USA > Michigan > Saginaw County > History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume I > Part 17
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Previous to 1819, and for a few succeeding years, the only white inhabitants were the Campaus, and the French trappers who made his post their home. The treaty attracted a few more white men, but not until 1822 did the Americans visit the district with a view of occupying it. In 1824 the American Fur Company introduced a few more "pale-faces" to the savages, and in less than three years the first American settlers visited the land and resolved to make it their future home.
It is not strange that among the pioneer settlers of a country, a deep-seated and sincere friendship should spring up, to grow and strengthen with their years. The incidents peculiar to life in a new country, the trials and hardships, privations and destitutions, are well calculated to test, not only the physical powers of endu- rance but also the moral, kindly, generous attributes of manhood and womanhood. Then are the times that try mnen's souls, and bring to the surface all that there may be in them of either good or bad. As a rule there is an equality of conditions that does not rec- ognize distinctions of class; all occupy a common level, and as a consequence a brotherly and sisterly feeling grows up that is as lasting as time. In such a community there is a hospitality, a kind- ness, a benevolence, and a charity unknown and unpracticed among the older, richer and more densely populated settlements. The very nature of the surroundings of these pioneers teaches them to feel each other's woe and share each other's joys. An injury or wrong may be ignored, but a kind, generous, charitable act is never for- gotten ;- the memory of old associations and kind deeds is always
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green. Raven locks may bleach and whiten, round cheeks become sunken and hollow, the fire of intelligence vanish from the organs of vision, the brow become wrinkled with care and age, and the erect form bowed with the accumulating years; but the true friends of long ago are remembered as long as memory itself endures.
As a general thing the men and women who first settled this land were bold, fearless, self-reliant and industrious. In these respects, no matter from what country they came, there was a similarity of character. In birth, education, religion, and language there may have been differences; but if they did exist at all, they were soon lost by association, and a common interest united all.
In pioneer life there are always incidents of peculiar interest, not only to the pioneers themselves, but also to posterity. It is a mat- ter of regret that the old settlers did not continue to hold their an- nual meetings, for a record of the reminiscences related at such meetings would be the direct means of preserving to the literature of the Republic the history of every community. Aside from the historic importance of snch reunions, they would serve to enliven and cement old friendships and renew 'old memories that might have been interrupted by the innovations of progress. In the Sag- inaw Valley the pioneers were not slow to observe all that was lost to themselves and their new neighbors by the want of an or- ganization. In 1873 a movement to organize a society was entered upon and proved successful in its results.
The executive committee of the pioneer society met at the court- house in Saginaw City, Jan. 6, 1874, for the purpose of arranging the details of a reunion of old settlers. Hon. Albert Miller pre- sided, with George F. Lewis, secretary. Moses B. Hess, the sec- retary of the society, was absent. The members of the executive committee present were W. R. McCormick, J. Blackmore, Geo. Davenport, Samuel Shattuck, with the president and acting secre- tary. After some discussion, a program for the carrying out of the first annual meeting of the society, to be held Feb. 21, 1874, was adopted. Geo. F. Lewis, Joshua Blackmore and Geo. Daven- port were appointed a committee to provide dinner for the pioneers after the annual meeting. Geo. F. Vanfleit, Geo. Davenport and W. R. McCormick subscribed their nanies as members of the society.
FIRST ANNUAL MEETING.
The first regular meeting of the Pioneer Society of Saginaw Val- ley took place on Saturday, Feb. 21, 1874, within the court-house at Saginaw City. Hon. Albert Miller, who was elected president at the meeting for organization, presided, with Moses B. Hess as secretary. A constitution and set of by-laws were adopted, after which C. W. Grant moved that the names of many pioneers, as suggested by Geo. F. Lewis and Joshua Blackmore, should be in- serted on the roll of honorary members. This motion was carried, and the following named persons were chosen members of the so-
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ciety: Harvey Williams, E. R. Swarthout, Geo. Oliver, Nan-qua- chic-a-ming, Judge Eleazer Jewett, Benjamin Cushaway, Sidney Campbell, Mrs. A. M. Richman. Mrs. S. Bullock, Mrs. E. Roger, Mrs. B. Barring, Mrs. Harvey Williams, Mrs. Judge Ure, Mrs. H. Miller, Mrs. Orrin Kenny, Mrs. W. Trombley, Mrs. A. Butts, Mrs. Noah Beach, Mrs. A. K. Swarthout, Mrs. C. A. Lull, Mrs. Albert Miller, Mrs. E. C. Kimberley, Mrs. B. Cushaway, Mrs. Judge Jewett, Mrs. Henry, Mrs. Malone, Mrs. Joseph Trombley.
