USA > Michigan > Oakland County > History of Oakland County, Michigan, a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 40
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57
"The first mill at Clintonville was among the carly ones, and was built by Samuel C. Munson, who soon sold to the Osmuns. The pres- ent mill, which is one of the best in the country, was built by a com- pany with Dr. Williams ( father of George Williams ) at the head, Sher- man Stevens, who was interested in the old Pontiac Bank at the time. furnishing the money. It was built in the early forties. About this time the Waterford and Clarkston mills were built, and they are both first class mills today. The old Drayton mill ( now in ruins), was built by Daniel Windiate in 1836. Commerce mill was built in 1840 and is up-to-date: Milford mill built by Pettibone in 1837: Holly mill in the forties, and is a noted one now, was built by one Bussey ; Orion mill by Hemmingway in 1836. Ezra Carpenter built what is known as Rudd's mill, Orion, in 1835 or 1836. Mills in Lakeville, Birmingham, Southfield and Franklin were all built in this early day, the latter by Colonel Van Avery. Rochester and Amy each were on deck at an early day. Our old friend. John P. Davis, of this city, was the founder of the Davis- burg mill in the way-back days. William Morris, father of the late Orville Morris, built the Bloomfield mill in 1832 or 1833.
"I am indebted to my friend and neighbor, Henry Birge, for these statistics, he being one of our oldest pioneers.
325
HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
"These old mills were crude affairs, with overshot or undershot water-wheels, and the machinery was of the simplest, yet it would be hard to make any old pioneer believe that the bread made from a high- grade flour of today will equal the bread his mother made. Milling of today is a complete revolution. Now the stone (except for feed grind- ing) is a thing of the past. The roller system, which crushes the grain. is the universal system ; wooden wheels are superseded by iron and steam. Mills are loaded down with the finest machinery, very little hand work being needed. Years ago when we would take our grist of wheat to the mill it would be ground for us. Now our wheat is exchanged for flour and we eat everybody's grain. When corn was little raised, farmers would have their crops of wheat floured and by so doing get a lot of feed in bran and middlings. The flour would be barreled and carted to Detroit and there branded by the purchasers or perhaps sent down to New York and there branded as 'Genesee Valley' flour. A great many of our mills helped the New York mills out in this way. Millers as a rule are honest ; but then I have seen flour branded Minnesota hard wheat,' when at the same time the wheat grew in this county.
"Thanking you all for your patience I will end my milling talk by saying that our mills have been the pioneers in their line in this grand county, and to them we are largely indebted for our healthy existence ; and while the rains are filling the streams to turn the wheels, the same rains are making the grain grow that will be made up into so many delightful kinds of food. So well may we bless the rains and bless the mills."
PONTIAC'S EARLY BUSINESS MEN
As to the pioneer citizens of Pontiac engaged in trade and business, perhaps we can do no better than to reproduce the picture offered by Abiram Parker to the Oakland County Pioneer Society, at its meeting of February 22, 1899. He speaks of the period when he came to the locality in 1845. "In the days which I am speaking of," he says, "} was a clerk working for meager wages. Let me say, however, that ] had only two clerkships, from both of which I was discharged, one for going to a sleighride and dance, the other because I refused to work on Sunday ;- the first for being very, very bad, the second for being very, very good.
"All stores in those days were general stores, each keeping calicoes and sugar, silk and molasses, laces and codfish, men's clothing, hats and caps, ladies' bonnets and salt. In some of them could be found good old Scotch whiskey.
"Pontiac at that time was a village of about twelve hundred inhabi- tants and while small, was wide-awake, hustling, full of business and fun. "Mr. W. M. McConnell, in business where now are Hutton, Church & Linabury, was perhaps the most conservative as well as one of the most successful merchants of that period. He was always upright and genial, a friend to everyone and everyone a friend to him. The firm of Matthews and Beach, in Hodge's House corner, bought more largely of produce, wheat and flour, than any other, much of which was brought from the counties of Macomb, Lapeer, Genesee, Shiawassee and Liv-
326
HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
ingston. Their merchandise sales would run from $500 to $1,000 per day. Matthews and Beach had the confidence of the farmers in those counties as well as of our own.
"Darrow & Peck were doing business on the northeast corner of Saginaw and Lawrence streets. Mr. Darrow was one of those com- panionable men whom all liked to be with.
