History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume II, Part 14

Author: Mills, James Cooke
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Saginaw, Mich., Seemann & Peters
Number of Pages: 838

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Some time afterward finding upon his hunting grounds the cowardly Indian who had inflicted upon him the wound in the back, he visited him summarily with savage vengeance, death. On Indian payment day, when the braves were assembled in large numbers at Saginaw. an altercation ensued between Black Beaver, an Indian of considerable note with the

PIONEER DAYS

various tribes, and the fiery Neh-way-go. The former reproached him with the outrage upon the Indian who had struck him in the back, whereupon Neh-way-go defended his act as brave and just; the reproof was repeated, and upon the instant he slew Black Beaver.

This tragedy took place in the camp of Black Beaver and his band. which was near where the old "middle bridge" crossed the river (now Bristol Street), and near the old Emerson mill, in the vicinity of the present City Building. On the west side of the river, in the open plains, near where the residence of Clark Ring now stands. Neh-way-go and his band were encamped.

After his bloody deed Neh-way-go crossed to the west side of the river among his own tribe. A warrant was at once issued by Colonel Stanard for his arrest, acting as justice. Upon hearing of this action Neh-way-go fled to the east side, and, accompanied by a trusted friend, secreted himself in the dense woods which stood upon a part of the business section of the East Side. He preferred to trust himself to the fury of the tribe whose leading warrior had been struck down by his hand, rather than to endure the morti- fication of arrest and punishment by the white man's laws. At nightfall he sent to his white friends, Antoine Campan and Ephraim S. Williams, asking them to come to the woods in which he was hiding, when by giving a signal he would come to them. This they did and he soon appeared. He said he had sent for them for advice: that the white man's punishment was only fit for cowards; death by the hands of his own race was glorious in com- parison, if any relative of his last victim should choose to make it cause for vengeance.

They advised him to cross back to his own camp, present himself to his people, and let the affair take the course warranted by Indian usage. The arrest by the officer was waived, and the undaunted brave appeared at his own camp openly.

The hour for the burial of Black Beaver arrived; and a great number of Indians, from two to three thousand, the oldl narrative relates, assembled as mourners and spectators. The place of burial was just below the old Campau trading post on the brow of the hill, very near the present residence of Benton Hanchett, and almost within the encampment of Neh-way-go and his band. The body of the slain Indian had been placed in a rude coffin : and the relatives with their faces streaked with black paint had gathered around it. The few white settlers then in the valley were there as specta- tors, as the fearful ontrage so near their own doors had absorbed and engrossed the attention of all.

While the solemn Indian rite was in progress over the remains of their favorite warrior, Neh-way-go was seen approaching from his camping ground. He was dressed in full and careful costume, tomahawk and knife in his girdle. and a small canteen of whiskey at his side, his whole appearance imposing and gallant. He made his way with a lofty and majestic step to the center of the mourning group, even to the side of the rude casket. With perfect composure he placed upon it his tomahawk and knife, filled his calumet with kin-a-kan-ick, lighted it, and after taking a few whiffs himself, he passed it to the chief mourner. It was disdainfully refused. He passed it to the next. and the next, with the same result. He then passed his canteen of whiskey with the same formality, and received a like refusal. Each and all declined to partake.

He then unloosed the collar of his hunting shirt, and bared his bosom, seating himself with calm dignity upon the foot of the coffin. Turning his face full upon the chief mourners, he addresed them :

IHISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY

"You refuse my pipe of peace. You refuse to drink with me. Strike not in the back. Strike not and miss. The man that does, dies when I meet him on our hunting ground."

Not a hand was raised. Upon the dark and stoical faces of that throng of enemies by whom he was surrounded. no feeling found expression except that of awe; no muscle moved.

He rose from his seat on the foot of the rude coffin, and, towering to his full height, exclaimed in thundering tones: "Cowards! Cowards! Cowards!"'

As composedly as he had taken them out, he restored, unmolested, the tomahawk and knife to his girdle, and, with his canteen at his side, he walked away from the strange scene as lordly as he came. He had awed his enemies, and evidently was master of the situation. Away from the scene of his feuds and fearful exploits, he soon after fell upon the hunting ground. in a personal encounter with a relative of one of his victims. They sat down and drank together, talked over old times, and then, to see which was the better man, drew their knives and struck each other to the death; both fell.

