USA > Michigan > Saginaw County > History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume II > Part 17
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In 1834 he received the official appointment as Indian blacksmith, and came to Saginaw, making his headquarters in a block house within the old fort. He was removed by the treaty of 1837 to Bay City, where he held the same position until 1844. While there he purchased large tracts of land and other property, and acquired a competence.
About 1848 he returned to Saginaw City and built a house on the lot where the Miller block was afterward erected, on the southeast corner of Court and Hamilton Streets. He lived there until 1866, when he purchased the Wendall farm near the city on the Mackinaw road, where he resided for several years. At one time he owned the Brockway farm and other parcels of land in different parts of the State.
On July 15, 1833, Mr. Cushway was married to Miss Adelaide Delisle. who was born at Detroit in 1812, and was a cousin of the Campaus, the first white settlers in Saginaw Valley. ller first visit to this place was in 1827. when the settlement consisted of only two block houses. Fourteen children. nine boys and five girls, were born to them. Mrs. Cushway died in 1878 at the age of sixty-six years. After an active and useful life Mr. Cushway died at his home in Saginaw City on May 25, 1881, in his seventy-second vear. lle was well known and respected for his sterling qualities and hospitable nature.
Phineas D. Braley
In an account of pioneer life in the thirties, Mrs. Eleazer Jewett relates that at a late hour one night, when alone in her cabin at Green Point, there was a call from the opposite side of the river, some man wanting to come across. She informed him that there was no one to set him over. He then said he had ridden all day, was utterly exhausted and sick, and unless aid reached him he would lie down and die. This appeal touched the heart of Mrs. Jewett, and although she had never paddled a canoe across the river and the night was very dark, she resolved to make an attempt to get him over. Putting a candle in the window for a beacon in coming back, she took
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a canoe, and after stemming the current and often calling to know where to land, she at length succeeded in reaching the opposite shore. There she found a traveller who had been taken with fever and ague, and was so ill that he could scarcely get into the canoe. By leading his horse by the side of the little boat, they finally reached the west bank of the stream at the hour of midnight.
This early pioneer who arrived here in such an unfortunate plight was Phineas D. Braley, who afterward was one of the best known lumber jobbers in the valley. He was born in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, April 17, 1811, and came with his parents to the Michigan wilderness in 1835. They settled on a tract of land on the Tittabawassee where T. C. Ripley after- ward lived, the family, including that of an uncle, Ephraim Braley, number- ing seventeen persons. The wagon by which they had travelled the greater part of the long journey from New England, was one of the first wheeled conveyances brought to this place.
The first winter Phineas lived there he cut two hundred cords of wood and put it on the bank of the river for "Uncle Harvey Williams," at thirty cents a cord. He often told an amusing incident in connection with his wagon. "Harvey Williams came and hitched his ox team to it one day, and refused to return it, saying he wanted to buy it; but I refused to sell. He paid no attention to what I said, but put his hand into his pocket and drew out a handful of bank notes, and gave it to me without counting it, remark- ing as he left that if it was not enough he would give me some more. 1 counted the money and found there was just one hundred and seventy dollars in currency."
In August, 1833, Mr. Braley was married to Miss Rebecca Hubbard : and to them three children were born. Mrs. Braley died, and some times after he married Miss Jane Blewer. After her death he married on December 18, 1842, Mrs. Olive Hubbard Grout, who was born at Oxford, Ontario, December 28, 1819. Her parents came to Saginaw in 1831, being among the early settlers here. About 1867 Mr. Braley built a comfortable home on Washington Street, Saginaw City, and at that time was one of the most pretentious houses in the town.
Mr. and Mrs. Braley lived to rear a family of nine children, and were survived by Phineas J., Fred J., Mrs. Henry Snider. Mrs. G. W. Bennett, Mrs. Charles A. Lee, and Mrs. F. A. Farmer. Having spent a useful and well regulated life, Mr. Braley died December 9, 1887, Mrs. Braley surviving him until April 17, 1890, when she died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. G. W. Bennett.
Ephraim Braley, who came to this valley with his brother Phineas, in 1835, was born in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, March 29, 1813, and died at his home in Saginaw Township October 11. 1886.
