USA > Michigan > Muskegon County > History of Muskegon County, Michigan: with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 4
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When the pump and pipe were again in place, it was found that the pump could be worked without difficulty. Until the well was cleaned out the brine was quite muddy, but after three hours steady pumping it became clear. The pump ran at 25 strokes per minute, yielded from 6 to 7 gallons of very strong brine. This re- sult was deemed very satisfatory, for it was to be taken in consid- eration that the pump was six hundred and fifty feet above the bot- tom of the salt rock, and that in place of new pumping rods, ordin- ary drilling poles were used.
0
21
. HISTORY OF MUSKEGON COUNTY.
Commencing July 30, the pumping was continued for seventy- two hours without any change in the quantity or strength of the brine. The salinometer marked from 102 to 105 degrees, the ap- parent anomaly of brine over 100 degrees being due to the presence of foreign matters in the brine, and the difference of temperature. It was calculated that the Mason well, running as it did, with the pump valves six hundred and fifty feet from the bottom of the salt rock and with drilling poles for pump rods, produced enough brine to make over seventy-five barrels of salt per twenty-four hours.
All those familiar with salt wells who have seen the Mason well, express the opinion that its yield could be very largely increased by lowering the pump and pump tubing to the salt rock, and using proper pump rods. But as that would require a considerable out- lay in rimming out the well, and as the handling of so long a string of pump rod, and three-inch pipe without a heavier engine than the one furnished for the test, was deemed imprudent, it was resolved to suspend the test; for in the opinion of all the existence of brine in paying quantities at Muskegon was sufficiently demonstrated.
The brine obtained was remarkably clear and made a very white salt without going through any settling process.
Prof. Delafontaine, of Chicago, analyzed a sample with the fol- lowing result :
In one gallon of brine he found 1 pound, 15 ounces and 2 grains of salt; 20 grains of gypsum; 9 ounces, 101 grains of chlo- ride of calcium; 1 ounce, 11 grains of chloride of magnesium; spe- cific gravity, 1,215 at 65 degrees F.
Unfortunately, until a new well is bored, there is no way of as- certaining the exact nature of the geological formation of the dis- trict around Muskegon, except from the old record of the boring of the Mason well, and it is difficult to determine how accurately it was kept. It is as follows:
MASON WELL
Surface, sand, clay. ete 225 feet.
Gray limestone and shale
400
=
Blue shale with loose streaks 775 =
= Solid blue shale 150
Solid red shale. 150
Lime Rock with streaks of shale 300
Salt bearing rock with streaks of sand 1 to 4 feet thick 50
Light colored lime rock and shale ..
50
Dark colored lime rock
250
Gypsum and lime in streaks 4 to 6 feet thick 50
:
Lime.
145
Rapid and various changes ending in dark lime rock, loose and
porous
82
Total
2627 feet.
The salt idea just now is " booming," and in a short time salt manufacture is destined to play no unimportant part in the develop- ment of Muskegon. The derrick of Ryerson, Hills & Co. is already finished, and the machinery is being made ready for boring, and so satisfied are this wealthy and enterprising firm of the certainty of getting salt, that they will not wait until they have struck the salt stratum, but assuming their success in that respect, they are pro- ceeding with the erection of a fine salt block to manufacture the salt at once on its discovery.
Mr. T. D. Stimson is likewise going on at once with his works on the property adjoining, and the old Mason well will be pumped and suitable works erected. The Mason Lumber Company deserve great credit for being the pioneers in testing the matter, by which all are being benefitted. Mr. John Torrent is about to bore in North Muskegon, and others will shortly follow.
There is no place better adapted for successfully manufacturing salt than Muskegon, as it has in its sawdust and mill refuse all the fuel necessary to evaporate the brine, whereas in other places the fuel is the chief expense, and from five to ten acres of land are necessary with each well on which to store the wood.
Again, the means of transportation by land and water are unriv- aled, and the position of the city is such that it commands the market of Chicago and the great Northwest. This sum- mer will witness a great impetus to the prosperity of the city, if salt is produced of the quantity and quality that the capitalists interested so confidently anticipate.
LUMBER INTERESTS OF MUSKEGON.
ORIGIN OF THE BUSINESS AT MUSKEGON.