Thus ended the brave Neh-way-go, a forest hero. as fearless as Rob Rov, as chivalrous as Rhoderick Dhu, and worthy the pen of a Sir Walter, a J. Fennimore, or the epic verse of Whittier or Longfellow.

ON THE CASS RIVER, NEAR ITS MOUTH

CHAPTER VII ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY

Some Features of the Olden Time -To Whom Honor is Due - Elijah N. Davenport - Albert Miller - James Fraser - Organization of the Township - Organ- ization of Saginaw County - Proclamation and Legislative Act - Locating the Seat of Justice - Building the First Court House -The First County Bond - The First Criminal Trial - The First Probate Case - Official Proceedings.

F ROM the earliest period of colonization pioneering has been the chief occupation of the American people ; and the experiences and actual- ities of pioneer life proved a liberal education without parallel to any- thing the present affords. The pioneer was a man with a purpose. It may have been the love of adventure, to better his condition, to make a new home, or to achieve an ideal ; or an aversion to social shams may have impelled him to seek the more agreeable environment of a new country. For two centuries settlements moved slowly westward. Land was the attrac- tion, as from it all sustenance and wealth is derived. The soil must produce before a people can contrive to live.

Glance at some of the features of the olden times, eighty or ninety years ago, when men had time to live and die in their own homes. The epoch of haste had not come; the saddle was the emblem of speed: the canvas- covered wagon was the ark of progress, and the turnpike was the leading artery of trade. The stage coach was a swift inland means of travel, and a day's journey was a short distance. From east to west was the pilgrimage of a lifetime: from north to south was a voyage of discovery. Before the steam saw mill had begun to devour the forests, no one ever dreamed that the screech of the locomotive would disturb the solitude of the wilderness. When the land was lighted with tallow candles after nightfall, domestic or household industries were the rule, and the spinning wheel hummed the tune of prosperity in every thrifty farmer's home. No house had a sewing machine, but nearly all were full of children. Brain and brawn were united in the same person, the toiler was the thinker; and the man who owned a half-section of land was the foremost citizen.

Young persons of the present day can form no adequate idea of the self- sacrificing life of the pioneers, nor realize the hardships and privations which their grandparents suffered in laying the foundation of our prosperity. Every- thing is changed. Ox yokes and ox "gads", axes, axe-helves, beetles and wedges for rail splitting, hand spikes for log rolling, harrows made from crotches of trees, sap-troughs and neck-yokes have long since disappeared as implements of husbandry in Saginaw County. Log houses with shake roof- ing and split flooring, a vast improvement on the bark wigwams of the native Indians, are of the past. There is more civilization, and with it, bolts and bars, locks and keys, vices and crimes, than when the buckskin string. tied to the wooden latch on the inside and passing through a hole in the door to the outside, was pulled to gain admission to houses and their hospi- tality. There was less schooling, but no lack of education in the practical object lessons of nature and life, during the pioneer period. For those who do right, life is better worth living now than then; while for those whose bent is evil the opportunities for wrong are greater now.

HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY

Of the agonies of the past are born the blessings of the present, and from the difficulties of the present spring the hopes of the future.

To Whom Honor Is Due

It was great to have been a pioneer. The name itself is the synonym of western progress; and we have reason to be proud of our inheritance. The early settlers, who laid the foundations of civilization in this wilderness, except a very few whose silver hairs and feeble footsteps remind us of pass- ing years, have passed from the scenes of their activities. Among those who were here in the early 30's, aside from those previously mentioned, were David Stanard and Charles McClean, who came in the winter of 1828. The former settled on the old Conrt farm, and owned a run of stone for grinding corn, which was operated by horse power. McClean settled on a tract of forty acres adjoining the Bacon farm, and was the first man to sow wheat in the county.

In 1829 Lauren Riggs and John Brown, natives of Avon, Livingston County. New York, came to the valley and settled on land one mile above Green Point, on the banks of the Tittabawassee. A son of the former, named John Riggs, was born in November, 1829, and was said to have been the first white boy born in Saginaw County. The father owned the first two horse lumber wagon ever brought here, and conducted a trading post at Green Point. Stephen Benson came at about this time and located on the banks of the Saginaw, opposite from the Bacon farm. Edward McCarty and son Thomas arrived in August. 1830, and settled on the Tittabawassee, several miles from its mouth.

