit- ual and temporal welfare; and to instill into their minds at all times and under all circum- stances, a stern resolve to stand by the faith bequeathed them by their forefathers.

The commandery provide and furnish its members the equipments of the Order, includ- ing swords, belts, feathers and chapeaux, which are the property of the Order, and the uniform on parade compares very favorably with that of our best military companies, and great credit is accorded them for their precision and prompt- ness in adhering to all the rules of discipline in marching and exercises.

The stated meetings are the first Monday in each month, and drill once in each week from April to October. The initiation fee is three dollars, and dues are fifty cents per month.

This society was organized March 27,1887,by the following named charter members : Andrew Mitchell, William Heil, Frank Daiber, Ed. J. Schreiber, Milton B. Solean, John M. Heck, John A. Martin, Erhart Schrauder, Henry C. Schrau- der, Philip Schaub, Andrew Baier, H. D. Hoff- man, Jacob Martin, Joseph S. Perth, Philip Reese.

The present officers are : John M. Heck, president ; Milton B. Soleau, vice president ; H. C. Schreiber, corresponding secretary; H. J. Hoffman, financial secretary ; F. J. Yeager, treasurer ; Andrew Mitchell, captain ; Frank Daiber, first lieutenant ; Erhart Schrauder, second lieutenant.

Present membership, 29.

THE Q. F. CLUB.

The Q. F. Club was organized in 1868, and for several years maintained a gymnasium and club rooms in the Dansard block, 18 East Front street, where they frequently gave ex- hibitions of grand and lofty tumbling and the manly art. They frequently entertained at the club rooms, and particularly a society of young ladies known as the " Bean Eaters," who were wont to meet once a week and consume Boston baked beans. The Leadville excite- mens and other causes took most of the mem- bers from Monroe, and the club rooms were given up. But the organization and two old customs have been kept up to the present time : One of having a picture taken of all the mem- bers on the 1st of January of each year and exchanging, and the other of presenting each member, on taking a partner for better or for worse, with a club present, usually a silver tea set.

THE O. L. CLUB.

In June, 1873, A. N. Perkins, W. C. Waldorf, W. P. Sterling, A. B. Diffenbaugh, F. S. Ster- ling and George C. Loranger, desiring " to have a place to go to," as one member expressed it, formed the O. L. Club, and opened a fine suite of club rooms in the Dansard Bank block, con- sisting of billiard room, dining room and par- lors, all elaborately furnished with everything necessary to the enjoyment of club life, and with special reference to the entertaining of friends. The rooms are kept open every eve- ning, except Sunday, the year round. Some of the receptions given by the members are re- membered and described as the finest ever given in the city. They have entertained more and their hospitality been extended more gen- erally than any other association in the Floral City.

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CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

DR. JOSEPH DAZET was the first physi- cian that settled upon the River Raisin, and came in the year 1784. He was a native of France. His practice was limited to the French and Indians, as at that time there were no American residents. He had the reputation of being a successful practitioner. His resi- dence and office occupied the site now owned and occupied by I. E. Ilgenfritz. I remember well of seeing him and his wife, bent over with age, in our vicinity. They had no offspring. They removed to Detroit in 1830, and there died.

Dr. Inther Parker was one of the first set- tlers on the River Raisin after the War of 1812. He was a successful practitioner and had an established reputation as such. On the arrival of Dr. Harry Conant (a biography of whom may be found on page 150) a copartnership was formed, which continued a number of years. Dr. Luther Parker's family consisted of two sons, Samuel and Isaac; the latter died soon after he attained his majority. Samuel con- tinued to reside in Monroe until a few years before his death, when he removed to Toledo and lived with his son, Dr. Sewall Parker, a practicing physician of the new school of homeopathic physicians.

Doctor Robert Clark came to Monroe under an appointment of General Andrew Jackson as registrar of the land office. The reader is referred for biography to page 145.

Doctor Ephraim Adams came in 1824 from Watertown, Jefferson county, New York. He was a liberally educated physician, had an ex- tensive practice, and was highly esteemed as a physician and citizen up to the time of his death. which occurred in 1874. He left two daughters, Frances and Mary - the latter of whom married Owen Cooney, of Monroe-and five sons : James G., of. Defiance, Ohio ; Joseph G., of Saginaw City ; James T., of East Saginaw; Thomas, a lawyer of Monroe; and

Benjamin F., an undertaker of Monroe. Doe- tor Adams owned and occupied as a residence the farm on the north side of the River Raisin, two miles west of Monroe, now owned and oc- cupied by Clinton Southworth, while his office was on the corner of Monree street and Elm avenue.

GEORGE LANDON, M. D.

Dr. George Landon was born at Sheffield, Massachusetts, December 16, 1795, being the youngest of fifteen children. Losing his mother at an early age he found a home with his sis- ter, the wife of Judge Bishop, of Pittsfield. Here he received his education, attending the academy, then reading medicine in the office of Dr. Burgett, a distinguished physician of those days, and subsequently attended lectures in New Haven.