After the adoption of Mr. Grant's motion, it was resolved to hold a meeting Feb. 28, for the purpose of electing delegates to a convention of old settlers to be held at Detroit, March 11, to con- sider the advisability of forming a State Pioneer Society.
In the afternoon the literary and social features of the meeting were presented. Addresses were delivered by President Albert Miller. W. R. McCormick, Charles D. Little, Geo. F. Lewis, C. W. Grant and others. The dinner was given at the Taylor House, and was, perhaps, the most characteristic dinner party on record. Old people met together after years of toil, chatted about the olden times and lived the past again.
The President, addressing the meeting, said:
"Fellow Pioneers, Ladies and Gentlemen :- I am sorry the duty of addressing you did not devolve upon some one more capable of performing the service acceptably, for the occasion is one that might call forth eloquence from one possessed of that gift. As- sembled as we are, for a re-union of a remnant of a band of pioneers who first settled in the Saginaw Valley, on this day, which is celebrated as the aniversary of the birth-day of the Father of his country, who was first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen; who, by the rare qualities of his head and heart, and in consequence of his unbounded patriotism and strict integrity, was the inain instrument in the hands of an All- wise Providence in conquering a powerful foe, and in establishing for us a free government, under which it has been possible for the institution we planted here in the wilderness to flourish, and the growth and prosperity of our beautiful valley within the last forty years is a type of the progress of our whole country within the last century. And what the progress of our valley has been since 1830, when its whole extent was little more than a past wilderness, may be conjectured by comparing the commencement of some of our institutions and industries with their present condition.
"I first became a resident of that portion of the Saginaw Valley which is comprised within the limits of Genesee county, in the fall of 1830, shortly before the United States census of that year was taken. At that time Saginaw (which comprised all the territory between the Flint river and the straits of Mackinaw) con- tained 28 inhabitants who were called white. (There were counted some of very dark complexion and of doubtful origin to get that number.) What is now Genesee county, which was the only remaining portion of the valley that was then settled, had a popu- lation of 70. So, then, the Saginaw Valley had a population of
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about 100 whites, all told. Forty years after that date, in 1870, the six counties over which our society extends, contained a popu- lation of 117,706, and estimating for the increase since that time, we may safely set the present population down at 150,000,-not a bad showing: nearly five times the number in all Michigan at the time first mentioned. Within the limits above referred to, there are four cities, containing in the aggregate over 50,000 souls, and more than 20 villages with a population ranging from 100 for the least to 3,000 for the largest.
" The facilities for communication between those sparse settle- ments, 40 years ago, were not the best that ever were. Such was the condition of the road between Flint and Grand Blanc in the spring of 1831, when my mother and sisters came to reside with me, that I purchased a farm in the last named settlement, to avoid the journey through the Grand Blanc woods, thoughi otherwise I should have preferred a residence at Flint, and was offered as a gift, one acre of land (which includes the present site of the Fenton Block in that city) to build upon, if I would settle there and purchase for a farm the 80-acre lot, upon which the Thread mills are now located. The lot was then Government land.