Hiram L. Miller
Another of the early pioneers who left the stamp of their individuality upon the dim memories of the past was Hiram L. Miller, one of the first ordained preachers to impart Christianity among the settlers. He was born in January, 1804, obtained his early education at Morristown and Basking Ridge academies, and took a three years' theological course at Auburn, New York. His first pastorate was at Buffalo, New York, whence he went to Lockport and later to Avon, in the same State. In 1830, while pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Avon, he was married to Miss Adaline Little, the fourth child of Doctor Charles Little, one of the early explorers of Saginaw Valley. She was born November 30, 1810; and was educated at the Ontario Female Seminary, founded in 1825 at Canandaigua, New York.
PHINEAS D. BRALEY
One of the hardy pioneers of Saginaw, who brought the first wagon to the forest wilder- ness, and afterward was one of the prominent lumber jobbers.
HIRAM L. MILLER
Who organized the first church society, the Presbyterian faith, in Saginaw Valley in 1836.
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF SAGINAW CITY
Mr. Miller removed with his family to Saginaw City in 1836, at a time when there was a great accession to the population of the place. In the fall of that year a Presbyterian congregation was organized, which was pre- sided over by him as pastor for about two years, and a marked improvement was made in the religious and social status of the inhabitants. A Christian mission was also established among the Indians, many of whom were con- verted to the white man's religion. Albert Miller relates that in looking pine lands in 1846, far up on the Tittabawassee, he started from camp one morning at daybreak, and while paddling his canoe down the river his ears were greeted with familiar music wafted from the recesses of the forest. lle was never more charmed than while listening to the sweet notes of a hymn tune sung in the wilderness by a family of Indians at their morning devotions.
Besides the ministrations of Christianity to his fellow-men, Mr. Miller evinced a deep interest in the material side of life and in civic affairs in general, and exerted a powerful influence for the upliftment of the com- munity. At different times he served the county in official positions, was one of the first justices of the peace, and was conected with the first news- paper printed here. He was chairman of the first board of supervisors, organized in 1842, and was twice a member of the legislature, in 1841 and in 1844, and served on the State Board of Education. Familiarly known as "Priest" Miller, he was long looked upon as one of the foremost men of the county. The offices of register of deeds, county treasurer, and county clerk were held by him at different times. In later years he expressed regret that his life, though a long and useful one, had been so diversified, his preference being a life devoted to a single object.
Mr. Miller lived to the venerable age of ninety-two years, going to his reward on May 16, 1896, after a residence here of sixty years. He was preceded by Mrs. Miller who, after a long life marked by decision of character and fidelity to principle, and unostentatious generosity, died July 27, 1889, in the seventy-ninth year of her life. They left one son, Norman L. Miller, and three grandchildren, Mrs. John J. Spencer, Frank Miller and Mrs. H. L. Brintnall.
With E. S. Williams and Albert Miller he completed the trio of illus- trions men who bore the heat and burden of the early pioneer days, and whose influence for good extended far beyond their lives.
The First Steamboat on the Saginaw.
Not all the early pioneers in coming to the wilderness on the Saginaw broke through the dense forest, a journey always attended with innumerable dangers and hardships. Some preferred to brave the perils of lake naviga- tion and took passage in the frail and incommodious vessels of the period. for a voyage across Lake Huron and Saginaw Bay. In 1836 a small party of prospectors arrived here in the first steamboat that ever plied the waters of the Saginaw, an event of surpassing interest to the settlers and natives of the forest.
It was in the month of July that Albert Miller and James Fraser, accom- panied by Eleazer Jewett, then county surveyor, and an assistant, were making a preliminary survey of a tract of land, upon which the town of Portsmouth was afterward built, for the purpose of making a plat of it. While at dinner one day at Leon Tromble's place, a small log house on John Riley's Reserve, near the corner of Fourth and Water Streets, Louis Tromble, then a boy about ten years of age, came running in greatly excited crying. "A steamboat! A steamboat!" They all went out to see what the boy had mistaken for a steamboat, and were greatly surprised and delighted
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to behold the vessel slowly making headway against a south wind and the current of the river. They hailed the steamboat, which proved to be the Governor Marcy, commanded by Captain Gorham and piloted by Captain Rhodes, and chartered by Norman Little in behalf of himself and Mackie. Oakley and Jennison, who proposed to invest in and built up the town of Saginaw. The surveying party went out to the steamboat in their canoe, and with some difficulty got on board, Mr. Jewett losing his compass staff in the effort. They then steamed up the river, when, for the first time, the white owls on the Lone Tree, the wild ducks on the river, and the fishes in the stream were disturbed by the noise of steam propelled machinery.