Another of the prominent settlers was Grosvenor Vinton, who came from Avon, New York, early in 1830, and settled on land in recent years owned by Benjamin MeCausland. The first summer he worked for Riggs & Stanard, going on to his own land in the fall, where he continued to live until December, 1834. At different times during these years he made trips to Pontiac to mill, that being the nearest point, by ox team, the journey taking nine days. In the winter of 1831 the territorial legislature organized the Township of Saginaw, and at the first meeting in April there were fifteen voters, of which Vinton was one. He was married August 25, 1831, to Miss Harriet Whitney, sister of Abram and Asa L. Whitney; and were the first white couple married in this county. Their first child, Sarah Vin- ton, afterward Mrs. Samuel Dickinson, was born May 9, 1833.

Thomas Simpson, better known as "Elixir Boga", who was a witness to the totems of the Indian chiefs in the treaty of Saginaw, was a conspicuous figure among the early settlers. He came to this territory at an early day and settled at Pontiac, where in 1830 he commenced the publication of the Oakland Chronicle, the first newspaper in Michigan, north of Detroit. After a precarious existence in the struggling settlement it was discontinued, probably from want of sufficient patronage. About 1832 he came to Sagi- naw and took up his quarters in a small log house within the old fort. He was a man of talent, though addicted to the excessive use of whiskey, and when under its influence his belligerent propensities were greatly increased. The peculiar soubriquet was given him on account of a phrase used by him when threatening an assault : "I will give him the Elixir Boga."

He was intensely Democratic in his politics, and during an election at Lower Saginaw. in 1836, while acting as clerk, his morning's libations hav- ing taken effect, he struck George W. Bullock, one of the Whig delegation, a stunning blow in the face. Bullock was a quiet man, and considering where the blow came from, passed quickly out of reach. He had apparently given no offence, but his assailant probably thought he was preparing to

883190

"JUDGE" ELIJAH N. DAVENPORT

Who floated down the Flint River with his family in two flat boats in 1834. He was Sheriff from 1836 to 1840.

CAPTAIN JOSEPH W. MALDEN

Who kept a log tavern in Saginaw from 1835 to 1838. Afterwards was lighthouse keeper at Island of Mackinac.

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say something of a partisan nature. A severe wind and snow storm pre- vailed that day, and, although the polls were kept open the time required by law, only five votes, two Whig and three Democratic, were cast. After supper at the Globe Hotel, which had recently been opened as a public house by S. S. Campbell, the parties started on the return trip. The only house on the way was one built of logs at Carrollton, then occupied by Joseph Holts- lander and family, where the whole party stopped to warm before a rousing fire in a clay fire-place with a mud and stick chimney. Everyone was in good spirits and jokes freely passed. Another pull brought them to their homes about midnight. The next day finished the election, between one and two hundred votes being cast in Saginaw, of townsmen and farmers, the Democrats being fairly beaten, no one on that ticket being elected except Elijah N. Davenport for sheriff. In 1847 Simpson kept the lighthouse at the mouth of the river. He died in Saginaw a few years later, leaving one son, John Simpson, who lived here a long time after.

Elijah N. Davenport

E. N. Davenport, who for many years bore the title of "Judge", in this county, came to Michigan in 1831 and settled on an eighth-section at Grand Blane, in Genesee County. Later he went to the crossing of the Flint, on the site of the present City of Flint, purchased two hundred acres of land on the east side of the river, and built a small log house near Hamilton's saw mill. Soon after he left this place and returned to his farm at Grand Blanc. In 1834 he removed his family to Saginaw. Packing his household effects and stock into two flat boats, he and his family floated down the river, every few miles finding their progress impeded by floodwood, which, owing to the narrowness of the stream, completely filled it. To pass the obstruction he was compelled to hitch his oxen, with which he was for- tunately provided, to the boats and draw them over the land to where the river was clear again, and relaunch them in the river. For seven long, weary days did they pursue their way before reaching the settlement on the Sagi- naw, each day being fraught with difficulties that required no ordinary degree of perseverance and hardihood to surmount.