" Forty-two years ago last fall, John Todd, Phineas Thompson and myself spent two weeks in building bridges and clearing the trail of fallen timber between Flint and Saginaw, so as to make it possible for sleighs to pass between the two points in winter. All communication between other portions of the valley were by Indian trails, except on the rivers where the canoe was universally adopted as a means of conveyance. There are those present who came from Flint to Saginaw by way of the river, being obliged to haul their boats and transport their baggage by hand around the drift- wood which obstructed the navigation of the stream for a long distance. At one time that, by the way of the river, was the only mode of travel for ladies, who dare not undertake a journey of 40 miles through the wilderness on horseback, and the river route involved the necessity of camping in the woods one or more nights while on the way. But now we can reach the center of either of the six counties in a little more than an hour's ride, and in a short ride of two hours we can penetrate the regions north and west of us, which in the early days of our settlement here, was supposed would remain an unbroken wilderness for generations to come. But now we can ride in palace cars, the magnificence of which the pioneer could have no conception, except by reading a description of the palaces produced by the genii of Aladdin's lamp.
" The means of conveying intelligence from one part of our country to another even in the older settled portions of it forty years ago, were not what the people of the present day would expect them to have been then. In 1830, '31, '32 and '33, it ordinarily took about three weeks to convey a letter from my home in Michigan to my former home in Vermont, and the same time for the return of an answer. I well remember with what delight I received my first letter from Vermont, and with what pleasure
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I perused its contents while sitting on a stump of a large oak tree which I had just felled, near the site of the present court-house in Genesee county. The letter was handed to me by some person who brought it from Grand Blanc, then the most northerly post- office in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. That postoffice was supplied with a mail from Pontiac once in two weeks. Rufus Stevens, the postmaster at Grand Blanc, transported the mail between the two points for the proceeds of that office; and notwithstanding the fact that he received 25 cents for each letter (delivered from his office) which had been carried over 300 miles, and that he had a monopoly of all the postoffice business in the Saginaw Valley, in- cluding a part of Oakland and Lapeer counties, his compensation for carrying the mail was very meager.
"In making these comparisons I shall not attempt to give sta- tistics, but merely call attention to the state of the country as it existed ( when the pioneers first took up their residence in this wil- derness), and as it now exists, letting the imagination of my hearers trace the wonderful progress that has been made, and contrast the few privileges that were accorded to the pioneers, with the many that are enjoyed by the inhabitants of the present day. Now our postoffice facilities are such that almost every village and ham- let in our whole valley has a daily mail, and some of our cities have four or five; and instead of paying 25 cents for the convey- ance of a letter 300 miles, for three cents a letter is carried across the continent, and in less time than some letters had to wait in the post-office at Pontiac, for conveyance to Grand Blanc. And beside our post-office facilities, we have the electric telegraph (which I con- sider the greatest invention of this or any other age) by means of which intelligence is flashed with lightning speed from one end of the civilized world to the other, and all the important occurrences of a day are printed in our daily papers and presented for our pe- rusal early on the following morning. Well may the pioneer now repeat with wonder the message which the great inventor permitted Miss Ellsworth to dictate, for the first one to pass over the magic wires, ' What hath God wrought!'
"I shall next refer to the progress of our educational institutions as a subject of primary importance, for without intelligence dif- fused among the masses of our people a free government can not be obtained, and the earliest pioneers of the valley were alive to the importance of educating those who should after them possess the land. As early as 1830, or in the sumnier of 1831, a school- house was built in the Perry settlement at Grand Blanc, and one terni of school taught previous to the winter of 1831-'2. During the winter last referred to, I taught about 20 scholars in that school-house, who gathered from the settlements around; and that I believe, was the second term of school ever taught within the present limits of the six counties.
" In the winter of 1834-'5, I taught school in a portion of the old barracks erected, by the soldiers in 1822, which occupied the present site of the Taylor House in this city. I had in attendance
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from 12 to 20 scholars, some of whom were half-breeds; that was the first school taught in Saginaw county. For a contrast between the past and present you have only to imagine the little dingy room, made of hewn logs, where were gathered all the children within two or three miles around, to be instructed by one teacher, for a few weeks in winter, and then turn your eyes toward the windows aud behold the temple of science erected by one of our cities, at an expense of $100,000, which is fur- nished like a palace, and provided with a corps of a dozen or more teachers, who are instructing, during 10 months of the year, hun- dreds of children from the rudiments to the higher branches of an education.