Forty years ago the broad valley of the Muskegon River em- bracing an area of several thousand square miles in extent was an almost unbroken forest. Its timber consisted largely of white pine, growing sometimes entirely by itself in dense groves and sometimes intermingled with other forest trees, such as the oak, beech, maple, hemlock, etc., but generally no inconsiderable portion of the forest was pine. There are several varieties of pine, all of which grow in the Muskegon valley, but the choicest variety known as the Cork pine grows in greater abundance in this locality than in any other, it is believed, in the United States. This vast forest, a storehouse of wealth, worth uncounted millions of dollars, did not begin to attract attention until about the year 1840. Some three lumber manufacturing companies had just commenced the manufacture of lumber upon Muskegon Lake, but upon a very small scale, cutting less than forty thousand feet altogether. The demand was small, and it had brought to the manufacturer but. poor return thus far. The great tide of emigration that had hitherto swept across the country from the east had been absorbed by Western New York, Ohio and Indiana, all of them large forest covered countries supplying the settler at his door with all varieties of lumber that he needed. And it was not until the tide had rolled beyond the boundaries of these states, out upon the treeless prairies of Illinois and Iowa that the pineries of Michigan began to bring back wealth to the manufacturer. There the settler must get his lumber from abroad and a demand soon sprung up for Michigan lumber that was constant and steadily increasing. No other state could furnish it either in quantity or quality with equal facility. Thus stimulated, the lumber interest of the Muskegon valley began to be developed. The number of saw mills during the next ten years had increased to six with a capacity for manufacturing about sixty thousand feet of lumber per day. The business had nearly doubled, keeping pace with the population of Illinois and Iowa, which had also nearly doubled in that time. During the ten years from 1850 to 1860, the number of saw mills had increased to ten, with a capacity of more than four times that of the mills running in 1850, the aggregate capacity being about three hundred thousand feet per day, and manufacturing during the sawing season probably about four million feet of lumber. During the next ten years the lumber interests had vastly increased.
EXTENT OF THE LUMBER INTEREST.
In the year 1870 there was manufactured over two hundred million feet of lumber upon Muskegon Lake alone, there being at this time twenty-six mills in operation with capacities largely in- creased by improved machinery. In 1881 the production of lumber was three times that of 1870.
EXTENT OF THE LOGGING INTEREST.
The whole amount manufactured since has year by year in- creased until in the year 1879 it had reached the enormous amount of about four hundred and forty-two million feet upon Muskegon Lake alone, as shown by the actual delivery of logs by the Muskegon
22
HISTORY OF MUSKEGON COUNTY.
Booming Co. The actual cost of manufacturing and putting into market this immense amount of lumber fell but little, if any, short of three millions of dollars per year. Thus for forty years this stream of lumber has been flowing from the Muskegon valley, borne across Lake Michigan, and emptied into the lap of Chicago. At first a tiny stream, increasing year by year until it has been a mighty flood whose magnitude it is not so easy to comprehend, and whose aggregate value during that time would reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars. From Chicago, through the many arteries of commerce, it was distributed all over the country; but chiefly to the States of Iowa and Illinois, whose increase of population bore almost an exact proportion to the increase in the manufacture of lumber at Muskegon; the supply increasing with the demand. Such was the origin and progress of the lumber manufacture upon the Muskegon River; though imperfectly sketched, it will convey some idea of its magnitude and importance.
LOGGING.
Of course such results could not be accomplished except upon some thoroughly organized plan, and systematized application of the immense labor necessary to produce it. Accordingly you find in every department of these lumber operations, the most perfect sys- tem and method adhered to throughout. The logging operation forms a distinct business by itself. It consists of converting the tree into logs and placing them upon the roll-way ready for the river driver. The logger, after selecting his ground upon which he pro- poses to log, builds what he calls the camp, at a place most con- venient for his work. This consists of quite a little village of rude, though comfortable, one-story buildings, usually of logs. One of these buildings will be used for cooking and eating, another for sleeping, another for store house, another for a stable, another for blacksmith and carpenter shop. The camp being ready, the logger collects his crew, usually from fifty to one hundred men, gathers the necessary teams, tools, furniture, etc., and proceeds to the scene of operations. As soon as the crew is organized, and the axmen, the swampers, the skidders, loaders, and haulers are assigned to their respective shares of the labor, the work begins, and the old patri- archs of the forest, sometimes two centuries old, begin to fall before the axes of the choppers with a crash that wakes the echoes from depths of the forest. As soon as the tree is felled and trimmed, the axman leaves it for another. It then falls into the hands of the saw- yers, who, with cross-cut saws, cut it into lengths convenient for sawing. The logs thus sawed are then taken by the skidders, snaked to the skidway, and skidded. In the meantime the swampers have been preparing roads, that being their part in the work. The haul- ers, with the assistance of the loaders, then take the logs from the skid vay and load them upon bob-sleighs and haul them to the bank- ing ground, a place on the bank of the river convenient for rolling them into the water. At this place the logger takes his leave of the saw logs. When the logs are all delivered here his job is done. All these various operations are done strictly in accordance with es- tablished rules, calculated to produce the greatest results possible with a given amount of labor.