Soon after landing here he commenced keeping tavern in an old block house, which stood on what is now the northeast corner of Court and Hamil- ton Streets, at present occupied by the Bauer Block. It was a long, roughly built structure, formerly used by the soldiers in 1822, while they were build- ing the fort, and afterward for the officer's mess. The only sleeping apart- ment was in the low attic, which was reached from below by a steep ladder. Through the entire length of the center was a passageway between rows of beds, barely wide enough for persons to pass in going to the beds they were to occupy. If there were any women guests they had to go to bed first. Opposite this rough log house was the old stockade fort, which occupied the ground on which the Hotel Fordney now stands and a part of the block east, including a section of Hamilton Street. At that time it was quite an eleva- tion, but with the laying out of streets to take the place of the roads and trails, it was graded down and brick blocks now cover the spot.

For four years following 1836 Mr. Davenport filled the office of sheriff, and afterward was elected county judge. He died October 10, 1863. Mrs. Davenport, who was Miss Martha Cronk, before her marriage in Niagara County. New York, in 1828, continued a resident of this city for a period of fifty-six years, or until her death on February 24, 1890. She was the mother of George Davenport, an ex-State senator, Porter Davenport, Julia Daven- port, and Mrs. H. R. Hardick, Mrs. J. E. Wells, Mrs. P. S. Heisrodt, Mrs. Henry Moiles and Mrs. D. W. Gooding.

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Albert Miller

Albert Miller, an early settler of Saginaw Valley, was born at Hartland, Windsor County, Vermont, May 10, 1810, and was descended from the old Puritan stock of New England. His childhood and youth were spent in his native town, where he had the meagre advantages of a pioneer school educa- tion. Being but seven years of age when his father died, he had to make his way in the world; and in his twenty-first year he came west, arriving in Detroit, September 22, 1830. Saginaw was his destination, but at Grand Blanc he met acquaintances from his native town who persuaded him to pur- chase a farm in the vicinity and remain there. In May, 1831, his mother and his two sisters joined him in the new home in the wilderness. In October of the same year his younger sister was married to Eleazer Jewett, and re- moved to Saginaw.

On Mr. Miller's first visit to Saginaw in 1832, he formed a very favor- able impression of the place. In his broad view of the wilderness lay the tranquil river, skirted by dense forests and beautiful prairies with rich, fer- tile soil, with the waters teeming with fish. the banks swarming with wild fowl, and the forests abounding with game. This entrancing reality ex- actly corresponded with the imagin- ary picture he had previously formed of the locality, and he decided to have a home on the banks of the Sag- inaw. In the fall of that year he ac- cordingly sold his farm at Grand Blanc, and, in preparing for a new home, bought a plot of ground from the government on the east side of the river at the junction of the Shia- wassee and Tittabawassee Rivers. In February, 1833, he removed the family to the new locality; and for many years he lived at different points within a short distance of the beautiful stream.

In the winter of 1834-35 he taught school in a portion of the old barracks erected by the soldiers in 1822, having in attendance from twelve to twenty scholars, some of ALBERT MILLER whom were half-breeds. This was the first school taught in Saginaw County. It was quite in contrast with the present elaborate system, if one can imagine the little dingy room, made of hewed logs with mud and moss filling the crevices, and with oiled paper covering the windows, where were gathered all the children within two or three miles around, instructed by one teacher, for a few weeks in winter.

Upon the organization of Saginaw County, in 1835, Mr. Miller was appointed Judge of Probate and a justice of the peace, which offices he held for many years. He was a member of the Legislature in 1847, and held other offices of honor and trust in township, county, and State. He was the first president of the Michigan Pioneer Society, elected February 3, 1875; and in the following years contributed a number of interesting and valuable papers to its archives.

MRS. JAMES FRASER

one of the noble women who bore all the hard- ships and privations of pioneer life in the wilderness.

JAMES FRASER

A pioneer of Saginaw County who settled on the Tittabawassee in 1833, and was one of its prominent residents.

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Early in life he was married to Miss Mary Ann Daglish, a native of England, who, on coming with him to the wilderness, shared the hardships and compensations incident to pioneer life. She was a devoted, careful mother, a truc, sincere friend, an excellent worker with the needle, and was ever courteous and kind. Upon removing to Bay City, in later life, she and her husband were among the founders of the First Presbyterian Church, and for many years were staunch supporters of its good work. Mrs. Miller died at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. C. L. Collins, at Bay City, April 23. 1904. at the age of ninety-one.