"Benjamin Morris, a sharp, shrewd man, together with 'Honest Nathan,' did business on the southeast corner of Saginaw and Lawrence streets.
"Solomon Close kept the National llotel. Next to the hotel was the store of O. F. North, father of A. G. North, one of our present business
OLD HODGES HOUSE.
men. He was engaged in the clothing business and a man thought much of, by all of us boys, one to whom we went in trouble for advice, and one who never failed us. Located next to him was Henry W. Lord, at that time the same genial gentleman that we found him in later life --- courteous and of strong literary tastes. Next to Mr. McConnell came Geo. W. Rogers, a plain, good man. honorable and upright in every way.
"South of Mr. Rogers was the tin shop of Benjamin Going. a man who always attended closely to business, never troubling himself about his neighbors. Next came William Robertson. He was a Scotchman with all the Scotch peculiarities, a man with whom one would take pleas- ure in sitting down for a long chat. Charles Dawson was also engaged
327
HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
in business, but just where, I do not now remember. He was the same upright, careful business man in those days, as we ever found him after- wards. Of his sterling worth you all know, he having so recently passed from our midst.
"The Hodges House, then, as now, the leading hotel, was built by Mr. Hodges, of whom I am unable to say anything, since he died two years before I came to Pontiac. Right here. I wish to pay tribute to the memory of Mrs. Mary A. Hodges, who kept the house for so many years after her husband's death. Most of the young men clerks boarded with her and when sickness came, as it did in those days of chills and fever, she was ever ready to care for us, as.a mother.
"Dean & Hovey and James A. Weeks were the druggists of Pontiac. Lull and Draper were in business on the same ground where now stands the store which I occupied so many years. Mr. Lull is now living and one to see him, as he walks about our city, would hardly say that he is old enough to have been in active business in the forties. Thomas Turk did a small business somewhere below the Ilodges House. He afterwards became the leading groceryman of Pontiac. Few people knew of his sterling worth and his many charities. James Andrews and Thomas Turk always had money to relieve those in need.
"Of the hardware dealers I remember only B. C. Whittemore and Horace C. Thurber. B. C. Whittemore was an active, thorough-going, old-style gentleman. He afterwards became state treasurer. Horace C. Thurber was one of those shrewd, careful business men who was very successful. After going out of business he was unfortunate in speculation, and lost most of the money he made.
"Other men in business at that time were Charles Brodie, Fred Wil- liams, William Gilmore, and Mr. Page with John Crombie as clerk. Mr. Crombie afterwards succeeded him in the furniture and undertaking business. Mr. Page's son is now a leading minister in Leavenworth. Kansas."
AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY OF PONTIAC
The automobile industry of Pontiac is less than a decade old but it is a lusty youngster. The latest general estimate of the business places the turn-out from the various plants at over 1,600 per month, or about a complete machine every ten minutes. They are now placing on the market every conceivable style of gasoline and electric autos, several of the plants developing stich specialties as manufacturing the bodies of machines alone, or painting and trimming them, or making the accessories and selling to manufacturers of entire automobiles.
There are about forty manufactories in all lines of industry now located at Pontiac, employing some five thousand hands. The disburse- ments amount to more than a quarter of a million dollars. It is a conservative estimate to place five-sixths of the employees and disburse- ment of money throughout the local markets, in the form of wages and salaries, to the credit of the automobile industry. The story of its im- portance to the well-being of Pontiac is told in detail in the sketches of the plants which follow.
328
HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
OAKLAND MOTOR CAR COMPANY
The Oakland Motor Car Company, one of the great industries which has brought Pontiac into the class of the leading automobile centers of the United States, was founded by the late Edward M. Murphy in 1900. Although then but a little past forty, Mr. Murphy already was recog- nized as perhaps the leading personal force in the establishment of the city as an industrial community. Born in Wayne county, Michigan, December 19. 1864, of Irish parentage, he had received only a common school education and a limited business training in various hardware establishments of Detroit and Wayne county, when he came to Pontiac to establish a branch store for the Black Hardware Company of the state metropolis. This fortunate circumstance for both his individual fortunes and those of Pontiac, resulted in his permanent residence in that city, and in his association with C. V. Taylor, the city's pioneer carriage manufacturer. In 1888 they formed a partnership which con- tinued until 1893. when Mr. Murphy organized the Pontiac Buggy Com- pany with S. E. Beach and F. A. Emmendorfer. This had developed into an extensive concern when the Oakland Motor Car Company was founded in 1906. A short time before, Mr. Murphy had attracted the attention of W. C. Durant of the General Motors Company, Detroit, and obtained his alliance with the new organization. Mr. Murphy died of apoplexy, universally lamented for his remarkable business talents and his genial and generous qualities as a man, on September 4, 1909, at the comparatively early age of forty-five.
