USA > Michigan > Saginaw County > History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume II > Part 16
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The real culprits who had been apprehended did not, however, escape so easily. The young Englishman turned State's evidence, and after he had testified in the case there was no doubt as to the guilt of the prisoners. In giving sentence Judge Whipple spoke feelingly to the mate, but as he had had charge of the vessel, and could have prevented the theft, he said he con- sidered him the most culpable of all. and gave him three years at hard labor. After a few month's imprisonment, however, the convicted prisoner was pardoned. Dezalia stood up and received his sentence with perfect com- posure, but soon after was seen weeping bitterly. Being asked if he con- sidered the sentence too hard, he replied, "Oh, no! but the disgrace of being tried by such a hard-looking jury, is what grieves me."
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
The First Probate Case
The old territorial law under which Saginaw County was organized, required that some learned person should be appointed in each county to the office of Judge of Probate. At the time. Albert Miller was teaching the first and only school in the county, and in order that the requirements of the law might be fulfilled, he was appointed to that office: for, as his friends said, "Who could be a learned person if the school teacher was not?" Ephraim S. Williams was recommended for county clerk and register of deeds: and Andrew Ure, Gardner D. Williams and Albert Miller for justices of the peace.
While balloting for justices, an old Frenchman very pertinently ex- claimed : "I throw all the pape for justices of the peace in the fire; I don't want any in this county. I once lived on Connor's Creek, where all was peace and harmony till they got a justice of the peace in the settlement, and then they began to sue each other and quarrel, and then there was no more peace." But notwithstanding his protest justices were appointed, and he had a great deal of litigation before them.
The first business transacted in the Probate Court for this county is of more than passing interest, as it involved some very peculiar circumstances. In the summer of 1833 a young sailor, named Charles Cater, came to this valley and purchased land at the forks of the Tittabawassee: but instead of remaining to cultivate it, he returned to his occupation on the high seas. The following year Abram Cater, a brother of Charles, came and settled in the vicinity of Saginaw, and married here in 1835. Not long after he re- ceived news that his brother had been cast away and had died at sea. In due time he was appointed administrator of the estate of his brother Charles, but before the estate was fully settled Abram Cater died. Charles had lived in Ohio before proceeding on his last voyage and had left personal property there. His estate was administered in Ohio and converted into cash, which was remitted to the Judge of Probate for Saginaw County, to be paid to Abram Cater's widow, who, in the absence of any other heirs, was con- sidered the person best entitled to it.
The manner of remitting funds in pioneer days was very cumbersome compared with the methods of today, when exchanges are so easily effected. The bills were cut in halves, one half remitted by mail, and the other half retained until notice of the safe arrival of the first half was received, when the other halves of the bills were sent. In the Cater case the letter con- taining the first half of the bills was mis-sent and went to Mackinaw by the winter mail, causing considerable delay, but it finally reached its destination, and in due time the other halves of the bills were received; and all was paid over to Mrs. Abram Cater, who in the meantime had taken another husband.
Soon after the payment of the money to Abram Cater's widow, a letter from the administrator of Charles Cater's estate in Ohio was received by the court, expressing some anxiety about the matter, as Charles Cater had appeared there and demanded his property. The Judge of Probate for Sag- inaw County could do nothing in the matter, except to forward the receipt for the money which he had paid over according to directions. Upon investi- gation it proved that Charles Cater's land and the estate of Abram Cater were in the part of the Township of Saginaw that remained in Oakland County, after the boundaries had been changed upon organization of the county. Charles Cater thereupon took out letters of administration in Oak- land County on Abram's estate, and the tables were turned in respect to heirship. Charles Cater becoming the heir of Abram.
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ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY
Official Proceedings
The history of human events in the early days of the county would not be complete without some mention of its official proceedings, the dusty records of which disclose the way in which the foundation of civil govern- ment was founded, and upon which its future super-structure - civilly and morally - was reared. A portion of the record of township and county is therefore presented :
First meeting of the board October 2, 1835, at the house of Elijah N. Davenport, in the village of Saginaw. Present, G. D. Williams, supervisor : Albert Miller, A. F. Mosely, justices of the peace ; and E. S. Williams, town clerk.