The settlers at Saginaw were greatly elated at the arrival of the first steamboat at their town, and the next day an excursion was run up the Tittabawassee to test those waters for steamboat navigation. Nearly every person in the place turned out and the boat, which was a logy oldl tub of only sixteen tons burden, steamed up the river about two miles beyond Green Point, when its progress was impeded by overhanging branches. Among those on the boat were Doctor Charles Little, who was then visiting his daughter, Mrs. Hiram L. Miller, and George W. Bullock, who for many years occupied a prominent place in business circles of Saginaw.
A few days after, the Governor Marcy left for Detroit, and continued to make regular trips between Buffalo and Saginaw during the remainder of the season, and during the season of 1837 and a part of 1838. Her first com- mander. Captain Gorham, was a perfect dandy who dressed in fantastic style. and was known to have changed his clothes three or four times after entering the river. before reaching the landing at Saginaw. He would perch himself on the wheelhouse and motion with his arms in a most grotesque manner. as if piloting the vessel, Captain Rhodes, the pilot, who was an old navigator of the river, paying not the least attention to him, or to his commands.
In passing the rapids at the head of the St. Clair River, the utmost power of the little steamboat was steadily employed for a time. There was a big stump on the Canadian shore opposite the strongest current, which passengers were accustomed to watch in gauging the progress made. The boat would push boldly forward for a few rods and get ahead of the stump. then, through some slight deviation from a direct line, the current would cause her to fall back, and the stump would be ahead. But by repeated trials and perseverance the steamboat always won out, and left the rapids and the stump on shore far behind.
There were no tugs in those waters at that time, and sailing vessels often had to lay to and wait for a favorable wind to help them over into the lake. On one occasion, when the steamboat was about to stem the rapids. the captain of a vessel hailed her, came on board, and gave her captain one hundred dollars for a tow into Lake Huron. Some passengers on the vessel stepped on board the steamboat for a short ride, and the towline had just been made fast, when a fresh breeze sprang up, the vessel hoisted sail, the line was cast off, and she sailed proudly through the rapids into the lake. leaving the steamboat to struggle with the swift current. After getting into the lake, the vessel hove to and waited for the steamboat to come up, for her passengers to get on board.
Extract From Mrs. A. M. Richman's Diary
Among other hardy spirits, who arrived on the Governor Marcy, in 1836. were Charles L. Richman and family, consisting of his wife and one son, Charles H. Mrs. Richman, a daughter of James Sibley, one of the earliest settlers of Ontario County, New York, was born at Canandaigua, January
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9, 1807. She was one of the noble pioneer women of the west, and one of the best known and most highly esteemed residents of Saginaw City. A graphic account of what this place was when she came here is imparted by an extract from her diary of early date :
"We arrived at old Fort Saginaw on Saturday morning October 1, 1836. in a drizzling rain, amid the cheers of the settlers and the waving of a table cloth, which to us, who on the last day of the voyage were on an allowance of pork and hard tack, was at least suggestive. We were very kindly and hospitably received by Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Miller, who had been here a short time, having come down the Flint River in a canoe. Things in general seemed the newest of the new, and the prospect was dreary in the extreme, but then we reflected on poor 'Robinson,' and took heart. I went into the store to write back my 'first experience.' and met my old friend Peyton R. Morgan, of Avon, New York, who suggested that I wait until morning; but I didn't. That letter was preserved in the family as a gem of the west.
"The question now arose, where were we to find shelter? Very for- tunately a kind and over-ruling Providence sent us to the 'old block house, and to the unwearied attention of Major Mosely and his dear wife. The morning after our arrival, which was Sunday, a good portion of our colony met at the house of H. L. Miller, who was a Presbyterian minister, to return thanks to our loving Father for our safe passage after our many perils of the lake.