THE BOOMING CO.'S OPERATIONS.
As soon as the weather will permit, in the spring the logs thus banked, having been scaled and marked, are put afloat in the river, and are then under the control of the Muskegon Booming Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the State for the purpose of driving, rafting, booming, and delivering logs. Early in the spring the Booming Company sends a large force of men under a competent foreman to the head-waters of the river and its tribu- taries for the purpose of driving the logs down the river. This re- quires most of the summer. When the logs begin to come down
the river in the spring, the company sends a large number of men to the sorting grounds, located on the river at a point a little above where it empties into Lake Muskegon, whose duty it is to collect the logs of each owner, known by a certain mark on the end of the log. This is done by catching the logs as they float down through a narrow channel prepared for them, and pulling them by means of pike-poles into little pockets arranged along the margin of the chan- nel, having an opening into the channel. Each pocket receives a particular mark, and when there is a certain number of logs thus collected bearing the same mark, they are dogged and chained and then shoved out into another channel, to be floated by the current to the coupling grounds, where they are received by another gang of men, who couple together all chains belonging to the same owner in a large raft. These rafts are then towed by tug boats belonging to the company to the mill where they are to manufactured, and deposited in the mill boom. At this place the Boom Company takes its leave of the logs. The Boom Company expends annually over two hundred thousand dollars in carrying on their part of the work. The conduct and management of the business of the company is left to the president and secretary.
.
THE CUTTING PROCESS.
The next branch of the business consists of sawing the logs into lumber. At one side there is a slide made of timbers passing from the mill down into the water of the mill boom, running down the center of this slide is an endless chain, worked by the machinery of the mill, to which grub hooks are attached. When a log is wanted in the mill it is floated up with the end to the foot of the slide. The chain is started, the first hook that comes along hitches itself to the log, and it passes up into the mill as though its weight had been annihilated, and is left convenient for rolling upon the carriage. with cant-hook and " nigger" it is soon in position for the saw to do its work. In a very few minutes the log is, among the things that have passed away, and the lumher it has produced is being wheeled out upon the dock to a place convenient for shipping to market.
THE TIMBER SUPPLY.
Notwithstanding the immense quantity of pine taken from the Muskegon valley, it will not be exhausted for many years to come, and will probably outlast any locality in the United States. There are also large amounts of other kinds of lumber, such as hemlock, cedar, oak, maple, ash, etc., that will find a market and be manu- factured as soon as pine becomes scarce. Indeed, it can be said with truth, that the lumber business has but little more than fairly . got beyond the commencement in the Muskegon valley, and the amount annually manufactured will be undiminished for a long time.
There is probably no man living to-day, that will see the end of the lumber business in the valley of the Muskegon, and any pre- dictions of its speedy failure are made without a full and careful in- vestigation of the immense resources still left to keep up the business. When tracts of pine are too far distant from the river to be hauled with teams, railroads are constructed from the river to them; thus practically largely extending the area and lumber resources of the valley, and leaving the question of the possibility of exhaustion so far in the future as to be without any significance at this time.
DOES IT PAY ?
There is, perhaps, no business that has hitherto more uniformly paid, than the lumber business. Where there has been energy, in- dustry and perseverance, success has almost invariably followed.
And the history of lumbermen upon this river will demonstrate this fact, very few have failed, a large majority have made good fortunes, and some have become millionaires. The per centage of failures will be found to be far less than in any other class of man-
ـعـ
HISTORY OF MUSKEGON COUNTY.
23
ufactures, and not one-tenth as great as in the mercantile business. The business, of course, has its ups and downs, its seasons of pros- perity and depression, like all other occupations, but is much less affected. In the worst of times there is some gain, and in prosper- ous times fortunes of forty or fifty thousand dollars are sometimes made in a single year. It is sometimes said that the time for mak- ing money in the lumber business has passed, but such is not the case. The truth is that the opportunities are just as good now, and will be for a long time to come, as they ever have been. The de- mand for lumber must continue, the means of supply are not ex- hausted, and the effect of any over-supply will, after a time, correct itself, and then the old profits will again return. Any combination of circumstances that affects the price of lumber unfavorably must, in the nature of things, be but temporary. The consumption of lumber is increasing rather than decreasing; the means of supply are not increasing but diminishing; the general tendency is, there- fore, to an increase of price and scarcity of lumber.