Board allowed in payment of officer's fees $71.60, included in which was the sum of fifteen dollars for attorney's services for the year 1835.
For township expenses $93.94 100.00
For building bridges
For collector fees Total $203.63
9.69
1836. Amount voted to be raised for the year was $2,400.62, which included an item for building jail, $1,570.59.
1837. Amount voted to be raised for all purposes, $2,279.04. At an election held the people voted to issue bonds in the sum of $10,000 for the purpose of building a court house.
1838. Jeremiah Riggs succeeded G. D. Williams as supervisor, other- wise the board remained as at its first meeting. Board met February 20th and adopted a plan for the court house, and advertised for bids for its con- struction. The board allowed the sum of $9.20 for making the census of the county, "being at the rate of one dollar for every one hundred persons." ( This shows that the population of the county at this time, assuming the statement to be correct, was 920.)
At the October session of the board the following sums were voted to be raised, viz. :
For wolf bounties - $28.80
For interest on court house bonds 700.00
For State tax 1,709.00 For support of poor 100.00
Town expenses Total
646.81
$3,184.61
November 19, 1838, Duncan MeLellan, Cromwell Barney and James Fraser were elected board of county commissioners to hold office for three years.
1839. At a meeting held October 9, the board appointed three superin- tendents of the county poor. On October 12, the board made appropriations as follows :
To pay expenses of the February term of the Circuit Court $77.06
To pay expenses of July term 241.07
To pay for school expenses 80.64
To pay township expenses 512.73
Total $911.50
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
For the first time the records disclose the fact of an assessment of property, the valuation of real and personal property being then given at $621,652.75. At this session of the board bids were solicited for making a copy of the assessment roll of the county: several bids were submitted and the job was let for $24.50 to Timothy Howe, the lowest bidder. The bids ranged from that amount to $35.
1840. Commissioner's meeting July 15. Board appropriated $40 to pay year's salary of prosecuting attorney.
October 9, board made appropriations as follows :
For expenses of Town of Saginaw $673.64 For State tax 604.50
For county expenses 544.63 For making assessment roll 30.00
Total $1,852.77
The board rejected the assessment roll of the township of Tuscola for irregularities, doubtless to the great relief of the citizens of that township.
At this session of the board license was granted to Gardner D. Williams to operate a ferry at any point within one mile north or south of Mackinaw road, at the following rates:
Each foot passenger 12!2 cents 25 cents
One man and horse
One man, wagon and horse 3712 cents
One man, wagon and two horses 50 Cattle and horses, each 10 cents
cents
Sheep and swine, each 614 cents
1841. July 12, the board held its first meeting for the purpose of equal- izing the assessment rolls, three townships having been organized, namely, Saginaw, Tuscola and Tittabawassee.
1842. Taymouth appears as a township. On July 6, the board equalized the township assessments, as follows:
Value of real and personal property in Saginaw, $125,190.50 Value of real and personal property in Taymouth. 27,791.25 Value of real and personal property in Tuscola. 13,090.04 Value of real and personal property in Tittabawassee. 57,259.86
Total $223,241.65
CHAPTER VIII THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF SAGINAW CITY
The McCormick Family - Joseph Busby - Difficulties and Privations of Pioneer Life - Benjamin Cushway - Phineas D. Braley - Hiram L. Miller - The First Steam- boat on the Saginaw - Extract from Mrs. Richman's Diary - Charles H. Richman -- Saginaw City in 1837 - The Northern Canal Project - The Enterprise of Norman Little - The Old Webster Honse - The Bubble Bursts - Anthony R. Swarthout - Horace S. Beach.