The business and plant of the Oakland Motor Car Company was then taken over by the General Motors Company of Detroit, and L. R. Dunlap became general manager. He was succeeded by George E. Daniels, who is still manager, with E. H. Tinsman as comptroller and Standish Backus, secretary. Captain D. A. Kimball is assistant secretary ; Thomas W. Wilson, general manager; J. B. Eccleston, general sales manager ; T. D. Culberhouse, auditor.
As stated. the Oakland Motor Car Company is an absorption of the old Pontiac Buggy Company, the Dunlap Vehicle Company and the C. \. Taylor Carriage Company, and existing plants were utilized by the new organization. The first cars, numbering five hundred, were built in the season of 1908, by two hundred employees, and were sold through the Centaur Motor Company of Detroit. For the year ending July 31. 1912, the company placed six thousand cars on the market, or an aver- age of about twenty per day, excluding Sundays. One thousand one hundred men were employed.
The great manufactory of the Oakland Motor Car Company now comprises twelve buildings divided by the Grand Trunk Railroad into two connected and distinct plants. That on the south side of the tracks is the larger. In the manufacture of the cars, their display and sale, the dealing in numerous accessories especially adapted to Oakland cars, and in the transaction of the great business conducted, fifteen acres of floor space are occupied.
The engineering creed of the company is thus stated: "We believe when a good engineer designs a car, the basic principles, aside from sim-
329
HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
plicity and accessibility, are to eliminate friction, guard against distortion, reduce wear to the minimum, and deliver the maximum horsepower to the driving wheels with the least possible loss." As the making of the Oakland ears is based on this ereed, the company is necessarily a firin advocate of the "unit power plant" for the machine. The reasons for thus believing are stated in these words: "The unit power plant first of all reduces friction. Friction and wear mean a loss of power. Wheit a car is passing over bad roads, the frame is in constant, violent motion, and a unit power plant, suspended at three points, will better withstand any shock produced than separate units mounted at four points. Where the motor, clutch and transmission are assembled separately, one unit cannot help being a burden on the others in the matter of friction and wear."
The Oakland motor cars comprise four chassis sizes,-model 30, touring car and roadster : 33, the Oakland Oriole; 40, "Sociable" road- ster, coupe and passenger touring car : 45, Berline Limousine and touring car.
GENERAL MOTORS TRUCK COMPANY
Seven years has witnessed a remarkable growth in the development of the interests of the General Motors Truck Company in Pontiac. In 1905 the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company began operations in a small fac- tory about seventy-five feet long. Today the combined business of that concern and the General Motors Truck Company, which absorbed the former some time ago, is represented by two rows of modern cement and steel buildings each 725 feet long, while their pay roll has increased from twenty men to between eighteen hundred and two thousand, when the plant is running at full capacity.
Thus, from a small local business, this concern has reached out until its product is now distributed to practically every country in the civilized world. Its operations include the building of all types of business vehicles, from "gospel wagons to fire apparatus," to quote their own phrase, and they have built ambulances, sight-seeing cars, dog wagons, and even industrial trucks for use at railway terminals and warehouses. Their trucks have a reputation for serviceability and durability that is well sustained, and the firm manifests a pardonable pride in the fact that in 1908 one of their trucks climbed Pike's Peak,-a feat which had never been duplicated, nor yet has been,-by a vehicle of similar capacity.
The plant of the General Motors Truck Company is one of the best equipped of its kind in the country, and its power is supplied by one of the largest independent power plants in Michigan.
THE FLANDERS PLANTS
One of the greatest industries of Pontiac takes its name from its controlling spirit, Walter E. Flanders, and is known the country over as the Flanders Manufacturing Company. It was organized late in 1910 with a capital of $2,250,000 and was a consolidation of the Pontiac Motor Cycle Company, Pontiac Drop Forge Company. Pontiac Foundry
330
HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
Company, Vulcan Gear Works, and the Champion Manufacturing Com- pany.