There is nothing that can take the place of pine lumber, hence this state of things must continue, the price becoming higher in pro- portion to the scarcity of the pine timber. The inducement to engage in the lumber business is, therefore, just as good now as it ever has been, and there will be just as many fortunes made in the future as there have been in the past. Admitting that Muskegon's prosperity is inseparably connected with the lumber business and she is still destined to be a large city. No man who thinks pretends that it is so inseparably connected. She has elements of greatness and guarantees of growth and prosperity in her facilities of land and water communication, possessing the best harbor on Lake Michi- gan; in being the natural outlet and commercial center of a large portion of the western and northern part of the State, and also in being the best and only market for a country whose soil and climate is singularly well adapted to the production of all the finest variety of fruits that grow in any land, and no way inferior in the produc- tion of other agricultural products. In these she has her promise of future greatness.
LUMBER STATISTICS.
We present in tabular form, from the most reliable sources, the statistics of the lumber traffic for the past nine years:
TOWN.
1873.
1874.
1875.
1876.
1877.
White Lake Muskegon
88,590,000
51,300,000
64,000,000
79,600,000
82,120,000
Grand Haven and Spring Lake ....
117,535,000
80,964,000
83,160,000
58.500,000
80,805,000
TOWN.
1878.
1879.
1880.
1881.
White Lake.
89.610,000 83,150,000 91,450,000 120,000,000 388,991,000 504.555,000|551,201,000 640,500,000
Lake
80,000,000 130,795,000 135,919,000 191,000,000
MUSKEGON LUMBER REVIEW FOR 1881.
The season of 1881 was one attended with many unfavorable circumstances, yet upon the whole one of the most prosperous ever known in the city. The mills started out in the spring with the intention of clearing up the full stock of logs on hand and in the river, which amounted to about 725,000,000 feet-by far the largest stock ever put into the river for one season's operations. At the close of last year's business the lumber on the docks held over reached in 1880, 70,000,000 ft., and the logs rafted and unrafted 125,- 000,000 ft. The mills cut 624,458,526 ft., which was nearly 90,000,- 000 more than the previous year (1880), and about 150,000,000 more than in 1879. With the new mills, and with large additions to the
capacity of the other ones, the mill-men figured on the largest lum- ber crop in the history of the trade here, and at the outset of the season's operations everything was favorable to such calculations. Late in the season, however, the scarcity of labor and the strikes upset the calculations, and, consequently, instead of the mills cutting over 700,000,000 feet, the figures reached only 640,089,429 feet. There is no doubt but that the strike lost to the mills between 60,000,000 and 70,000,000 feet of lumber, and the short hours suc- ceeding the strike a good deal more. Owing to the open winter the mills ran much longer than usual, but on the ten-hours system and in many instances short-handed. The cut for this year, notwith- sranding the drawbacks, was the largest ever known, and yet larger stocks were carried over to the next season than ever before. For the past three years the amount of stock on hand at the close of operations was as follows:
YEAR.
LOGS, FEET. LUMBER, M.
1879
115,000.000
1880
125,000,000
75,000,000 70.000,000
1881
225,000,000
98,070,339
The logs held over in 1881, rafted and unrafted, were given by the booming company at 225,000,000 feet. The lumber cut by the mills in 1881, together with the cut for 1880, and also the manu- facture of lath and lumber on hand at the close of the year is given below from figures furnished by the mill-men to the press:
FIRM.
CUT 1881.
CUT 1880.
LATH.
LUMBER ON DOCK.
Blodgett & Byrne (H. & W. mill).
27,961,000
26,000,000
8,000,000
3,000,000
Blodgett & Byrne (Boom Company mill).
16,000,000
16,000,000
2,000,000
Beidler Manufacturing Com- pany.
25,239,712
23,000 000 15,000,000
9.026,350 3,970,650
1,000,000
O. D. Nelson & Co
29,191.633
26.000.000
5,500,000
4,825.000
S. C. Hall.
24,000,000
13,000.000
2,500,000
3,500 000
George E. Wood ..
14.500,000
17,177,000
4.000.000
4,500.000
Hamilton, Gerrish & Co
49,500,000
43,600,000
10,000,000
10,000.000
Tillotson & Blodgett
11,609,751
13,200,000.
450,000
4,000,000 3,482,916
E. Eldred & Co ..
25,589.000
21,000.000
5,771,500
3,049,423
Stimson, Fay & Co.