A sturdy pioneer of Saginaw Valley, who aided very materially in the development of its resources, was William R. McCormick. He was born at Bethlehem, New York, August 16, 1822, and spent his early boyhood on the homestead farm. As early as 1832 his father, James McCormick, emigrated with his family to this territory, landing in Detroit on the first of August, after a voyage across Lake Erie in the steamboat Superior. By the advice of John R. Williams, a former resident of Albany, New York, then living in Detroit, he decided to go to Saginaw, and soon after set out with his two elder sons to traverse the northern wilderness. At the crossing of the Flint they stopped to rest, and were so impressed with the rustic scenery of the place that the father purchased one hundred and twenty-five acres of land, a half-breed title, on the north side of the river and east of what is now Saginaw Street, comprising at present a portion of the first ward of the City of Flint, for one hundred and twenty-five dollars. They soon built a log house near where the north end of the bridge now is, and moved the family from Detroit to their new home in the forest wilderness. At that time there were but two other houses at this place, one being on the south bank of the river and west of the trail, and occupied by John Todd, while the other was the old trading post of Jacob Smith, known to the native Indians as Wah- be-sins, and located about forty rods below on the north bank of the river, then the home of Judge Stowe.
After getting his family settled, the father started out to secure provi- sions for the winter. There was plenty of venison to be had from the Indians, but there was no pork in that vicinity, so he and George Oliver paddled down the Flint in a canoe for the settlement on the Saginaw. After several days spent in reaching their destination, he purchased what meat was needed ; and on the return trip up the river they camped on the old "Indian field," about seven miles south of the bend in the Cass, now known as Bridgeport, and about fourteen miles from Saginaw by the present road. He took a great fancy to this field, which contained about one hundred and fifty acres without a stump or a stone, and ready for the plow, where, he believed, he could raise enough crops to support his family. The Indians had abandoned the land years before. because grub-worms had destroyed their maize; and it was their belief that the Great Spirit had sent them as a curse on the land.
In the fall of 1832 Rufus W. Stevens moved with his family from Grand Blanc to Flint ; and James Cronk built a log house about half way between the Flint and Thread Rivers. In the log house which had been built by Elijah N. Davenport, and later abandoned by him on his return to Grand Blanc, the first school in Genesee County was started, and was attended by William R. McCormick, his three sisters, and the children of the other settlers.
1
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
James McCormick soon sold his place at Flint to a son of Jacob Smith, the Indian trader, for six hundred dollars, thinking he had made a great speculation. Yet, so great have been the strides in the development of the country that at the present time this property collectively is probably worth a million dollars, or more, an increase in eighty-odd years from one dollar an acre to eight thousand or possibly ten thousand dollars. He then moved his family down the river to the Indian field, where they arrived at sun- down of the second day, and camped for the night with only a tent made of blankets, to shelter the mother and little children. In two or three days they had put up a comfortable shanty to live in while building a log house, which they soon commenced and had finished by the time winter set in, and where they lived for many years.
The first year's crop was excellent, and the second year they sold one thousand bushels of corn to the American Fur Company, for the Indians beyond Lake Superior. The greatest difficulty of their rough pioneer life was in getting to the grist mill on the Thread River, to have their grain converted into flour. They had to take the grain in a canoe up the river about thirty-five miles, get it drawn one and a half miles to the mill, and back to the river and thence by the river home. This trip, requiring the hardest kind of labor, usually took four days, camping out every night, and the work always fell to James J. and William R., whose feet became very sore from walking in the winter over sticks and sharp stones, in getting their heavily laden canoe over the rapids of the stream. When winter set in they could not go to the mill, as there was no road through the unbroken wilderness, so in the long evenings the boys took turns pounding corn in a home-made mortar, fashioned by hollowing out the end of a three-foot section of a log, similar to that used by the Indians for the same purpose.
There was nothing but a trail, or bush road, between Flint and Saginaw in those days, and part of the year it was impassible, and nearly always so for women, consequently most of the travel went up and down the river in canoes or skiffs, though it was a very laborious and tedious journey.
In the fall of 1837 William R. was sent by his father to Saginaw to attend school, boarding with Major Mosley who kept a sort of tavern in one of the old blockhouses inside the stockade. The school house stood near the location of the old jail, and the teacher was Horace S. Beach. 1Ie was a kind-hearted man, but very firm and determined, qualities which were necessary in the conduct of that school, as he had a hard lot of boys to manage. Ile was equal to every emergency, on one occasion requiring Walter Cronk and William R. McCormick to saw and split seven cords of wood, instead of administering the usual flogging as punishment for fighting. That winter Mr. Beach kindly offered to teach his pupils to sing, if they would form an evening class. This they glady did, and six boys and six girls met regularly for singing lessons.