The Flanders Manufacturing Company operates nine plants,-five in Pontiac and four in Chelsea, Washtenaw county.
Number i, formerly the Pontiac Motor Cycle Company, is now de- voted to the manufacture of electric cars and has a daily capacity of twenty. The original business was moved to Chelsea and comprises the manufacture of every kind of automobile, motorcycle, bicycle, or other parts that can be made from bars in automatic machines. The Chelsea plant is known as Number 2.
Number 3. the drop-forging plant, was the first of the group to commence operations, taking its first heat on the afternoon of December 8, 1910. The plant forges not only for its own work, but for outside manufacturers, and has a remarkably full line of steam hammers.
Plant Number 4 is at Chelsea.
Number 5 ( formerly Vulcan Gear Works ), was moved from Detroit and manufactures all kinds of gears, having a daily capacity of from fifty to sixty complete transmission sets.
Number 6 is also located at Chelsea.
Number 7. the foundry ( formerly the Pontiac Foundry Company ). turns out all kinds of castings of gray iron, brass, bronze and aluminum. Number 8 is a Chelsea plant and Number 9, at Pontiac, is devoted to the manufacture of the Champion Automatic Power Sprayer.
The estimated total output of the five Pontiac plants is valued at $300,000 monthly. and they employ an average of eight hundred hands. Present officers of the Flanders Manufacturing Company: Walter E. Flanders, president : Don C. McCord, vice president and general manager ; Henry L. Stanton, secretary and treasurer ; James B. Book. Jr., assistant secretary and treasurer; Messrs. Flanders, J. N. Gunn. Book, Scott Brown, William T. Barbour, McCord and W. S. J. Kop- meier, directors.
THE CARTERCAR COMPANY
The large plant of the Cartercar Company is devoted to the manu- facture of what automobilists term "friction drive" cars, embracing touring cars, roadsters, coupes and light-grade commercial autos. The make is in contradistinction to "geared transmission" machines, and is the invention of Byron J. Carter, formerly of Jackson, Michigan, who commenced his experiments for a suitable metal to use for the friction disc. He first tried aluminum, but discarded that in favor of an alloy, which, as well as the retaining ring, is fully covered by patents. The Cartercar Company was established in that city in October. 1908. The Pontiac Spring and Wagon Works was operating a substantial plant, which was utilized by the Motor Car Company of Detroit under the name of the Cartercar Company.
The first friction-driven automobile appeared in 1903, only after Mr. Carter had surmounted many difficulties, and the manufacture of the Cartercar has since steadily progressed. Its largest model, a tour- ing car, seats seven passengers. . All the makes are self-starting. sim-
331
HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
plicity and strength being their strong points, and upon these qualities in automobiles too much stress cannot be placed.
MONROE BODY COMPANY
The Monroe Body Company is one of the prosperous manufacturing concerns in Oakland county. It manufactures automobile bodies ex- clusively, and has been in operation since June 24, 1902; the date of its organization. The first officers of the company were: J. A. Jacokes. president ; Chauncey Brace, vice president ; II. F. Messinger, treasurer ; R. F. Monroe, secretary and general manager. In 1905 the company was reorganized and the name changed from the Pontiac Body Com- pany to the Monroe Body Company. The plant also was enlarged at that time, the cost of plant and equipment being approximately $100,000. The present officers of the company are: R. F. Monroe, president ; J. M. Parker, vice president and general manager ; C. R. Talbot, treasurer. The yearly output of the factory aggregates $350,000.
THE BEAUDETT BODY WORKS
Oliver J. Beaudett has also been at the head of a large manufactory whose specialty is the turning out of the bodies of automobiles. He has had a most trying experience with fires, his plant having been de- stroyed both in 1901 and 1903; but he and his business have surmounted all trials and his enterprise is firmly established and progressing in a most substantial manner.
SLATER CONSTRUCTION COMPANY
The Slater Construction Company is one of the most prosperous organizations of the kind in southeastern Michigan, outside of Detroit. It is also growing as rapidly as any, and in Pontiac, especially, are numerous evidences of the extent, completeness and honesty of its work. It was organized in 1809 as a copartnership, consisting of Oiney A. Slater, Franklin A. Slater and Albert M. Slater, no exact amount of capital stock being stipulated. Buildings have been erected from year to year since 1900 as the needs of the company grew, and it is doing an approximate annual business of $350,000. At the present time the company employs about one hundred and seventy-five men and twenty teams.