21.500.000
18.000,000
3,088,050
1.500.000
16,500,000
19,000,000
2,800,000
1.500,000
Walworth & Reed
14,700,000
12,000,000
3.200.000
7,500,000
Torrent & Arms.
36.128,799
47,000,000
8,000,000
5,000,000
R. J. Millen & Co.
4,000,000
7,000,000
1,000,000
A. V. Mann & Co.
21,000,000
23.372,217
5,000,000
1,700,000
A. Rodgers & Co ..
20,662,242
10.000 000
3,500,000
8,000,000
Thayer Lumber Company Davies Bros.
20,866.475
16.000,000
2,000,000
Farr Lumber Company
19,948,863
25,000,000
3,313.000
C. N. Storrs & Co ..
14,110,237
12,000,000
4,248,000
North Muskegon Lumber Co. Ryerson, Hills & Co. (2 mills) M. Wilson & Co ..
37,000,000
42,000,000
6,000.000 6,000,000
800,000
C. Beaudry & Co ...
19,000,000|
13,000,000
10,000,000
640,089,429 556,822,037 101,306,550)
98,773,339
The shingles manufactured on Muskegon Lake in 1881 were as follows:
W. S. Gerrish
30,000,000
F. B. Peck
.16,485,000
Other mills
.12,000,000
Total
.58.485.000
For the season of 1881 the lumber products of Muskegon County were simply enormous. There was manufactured:
Lumber, feet.
.800,000,000
Shingles. 125,485,000
Lath.
.145,000,000
Pickets
20,000,000
5 000.000
Torrent & Brown.
12,000,000
Blodgett & Byrne.
4.000,000
T. D. Stimson (Foss mill) C. H. Hackley & Co ..
10.000 000
12,500,000
29.000.000
31,000,000
4,500.000 4,000,000
8,000.000
27,500,000
33.000,000
6,000,000
9 491,417
2,340,000
6,500,000
21,000,000
17.252,000
McCracken, Hovey & Co .....
13,821,800
11,720,820
515.000
Bigelow & Co ..
13.768,500
MeGraft & Montgomery
Swan, White & Smith
Torrent & Ducey.
20,500,000
500,000
329,689,000 309,200,000 330,400,000 296,800,000 327,300,000
Muskegon. Grand Haven and Spring
24
HISTORY OF MUSKEGON COUNTY.
MICHIGAN LUMBER TRANSPORTATION COMPANY.
There has been a company formed to carry off the lumber un- der the above title and to show the magnitude of its operations we may mention that in one month, December, 1881, it shipped 500 cars of lumber, and in 1881, 3,500 cars from Muskegon and stations north. With the additional railway facilities acquired recently, the shipments for 1882 will exceed that of the year previous by 25 per cent. Muskegon is the headquarters of the company, and W. M. Shipman is the agent.
The amount of lumber received in Chicago from Muskegon for several years past is as follows:
LUMBER.
Year.
Amount.
Year.
Amount.
1875
.277,699,000
1879
.436, 513.000
1876
214,937.000
1880.
451,854,000
1877
255,747,000
1881
491,824,000
1878
290,431,000
SHINGLES.
Year.
Amount.
Year.
Amount.
1875
5,140,000
1878.
23,650.899
1876
16 662,000
1879
12,685,000
1877
.. 17,787,000
1880
.25,715,000
WHITE PINE PRODUCT IN MUSKEGON AND SHIPPED TO CHICAGO.
Year.
Amount.
Year.
Amount.
1873.
329,689,000
1878
355,991,000
1874
.309,200,000
1879
.504.555,000
1875
330,400,000
1880
591,201,649
1876
.296,334,000
1881
632,500,000
1877.
.327,325,106
MUSKEGON LAKE SAW MILLS.
The building of the first saw mill on Muskegon Lake was commenced in January, 1837, by Benj. H. Wheelock, agent of the Muskegon Steam Mill Company, most of the stockholders of which resided at Detroit and Ann Arbor. The mill was built upon the site now occupied by White, Swan & Smith's mill, upon which land Mr. Wheelock about that time had made a preemption claim. It was a steam mill and a large one for the time, having two upright saws. Before it was completed the panic of 1837 occurred, and money becoming scarce, it was not ready for operation until 1838, when the first lumber was sawed; that being also the first lumber sawed on Muskegon Lake. The adventure proved to be an unprof- itable one for the company, and next year after the mill was started the property passed into the hands of John Lloyd, of Grand Rapids, and John P. Place, of Ionia, who owned and operated the mill un- til 1841, when it was burned and the machinery taken to Grand Rapids.
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