The McCormick family continued to live on the old Indian field, which they called the "Garden of Eden," until 1841, when the father and son James J. bought an interest in the old Portsmouth steam mill and removed to that place. They soon commenced the manufacture of lumber in this mill, the second built on the river, and shipped the first cargo of lumber, consisting of forty thousand feet, that ever went out of the Saginaw River. It ran sixty per cent. uppers, and was sold in Detroit to James Busby, a brother-in- law of James Fraser, for eight dollars a thousand feet, one-third down and the balance on time. Lumbering did not produce fortunes in those days, but it opened the way for those who came later to accumulate riches. James McCormick, the father of James J. and William R. McCormick, died in 1847.
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JAMES MCCORMICK
Who settled on the old "Indian Field" on the banks of the Flint River, with the idea of planting a silk worm industry in this valley. It did not provo successful.
WILLIAM R. McCORMICK
Younger son of James McCormick, who came here in 1×37 and attended the first school in the county, boarding with Major Mosley in the old fort.
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
As years passed, William R. McCormick, who had grown to manhood. assumed the management of the ever increasing lumber business established bv his father and brother, and became one of the leading progressive citizens of Bay City. Ile erected a commodious and pretentious home on a slight knoll near the river at Portsmouth, which for many years was a landmark of the olden times.
Joseph Busby
In the early part of 1833 there arrived at the trading post on the Sagi- naw, a young man named Joseph Busby, who was born in London, England, April 26, 1812. His father was a dairyman and kept a store in London for the sale of butter, cheese, eggs and milk: but in 1830 he sold out his busi- ness, bid farewell to the friends of a lifetime, and sailed for America in a packet ship of five hundred tons burden - a large vessel in those days. From New York they travelled westward to the Michigan wilderness, by the way of the Erie Canal and lake steamboat. a journey of two weeks duration. After engaging in the hotel business in Detroit for two years, they removed to Saginaw and settled on land bordering on the Tittabawassee, opposite the present Paines farm.
At that time the only habitation nearer than Green Point, was a log house on land adjoining theirs, which was occupied by a family named Tuft, with whom they lived while putting up a house of their own. James Busby. a brother of Joseph, who was a mechanic by trade, came from Detroit, and assisted in cutting logs for the house, which was to be twenty by thirty feet in size, and hewed them on two sides. They then invited the neighbors for miles around (and it took all there were) to the raising, and they got the walls up that day. The shingles were brought from Detroit by water, and were laid on split oak ribs, and nailed fast, so they had a good tight roof. The floors were made of heavy planks cut from green pine with a saw brought from England, Albert Miller being the lower portion of the human machinery, or the "pitman." while Joseph Busby was the other half, or the "topsawyer"; and was said to have been the only saw running in the valley at that time. When the house was completed the family had a regular old-time house-warming, with music and dancing ; and they felt some secur- ity, and pride, too, in the possession of a home, though a rustic one, in the depths of the wilderness.
While living at Tuft's (who was a very superstitious man), they were awakened one night by him in great alarm, and called to get up as the world was coming to an end. They at once got up and went out doors and wit- nessed a very beautiful sight, the meteoric shower of 1833. They watched the grand display until daylight, afterward declaring that it was a spectacle never to be forgotten.
Soon after they were settled in the new house there was a happy event in the family, the marriage of James Busby and Miss Susan Malden, eldest daughter of Joseph W. Malden. He was formerly a sea captain, but from 1835 to 1838 he kept a log tavern in Saginaw, afterward receiving the appoint- ment of lighthouse keeper at the Island of Mackinac. The young couple were married by Judge Albert Miller, an associate at all their social gather- ings, and was the third marriage ceremony performed in the county. As the judge was not very familiar with the proper ceremony for such occasions, the family produced a prayer book of the Episcopal Church, and the service was read by Mr. Miller, much to his relief. Mr. Busby and his young wife then went to Detroit where they lived for several years, but in later life returned to Saginaw City where they died, survived by Thomas W. Busby.