He commenced the practice of medicine in the town of Great Barrington, and occupied an office in connection with the poet Bryant, who had just begun the practice of law. While standing in their office door one evening, at sunset, they saw the flight of birds which sug- gested to the poet his inimitable lines, " To a Water Fowl."

From Great Barrington he removed to Rich- mond, Massachusetts, and on the 15th of Feb- ruary, 1825, was married to Miss Elizabeth Abby Noble, daughter of Deodatus Noble, of Williamstown, Massachusetts.

In the fall of 1831 he removed with his family to Monroe, Michigan, in order to avoid the rigors of an eastern winter. In May, 1835, he formed a partnership in his profession with Dr. William M. Smith, which continued till the death of the latter, a period of forty years.

His wife died August 16, 1834. leaving two daughters. On September 6, 1836, he married Miss Euphemia Maria McQueen, daughter of Judge McQueen, of Schenectady, New York,

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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

by whom he had four children, who survive him.

In 1860 he was elected county treasurer by the Republican party, and in 1862 appointed surgeon of the board of enrollment for the first district of Michigan. This office he held till the close of the war. He died on March 9, 1874, after an illness of five months, which he bore with Christian fortitude.

He was a man of rare gifts, fine presence and courteous manners, while his abounding cheerfulness and hopeful sympathy carried sunshine into the sick-room. His tastes were refined and his reading extensive. He not only kept abreast of the times in his profession, read- ing constantly the best foreign and home medical journals and books, but was a loving student of general literature, and fond of the English classics. With charity and love for mankind, he was foremost in all movements for the amelioration of his race. A man of strict in- tegrity, he cherished a hearty contempt for meanness and duplicty. He was charming in social life, gifted with a ready wit, and an in- imitable story-teller.

He was a Christian gentleman of broad and liberal views, and a consistent member of the Presbyterian church, of which he was an elder for many years. His witty sayings are still repeated and his memory lovingly cherished in the families to whom he was a sympathizing friend and beloved physician.

EDWARD DORSCH,

For thirty-seven years a practicing physician in the city of Monroe, is a native of Wuerz- burg, Bavaria, Germany, where he was born January 10, 1822, his parents being Francis L. and Elizabeth (Hartung) Dorscb, the former a prominent attache of the Bavarian court, who died in 1825. In 1828, at the early age of eight, he was sent to a celebrated Catholic in- stitute, where for a number of years he was the only Protestant pupil, and which he left in his eighteenth year to attend the Munich Univer- sity, from which he graduated with a diploma in his twenty-third year. By order of the Bavarian Government he was sent to Vienna to perfect his theoretical knowledge by actual practice in the hospitals at that place. In addition to the medical course at Munich he

took up the study of philosophy, botany, nat- ural history and kindred sciences. An active thinker and ready writer, in the spring of 1849 he became an exile from the land of his nativity, the tone of his articles not being in. accord with the government in power. With a large number of emigrants he was driven out by reason of their political faith during the un- successful revolution, he acting in the capacity of surgeon.

On his arrival in New York he was married to Sophia Hartung, who was born in Ingold- stadt, Bavaria, Germany, June 15, 1827, and with whom he lived until her death in Sep- tember, 1884. They had one son, who died when but cight months of age. At first he went from New York to Detroit, but in the fall of the year he learned from Mr. Bruckner, a prominent German, that there was a good opening in Monroe for a German physician, so he came there in October, 1849, and made it his residence until his death on his sixty-fifth birthday, January 10, 1887. After the death of his first wife he again married November 4, 1885, his second wife being Augusta, daughter of Frederick and Friedieke (Korte) Uhl.

- From his earliest citizenship he was a staunch Republican, and in 1860 was presidential elector from what was then the second district, on the ticket which was headed by Abraham Lincoln. He never took any active part in politics, and steadfastly persisted in refusing all local offices, accepting only for one term, November 5, 1872, to November, 1878, an appointment on the State board of education. In 1862 he was ap- pointed examining surgeon for the pension office, which position he held up to the date of his death. During the time he was pension examiner be prepared a draft showing the course and effects of a ball on the human body, which was afterward adopted and is used by the Pension Department at the present day.

In addition to being a thorough physician and surgeon, he was a deep thinker and an able writer, and from his college days was much sought for as a correspondent, both in prose and poetry, by weekly and monthly pub -. lications. The force of his articles while at Munich and Vienna, and the position he therein took, caused him to be exiled from Bavaria at the close of the German Revolution. Shortly after his settlement in Monroe, and perhaps his first literary venture outside of contributions

Edward Dorich 18

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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

to magazines, was a volume of poems, entitled " Hirten Briefe an mein Volk." Of this, critics say he was a master of words, and handled the subjeet in a masterly manner. In 1875 he published a pamphlet, " Parabasen," and his last work, which appeared in 1884 and was published by the New York International News Company, was christened "Lieder aus der Alten und Neuen Welt."

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History of Monroe County, Michigan, Part 73

Author: Wing, Talcott Enoch, 1819-1890, ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: New York, Munsell & company Number of Pages: 882

Author: Wing, Talcott Enoch, 1819-1890, ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York, Munsell & company
Number of Pages: 882