"Our religious privileges, or the want of them in early days, must not be forgotten. There are those present who heard Mr. Fraser, then of the Ohio Conference, preach the first sermon that was ever delivered in Saginaw. But they are not present who sheared his horse's mane and tail as a punishment for boldly preaching against the besetting sin of the place. It was not the horse that preached the sermon for which he was punished, but the minister; but afterward the horse, with his shorn mane and tail, preached so powerfully, that I am not sure he did not convert our Methodist brother to the doctrine of man's total depravity.
" It was in 1832 or 1833, that Mr. Fraser was here; he came to Saginaw but a few times, and after he left we had no preaching un- til 1835, when the Rev. William H. Brockway came and remained with us one year. Some who are present will remember him as an athletic young man, who, upon his arrival with us, mingled freely with the pioneers, and if he saw dram-drinking, or heard profane language, he would rebuke the sin in a mild, friendly way that would be heeded far more readily than if the offender had been denounced with wrath to come. If he was at the raising of a building, he was invariably rendering such efficient aid as few could bestow. If the farmer was in the harvest field, or at any other employment, or if Mr. Brockway was his guest, he was sure to be at his side, performing more labor than any other one pres- ent (when in the pulpit, I was going to say, but there was not a pulpit within sixty miles of him). When preaching, he was bold and impressive. He did not mince matters there-and in prayer, he was powerful, wrestling with the Almighty for a blessing, seem- ing unwilling to let him go until he had obtained it. At that time there was no religious organization in the county, and if it was to be saved from destruction on the terms awarded to the 'City of the Plains,' there were not half enough righteous men to save it. But notwithstanding all that, every house was open for a home for Mr. Brockway, and he was treated with as much kindness and consid- eration as if he had all the time been with his Methodist brethren. There was no special revival, or awakening, during his stay; but there are those living who believe that a revival which occurred on the Tittabawassee years afterward, was in answer to Mr. Brockway's prayer, made in that locality.
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"In 1836 there was a large accession to our population, and among those who located here at the time were many good Chris- tian people. A Presbyterian Church was organized, which for a time was under the pastoral care of Rev. H. L. Miller, and from that time there was a marked change in the morals of the place. The Sabbath was more generally observed, and many who had for years been deprived of the privilege of attending religious wor- ship regularly, availed themselves of it then. In 1836 the old school-house (which is now a part of the Methodist parsonage) was built, which answered some years for a school-house, church, court-house, town-hall, lecture and show room, etc. Some pres- ent will remember with gratitude the team furnished by the late Norman Little and driven by Erastus Vaughan, which in winter, on Sabbath mornings, would stop at the door of every house where the inmates were in the habit of attending meeting, and take them to the school-house, and after service carry them all home.
"In the fall of 1838 there was a revival of religion in a pro- tracted meeting conducted by the Rev. O. Parker, who is now, at an advanced age, engaged in the work of an evangelist. In that meeting there were several conversions, some of whoni at that time took upon themselves vows of fidelity to their Redeemer, lived to adorn their Christian profession by lives consistent therewith, be- fore they were called home to receive their reward, while others yet remain, waiting for the summons; so that the good work pro- gressed, till now we see the church spire pointing heavenward from every portion of our valley, We have earnest, intelligent Chris- tian ministers instructing the people from Sabbath to Sabbath in the way of salvation; and in our Sunday-schools there are thou- sands of children receiving instruction in the word of God; fitting them for the position (which we hope they will occupy) of Chris- tian men and women.
"In 1834 there was but one saw running on the Saginaw river; that was before the day of mulay saws, but the machinery that pro- pelled that saw was fearfully and wonderfully made. Charles A. Lull was the sash, and I was the pitman. When I was a lumber- man, the season's cutting for one saw was estimated at one million feet. We fell short of that amount that year; but we did cut enough to lay the floor in Mr. Lull's log house that he built on his farm, which is now in the town of Spaulding, and which was the first house built in Saginaw county away from the banks of the river.