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF SAGINAW CITY
In 1835, when the father moved into town, Joseph Busby took the farm to run on his own account. The following spring he had some very promis- ing crops on the low bottom lands, but the water rose and overflowed the banks thus destroying them. Waiting until the ground became dry enough to work, he replanted everything, but soon after the water rose a second time so that he could paddle with his canoe all over the ground. This dis- couraged him and he gave up farming, and came into the village to engage in other business.
Difficulties and Privations of Pioneer Life
At times they were much annoyed by wolves and often kept awake at night by their howlings. Sometimes it seemed that there must be fifty or more of them, generally after they had been chasing deer. The bears also were troublesome at times, their chief depredations being the killing of hogs. One of their neighbors one night heard a great commotion among his hogs, and upon going out to ascertain the cause, saw in the moonlight a huge bear making off with a fat hog weighing about two hundred pounds. Upon being pursued. the bear dropped the hog which he had killed, and made off in the woods.
Among their other troubles was the great pest of blackbirds, which destroyed the crops, especially the corn just when it was soft and milky. They would flock in the fields by the thousands, requiring all the farmers' time and attention, until the corn got hard, to keep them off. Day after day, for several hours after sunrise and again for two hours before sunset, they had to run up and down the field firing at and hallooing at them to keep them from alighting, and by so doing would drive them over ; but they would come, one flock after another. The farmers finally built stages some distance apart, and beat with a stout stick on a barrel, a tin pan, or anything to make a great noise, thus keeping the birds on the wing so they would pass over to the wild rice fields until towards evening. Another great pest was the mosquitoes, which were so thick and troublesome that the farmers had to keep fires burning around the house to keep them off by the smoke, but often it seemed that the insects could stand as much smoke as they could. They had to cover the door and windows, screen their beds, and even cover the fireplace with a sort of netting, to live in any degree of comfort.
They also suffered many privations in those days, when all supplies had to be brought from Detroit by water, and there was only one small sailing vessel available. Late in the season it would get frozen in the ice on the bay or river, and then they would have to wait until the ice would bear a team, to haul the goods to town. Meanwhile, they would be without flour, meal, and other necessaries of life, but those who had food cheerfully divided with those who had none. At such times the small grist mill, which was attached to the Williams Brothers saw mill, would be run to grind the wheat, corn and buckwheat that was raised by the farmers in the vicinity. But this means of obtaining food supplies sometimes failed by breakdowns of the crude machinery, and the settlers would be without bread for days.
AAlthough the Indian camps were very numerous along the Tittabawassee for several miles above Green Point, the pioneer settlers were seldom molested by the red men, with whom they were on friendly terms; and they often traded with them for venison, fish, cranberries, and the skins of animals they had killed. Sometimes the Indians would pitch their wigwams near the log houses of the settlers, and then they would get little sleep. The braves would hold a pow-wow and keep it up all night, with a monotonous drumming and singing, after their fashion; but beyond this annoyance they were not troublesome. At one time two big braves came
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
to the Busby house late at night, and asked for some whiskey, saying one of them had a little papoose at his wigwam. Although they seldom let the Indians have liquor, this seemed a special occasion so they gave them some, whereupon they seemed in no hurry to go home, but stretched themselves on the floor and slept until daylight. They then left very quietly.
On Sunday Joseph Busby usually went from the farm to town to get the mail, which came on horseback from Flint once a week. The mail carrier used to cross the river at Green Point, the only crossing at that time. On one occasion, when Mr. Busby met him at the Point, he had some errand to a settler up the river, and not wanting to carry the mail bag back and forth, he tossed it into the bushes until he should return and proceed to town. At that time, 1834, the mail was seldom heavy, as the population of the county did not exceed one hundred persons.
Benjamin Cushway
Many of the older residents of the valley still remember one of the pioneer mechanics, Benjamin Cushway, who was appointed by General Cass, then Territorial Governor of Michigan, as United States blacksmith for the Chippewa Indians. He was born at Grosse Point, Detroit, February 7, 1810, and was a son of John B. Cushway, a native of Canada and of French parentage. During his boyhood Benjamin worked on his father's farm, his early education being obtained by attending night schools in Detroit. At the age of seventeen he began the blacksmith's trade with "Uncle Harvey Williams," who was afterward prominently identified with the lumber in- dustry in Saginaw Valley, and continued this work for seven years.
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