"The old block house stood inside the fort stockade, partially sur- rounded by the original pickets. But few buildings were left of the old fort. and this was the best. They were all occupied, as was every nook and corner. even to standing boards from the pickets, as we, when children, made play houses. One of the buildings was used as a hotel, kept by Mr. Tibbetts. with the modest name of Saginaw City Exchange. That same old block house has welcomed many a pleasant gathering, for they were the very souls of hospitality, and how we feasted on wild game, on trout, sturgeon and white fish, which was brought from the bay corded as they do wood. Cran- berries were so plentiful that vessels on their return trips were ballasted with them. Neither did we sweeten them with Indian sugar -ah! no. During the ever remembered and pleasant winter we passed in the old block house, there were many arrivals in town, so that our society was good and intel- ligent : and, as in our isolated condition, we were dependent upon each other for our mutual comfort and happiness, the memory of that winter is a green spot.'
"On the first of January, 1837. we introduced the eastern style of calls, with 'hot coffee and cake.' The calls were so numerous as to be oppressive ; the constant repetition gave a sameness. The gentlemen had a sleigh, and as they laughingly expressed it. they 'called and returned it.' Some thought they were called for, but the finale was at a place of pleasant memories, the old block house of 1836."
Long after Mrs. Richman had beheld and endured the sufferings and privations of early settlement, and had witnessed the subsequent growth and prosperity of the place, she died at her home on March 16, 1877, at the age of seventy years.
Charles H. Richman
Captain Charles H. Richman, for forty-seven years a resident of Saginaw City, who came here with his father, Charles L. Richman, in 1836, was born at Canandaigua, New York, September 28. 1828: but his boyhood, and, in fact, the greater part of his life, was spent in this valley.
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
At the outbreak of the civil war he raised a company of soldiers, called the "Saginaw Rangers," which were attached to the Tenth Regiment of Volunteer Infantry, designated as Company B, of which, upon being mustered into service on October 1, 1861, he was made captain. He served with his regiment in the field until February 6, 1865, when , having con- tracted acute neuralgia while in line of duty, he was mustered out. During this long service he saw much hard fighting, his regiment being engaged in several severe battles. For some months during the winter of 1863-64 he was attached to the staff of General J. D. Morgan, commanding the First Brigade, Second Division of the Fourteenth Army Corps, as Inspector Gen- eral, and participated in that capacity in the action at Tunnel, Hill, near Dalton, Georgia, on February 25, 1864. His conduct on that occasion was such that he was complimented in the official report by his commanding officer. After Sherman's march to the sea, in which he participated, he proceeded to Sister's Ferry, Georgia, fifty miles from Savannah, where over- come by illness, he was sent back to that city, mustered out, and sent home.
In 1871 he removed to Chicago and engaged in the hotel business, but eight weeks after was burned out in the memorable fire of that year, and thereupon returned to Saginaw. Afterward he leased the Rust House at Farwell, which he conducted for two years. Returning to Saginaw he joined the staff of the old Courier, as Saginaw City reporter, a service which he performed faithfully and acceptably for several years. About 1880 he leased the Jewell House at Vassar, where he remained for a year, but his health failing he removed to a farm on the Bridgeport road, near East Saginaw. Surrounded by every comfort, and with all the care and medical skill of the time, he gradually failed, and it was soon seen that restoration was hopeless. Ile was a man of genial, happy temperament which made him friends in all circles, and there were many sincere and saddened regrets at his death, which occurred June 17, 1883, in his fifty-fifth year.
Mrs. Charles H. Richman, who was of the highest type of womanhood, of fine motherly qualities, and purity of every thought and action, was born in Oswego County, New York, January 28, 1838, and came to Michigan with her parents when quite young. They first settled at Northville, but in 1847 removed to Saginaw, where she was married to Mr. Richman. She died March 7, 1891, at the age of fifty-three ; and was survived by two daughters, Mrs. James H. Norris, and Miss Kate Richman, who afterward married William C. Phipps, of this city.