After rounding out a life of great usefulness and helpfulness to others, Mr. Miller died at his home in Bay City, September 19, 1893, in the eighty- fourth year of his life.

James Fraser

In the early part of 1833 James Fraser, having purchased some land on the banks of the Tittabawassee not far from the settlement on the Saginaw, concluded to remove his family there. He had recently married Miss Busby. a native of London, England, who had come with her father's family to Detroit in 1830. Her father kept the Eagle Tavern, on Woodward Avenue just below what is now Grand Circus Park, but was then only a mud hole filled with water after a heavy shower. As the location was unhealthy and cholera raging fearfully in the town, the elder Busby was prevailed on to move to the newer country. He therefore sold out his business, and accom- panied the Frasers to their forest home. In the party was Joseph Busby, one of the sturdy settlers of this county.

They drove a small herd of cattle and a few horses, and so rough was the trail through the woods that they were three days in covering the dis- tance of seventy miles to the Flint River, camping out at night on the damp ground. At the crossing of the Flint they stopped with John Todd, who had the only house in the place, and proceeded the next day to the Cass River. where they arrived after dark. An old Frenchman, who lived on the opposite bank of the stream, took them across in his canoe and provided a hot supper, when they were glad to lie down on the rough floor in front of a good fire and sleep until morning. After breakfast they recrossed the river, found the horses and cattle browsing near by, as they had been too tired to stray far, and, swimming them across, resumed their journey.

Toward noon of the fifth day they came to the broad Saginaw, at a point opposite Green Point ; and here they met Albert Miller and his brother-in- law, Eleazer Jewett, who helped them in getting their stock across the stream. Miller was then quite a young man and lived with his mother. whose kindness of heart and hospitable welcome to new comers was well remembered and highly appreciated. Having secured their cattle they pro- ceeded on their way, and arrived at their destination before nightfall. The Busby family soon after settled on the place opposite the Fraser's, so that the families could be near each other.

The following year James Fraser went back to Detroit to purchase some stock for his farm on the Tittabawassee. While driving in from Flint to Saginaw, on his way home, the cattle became confused and would not keep to the narrow trail. He chased them about in the thick underbrush which lined the path on either side, until he was tired out, when he took off his coat and after carrying it awhile, and getting near the trail, as he supposed, he hung it on the lower branch of a tree. He then started to head off some of the cattle, and in doing so lost the location where he had left his coat, and could never find it. He used to say, in after years, that this was the greatest loss he ever had, as all the money he possessed, about

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five hundred dollars, was in a pocket of that coat. There was a great hunt- ing for the coat, but it never was found. It was supposed the wolves, which infested the country, pulled it down and tore it to pieces.

Murdock Fraser, who was born at Iverness, Scotland, in 1812, and came to Detroit with his parents, John and Elizabeth Fraser, in April, 1834, soon after set forth on horseback to explore the Saginaw Valley with the view of locating some lands. He passed the Flint River in safety and crossed Pine Run Creek, when he became lost in the wilderness. For seventy hours he traversed the forest, hungry, fatigued and anxious. He lost his horse, which made his situation more desperate, and packs of gaunt wolves threatened him, yet he pushed onward toward the north, and finally reached the prim- itive dwelling of a settler named Kent, located on the Cass River. After resting and repairing his torn clothes, he resumed his journey to Saginaw. Later he returned to Detroit, and in June, 1835, married Miss Isabella Goulding, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, who was born August 17, 1817. They then made their way to Saginaw on Indian ponies, and for a time lived at James Fraser's house, on land which in after years was known as the A. B. Paine farm. Soon after they settled on a piece of land on the banks of the Tittabawassee, which had been located by Duncan MeLellan, and where they lived for many years in the enjoyment of the highest reputation for cordial hospitality, which was a feature, and a pleasant one, among many trying scenes of pioneer life. Mr. Fraser died in 1876. His widow, after a residence in this county of fifty-three years, died April 30, 1889, survived by nine children.

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History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume II, Part 14

Author: Mills, James Cooke Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Saginaw, Mich., Seemann & Peters Number of Pages: 838

Author: Mills, James Cooke
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Saginaw, Mich., Seemann & Peters
Number of Pages: 838