PONTIAC BREWERY
The Pontiac Brewery was built in 1900, and has been in continous operation since that time, with the exception of the years from 1908 to 1910, when the business was closed up as a result of the Local Option law going into effect in the former year. The company was rein- corporated in 1905. The annual output of the brewery is ten thousand barrels, and it produces two brands of beer, known as Bine Label and Pontiac Favorite.
332
HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
PONTIAC COMMERCIAL ASSOCIATION
The Pontiac Commercial" Association is beyond all question one of the most potent powers for progress that Pontiac has ever known, and the two years of its life have witnessed as pronounced advancement in commercial and industrial fields as in any other period of the city's history.
The association was organized in the spring of 1910, and at this writing (August, 1912) has a membership of one hundred and seventy- five members, and, to quote from the constitution of the association : "Any resident of Pontiac or vicinity who has for business or other rea- sons an interest in the betterment of the city is eligible to membership." Again quoting from the constitution. Article 2 says: "The objects of the association are to promote in every reasonable, legitimate and prac- tical manner the prosperity and well-being of Pontiac and her citizens." It is also the aim and object of the association to find locations for new- comers to the city, as well as to build up its industrial growth, and no efforts are spared to accomplish these ends.
The association is particularly well organized and its affairs con- ducted on the strictest business lines. It employs a paid secretary and a stenographer and maintains an office which is open every day during regular business hours and is also at the disposal of other ornagizations, such as the Real Estate Exchange, Medical Society. Bar Association, etc.
Fifteen standing committees are maintained. with terms of one year. each committee to be composed of three members. They are named as follows: New Industries; Established Industries; Mercantile Interests ; Convention and Entertainment ; Transportation : Legislation ; Civic Wel- fare; Public Improvement ; Streets and Highway: Press and Publicity ; Schools and Educational: Membership; Taxation: Public Solicitors : Finance and Audit.
The slogan of the Pontiac Commercial Association, "Keep Your Eye On Pontiac." is a particularly happy one, and it is expected that the progress of the city, under the stimulus of concerted and well-timed agi- tation such as is being brought to bear by this association, will more than fulfill the hopes of those who are doing so much in her upbuilding and advancement.
-
CHAPTER XXIII
PONTIAC SCHOOLS
SARAHI MICCARROLL'S SKETCH-THE OLD PONTIAC ACADEMY-FIRST COMMON SCHOOLS-RUBLIC SYSTEM ORGANIZED THE "OLD UNION" -HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING OF 1871-SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS AND HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPALS-THE NEW HIGH SCHOOL-PUBLIC SYS- TEM AND LIST OF SCHOOLS-MICHIGAN MILITARY ACADEMY.
The Eighth ward, the High and the Manual Training schools of Pontiac are under the general controlof the city board of education and under the direct supervision of the superintendent. At this writing (October, 1912) the board officers are as follows: President, Samuel E. Beach; secretary, Elmer E. Webster; treasurer, Dr. Robert Y. Fer- guson ; trustees, James H. Lynch and Charles L. Rockwell. G. L. Jen- ner is superintendent of schools; also principal of the high school.
SARAH MCCARROLL'S SKETCH
The teacher of longest continuous service connected with the public educational system of Pontiac is Miss Sarah McCarroll, preceptress of the high school since 1883. She is so well qualified to present the his- tory of the schools, especially the institution in whose upbuilding she has been so prominent, that liberal extracts are here taken from the sketch which she prepared for the Quiver in 1900: "By 1820 Pontiac was started. The government sent men here to build mills, and the first flouring mill was completed in 1819 or 1820. The academy was built by the Old Pontiac Company. This company also gave land for church purposes, at the intersection of Huron and Saginaw streets. The Presbyterians used the academy for their church services, the school being held in the upper story. This academy stood where the Davis block now is, and there Judge Draper taught. The academy became a branch of the University of Michigan and was opened as a branch school September 15, 1837. Professor George P. Williams was 'the first and only principal' and had charge of twenty-five or thirty scholars. Judge Baldwin was one of the young men in attendance in 1838 or 1839. This school was closed as a branch of the university in 1840: 'discontinued for want of any interest taken,' as was said in a school meeting some years afterwards.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.