Saginaw City in 1837
On the nineteenth of June, 1837, E. L. Wentz, in company with Alfred Hovey, left Binghamton, New York, with a view of finding employment in the west. After a journey of twelve days filled with varying experiences they arrived at Detroit on July 1st. There they saw some flaming-red posters advertising low fares to Saginaw City by the steamboat Governor Marcy, which was a temptation to further adventure, so they took passage to this port arriving on July 3, 1837. Their first view of the struggling settlement was a disappointment, as they had expected to find a city of at least ten thousand inhabitants, whereas they had landed in a little hamlet of scarcely fifteen buildings, and not over one hundred persons residing therein.
"At the extreme south end of the town," writes Mr. Wentz, "on the bank of the river was a steam saw mill, with one upright saw that if closely watched might have cut one thousand feet of lumber in twenty-four hours. A short distance from the mill and a hundred yards from the river, was a red building where the Millers kept store. Gardner D. Williams had a residence about a thousand feet back from the river at the extreme south end of town.
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CHARLES H. RICHMAN
Who came to Saginaw on the first steamboat. the "Governor Marcey," to navigate the Sag- inaw River. This was in 1837.
MRS. CHARLES H. RICHMAN
Who is remembered by our older residents as a woman of the highest character and motherly qualities.
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
Near the red store were two or three small buildings, in one of which was the postoffice. At that time the mail came to Saginaw but once a week on horseback by way of Flint and the old Indian trail. About a thousand feet from the postoffice down the river and immediately on the bank was a ware- house, directly back of which at the foot of the bluff was a small builling. in which someone kept a stock of Indian goods, and still further back on the top of the bluff was the old government stockade. Two hundred feet north of the stockade was the old log tavern, kept by an Englishman by the name of Malden. Six or eight hundred feet further north, and a hundred feet further back from the river, was a small building where Henry Pratt kept a shoe shop, and still further north was Richman and Lyon's store, a little north of which and immediately on the bluff was a dwelling. At the extreme north end of town Mr. Jewett had a nice residence in which he kept a hotel. There was also a very nice residence in the southwest part of the town occu- pied by Mr. Little.
"The prospect of finding employment in this place was not very cheer- ful, but we went to an old log tavern and engaged board at two dollars and fifty cents a day each. The sleeping room was overhead, entrance to which was up a ladder through a hole in the Hoor; and it contained about thirty single beds with the numbers chalked on the logs at the head. After getting our baggage stowed away we went back to the river, and followed the bank to the saw mill and sat down on a log to talk over the situation. Mr. Hovey counted his money and found he had just two dollars and fifty cents. I had no money to count. We were perplexed to know what to do. I suggested that we could cut wood, as there was plenty of it in the country. Hovey said, 'yes, but there are no people here to burn it,' which was indeed a fact. "While we were further debatting the matter, we saw a large canoe-like craft coming down the river, propelled by twelve oars, and when it got opposite to us it turned in and landed directly in front of where we were sitting. The first man to step out of it was Charles F. Smith, the chief engineer of the Northern or 'Bad River' Canal, then being projected. He had come down from the woods at Bad River, bringing his whole corps of engineers and camp equipage to celebrate the Fourth of July. I had worked with Smith for some time on the New York and Erie Railroad, and knew him intimately. Ile soon told me that he had work for both of us, and we took hold with a will and helped to pitch the tents on the bank of the river near the northeast corner of the old government stockade; and my first night in Saginaw I spent in a tent with the engineer corps. The party was held in Saginaw several days to allow some of the men to sober up from their celebration ; and we were then sent to the woods at Bad River. In travel- ling to and from the canal work we were compelled to use canoes, there being no roads or trails, and the country was low, flat and wet, with numerous streams and bayous to cross that made it almost impossible to get there except by the rivers."
The Northern Canal Project
The first constitution of Michigan, adopted in 1835, made it the duty of the government of the State to encourage internal improvements, and of the legislature to make provision by law for determining the proper objects of improvements in relation to roads, canals and navigable waters, and also to provide for an equal, systematic and economical expenditure of all funds appropriated for these objects. Among the various improvements projected during the formative period of our State, was the Northern or "Bad River" Canal, intended to connect the waters of the Bad River with those of the Maple, and by improving the rivers to open a waterway from Lake Huron by way of the Saginaw and Grand Rivers to Lake Michigan at Grand Haven.
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