"In 1835, Messrs. Harvey and G. D. & E. S. Williams built the steam saw-mill just above the foot of Mackinaw street, in this city; and so little was known at this time about running saw-mills economically, that when they commenced to build their mill they contracted for large quantities of cord-wood to be delivered, for fuel with which to run it. It is not necessary for me to trace the progress of the lumber business from that time to the present, when it has attained such enormous proportions. Last year there were manufactured in the valley over 619,000,000 feet of lumber,
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which, in order to give some idea of the magnitude of the busi- ness, I will say that if the lumber had all been cut into one and one-half inch plank, there would be sufficient to lay a walk three feet wide around the circumference of the earth, and have 25,000, 000 feet left.
"Many who are present to-day will remember the genial, tal- ented and now greatly lamented Dr. Houghton, who many years ago lost his life while prosecuting his researches in bringing to light the hidden riches of the Peninsular State, and who, I believe, was the first to adopt the theory and define the limits of our great salt basin, which theory has been very nearly verified by subse- quent development of facts. You remember also the undertaking of the State, under Dr. Houghton's supervision, to develop the salt interest, near the mouth of the Salt river, far up the Tittaba- wassee; which point Dr. Houghton selected in opposition to his better judgment. fearing that in case of a possible failure, if he undertook to penetrate the salt rock in the lower part of the valley, he would be voted a humbug by the people, and the development of one of the great interests of Michigan be indefinitely postponed.
"The work of sinking a well was proseeuted under many diffi- culties till they had reached a depth of about two hundred feet, when difficulties incident to such operations occurred at the well, which delayed the business till our great State became bankrupt, and unable to furnish more money to prosecute the work, and it was abandoned, and twenty years passed away before another ef- fort was made to penetrate the salt rock of the Saginaw Valley. In the meantime other scientific men so fully demonstrated the correctness of the theory adopted by Dr. Houghton, that some enterprising citizens of East Saginaw determined to penetrate the earth, and bring forth the riches that had so long remained be- neath its surface. Their enterprise proved a success, as has every other one of the same kind that has been undertaken in this part of the valley. Last year there was produced over 800,000 barrels of salt, for which there was paid to the manufacturers nearly $1,250,000.
"The wealth lying beneath our rivers and marshes is greater than that of any equal span in the rich State of California. The gold placers of California will be exhausted while the wealth be- neath us is a perennial spring, which will flow, to enrich the inhabi- tants of our valley till the great convulsion which shall overwhelm all sublunary things. The commerce of our river must necessarily have kept pace with the other material interests of our valley. There are those present who remember when the 'Savage,' a schooner of 40 tons burden, was the only craft, larger than the redman's canoe, that disturbed the placid waters of our beautiful river; and two trips of that craft per year was sufficient for all the carrying trade of both the white man and red; and the supplies that were brought in were in proportion of four barrels of whisky to one of pork and two of flour; and sometimes when the vessel
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was discharging her cargo the people would wonder what would be done with so much pork and flour.
"In the winter of 1847-'8, when the schooner 'Julia Smith,' of 60 tons burden, was built at Saginaw with a view of trading be- tween this city, Detroit and other ports, the people thought we were making wonderful progress; and so we were. But let us look at the progress made since that date. A large portion of the hun- dreds of millions of feet of lumber and the hundreds of thousands of barrels of salt, are exported by water, and the imagination must furnish the details of the amount of shipping necessary to do all this business; for I find I am extending this address beyond the limits I first intended, and there are many other matters of interest that I would fain have mentioned to-day, but for want of time I must defer till some other occasion.
"We, my fellow pioneers, who have witnessed the growth and progress of the material interests of our valley during the last 40 years, had great anticipations for its future, or we never would have been willing to have undergone the privations and hardships we did in making this our home; but can one of us put his hand - on his heart and truthfully say, that those anticipations have not been fully realized? And now let us thank our Heavenly Father that He has so far permitted us to realize the consummation of our earthly desires, and that so many of us are still living to enjoy the fruits of our early labors. The material progress of our valley will not stop now, the prospect for its future prosperity was never brighter than it is to-day; greater manufacturing interests · other than salt and lumber will soon be ranged along the banks of our river, giving employment to thousands, who will hereafter be supplied with the products of our soil, which, when properly drained and cultivated, will yield such bountiful crops as cannot be pro- duced in any other locality in this latitude.
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