USA > Michigan > Saginaw County > History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume II > Part 2
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Mexican Miners and Huge Piles of Graphite Ore .. 565
Present Plant of United States Graphite Company
566
Plant of William Polson & Company. 567
John Herzog 569
Mammoth Plant of the Herzog Art Furniture Company. .
570
Making "Sonora" Phonograph Cabinets at Herzog Art Furniture
Company 573
Plant of William B. Mershon & Company. . 574 and 575
Edward C. Mershon. 576
New Standard 60-inch Band Resaw. 577
Plant and Lumber Yards of Germain Manufacturing Company .. 579
The East Side Business Center from the Top of Bean Elevator .. 581
Plant of Saginaw Show Case Company 582
The Saginaw Mirror Works. 583
Flouring Mill and Elevators of Brand & Jardin Milling Company. 585
Butter Making at Saginaw Creamery Company
Clare H. Parker 587
Kochler Brothers Iron Works. . 589
Where Wolverine Gloves are Made. 500
Bean Elevator with Illuminated Waving Flag. 591
Modern Printing Plant of Valley Printing Company. 592
Printing, Binding. Engraving and Office Outfitting Establishment of Seemann & Peters 595
Making Feather Dusters at Blind Institution 598
Blind Cobblers Making Shoes for Inmates of Blind Institution. 599
Blind Girl at Tapestry Loom. 600
Washington Street, Looking North from Genesee Street, about 1860. 602
Old-Time Advertisements of Saginaw Business Men. 605
West Side Business Section, Looking South from Court House, about 1886 608
Washington Street, South from Tuscola, 1887 611
Franklin Street, South from Tuscola, 1887 611
The Saginaw Naval Reserves, on Eve of Departure for the Atlantic Coast. April, 1917 613
The New Hotel Bancroft. Opened in July, 1916. 614
Attractive Lobby of Hotel Bancroft. 615
586
PAGE
Magnificent Ball Room of Hotel Bancroft 1 616
Cafe of llotel Bancroft, Elegantly Appointed S
The South Side Business Center at Washington and Center Avenues. 620 "Little Jake" Seligman 623
The Bearinger Building, Erected in 1892 626
Charles B. Mott 629
Charles L. Ortman I
Wholesale Grocery House of Symons Brothers & Company. 632
The Wholesale Establishment of George A. Alderton & Company 635
The Modern Structure of Lee & Cady, Saginaw Branch. 636
The Extensive Wholesale House of Melze, Alderton Shoe Company 639
Lewis Cornwell 641
William C. Cornwell, Charles E. Cornwell, Elmer J. Cornwell and L. \ Cornwell 641
The New Plant of the Cornwell Company 612
Saginaw Hardware Company 643
The Mammoth Establishment of Morley Brothers 644
Silverware and Art Section, Morley Brothers 646
Hardware and China Section. Morley Brothers 647
George F. Lewis. 649
Perry Joslin 650
Fac-Simile of Notice of Meeting to Support the Daily Courier. 1868. 651
E. D. Cowles, in 1871. 652
The Ilome of the Saginaw Courier-Herald.
653
Battery of Six Linotype Typesetting Machines 0.54
The Hoe High-Speed Press. 655
The Certificate of Membership in the Associated Press 650
The New Home of the Saginaw Daily News. 658
Composing Room-Battery of Linotypes Four-Deck Goss High-Speed
Press 659
Newsboys' Room - Managing Editor's Office - Business Office Edi-
torial Department - Library and Conference Room
661
Printing Plant of the Saginaw Press 663
Alfred M. Hoyt 665
Some Old-Time Postmasters of the Saginaws
James A. Hudson, William Moll, Levi B. Kinsey. George G. Hess, James N. Gotee. Charles P. Hess, George Lockley, Dr. J. S. Rouse, M. V. Meredith
The Federal Building at Saginaw 669
Sam G. Clay. 672
.\ Saginaw Made Automobile, 1918. 675
Office Building at Genesee and Jefferson Avenues. 677
676
Interior of Office Outfitting Store, The II. B. Arnold Company
Emil Schwahn - Charles A. Khuen- Curt Schwahn. 678
Genesce Avenue, East from Washington, 1918. 680
Corn is a Profitable Crop 683
Dairy Farming is Increasing in Saginaw County. 684
A Typical Farm Scene 687
An Example of Successful Fruit Growing 689
Harvesting Grain on Low Lands. 692
Dredge Building Dikes at Prairie Farm. 694
Gang Plowing by Tractor on the Prairie Farm 695
Harvesting Grain on Large Scale at Prairie Farm
Threshing Wheat on Farm in Frankenmuth Township 696
PAGE
Home of the Royal Bred Belgian Draft Horses- the Best in America 698
Sans Peur de Hamal, No. 3446, Owned by the Owosso Sugar Company ) 699
A Granddaughter of Indigene du Fosteau and a True Production
Maconvale Canary, No. 153,622, Saginaw Valley Stock Farm, Owner. 701
Saginaw the Shipping Center of the Great Lakes Region 704
707
The "Skylark" loading at Saginaw 710
Captain William Blyben ? 713
Captain Martin Smith
Steambarge "Maine" and Tow Barges.
715
The Popular Steamer "Wellington R. Burt" enroute from Saginaw to Bay City, about 1887. 717
The "Wenona" which piled between Saginaw and Alpena. 718
A Once Common Type of Steambarge, called "Rabbits" 719
721
A Pioneer Engine, "William L. Webber." F. & P. M. R. R
724
727
AX Way Station in the Forest Wilderness. Union Station, and Depot Car Used in the Eighties
730
An All-Steel Electric Train on the Michigan Railway 733
Constructing Stone Road through Sand Ridge. 735
Route Map of Saginaw, Michigan. 736
The Saginaw Telephone Exchange of the Michigan State Telephone Co. 738
Old Currency of the Saginaw City Bank, Circulated in 1837 743
Specimen of the Uncirculated Currency of the Bank of Zilwaukee. 746
Script of the City of Saginaw, Circulated in the Eighteen-sixties. 750 Note Script of the Tittabawassee Boom Company, in Eighteen-seventies 753
East Side Office of the Bank of Saginaw.
756
Spacious and Conveniently Arranged Banking Office at 310-12 Genesee Avenue 757
The West Side Office of the Bank of Saginaw. . 758
The Second National Bank Building. 760
The Main Banking Office of The Second National Bank. 763
The Perfectly Appointed Office of the People's Savings Bank 764
Modern Banking House, Erected in 1909. 766
The Conveniently Arranged Office of The Commercial National Bank. 767
Interior of East Side Office of American State Bank 708
The West Side Office of the American State Bank 769
The Hill Building 770
Main Office of the Hill-Carman Companies. 771
William W. Warner. 772
The Well Appointed Office Building. 773
Offices of the People's Building & Loan Association 774
Judge Jabez G. Sutherland. 777
Prominent Judges of the Tenth Judicial District, DeWitt C. Gage, John A. Edget 780
Well Known Judges of the Circuit Court, Chauncey H. Gage. Robert B. McKnight, Eugene Wilber 785
Some Successful Lawyers of the Formative Period. 788
Timothy E. Tarsney, Chauncey Wisner, C Stuart Draper, William M. Miller, Augustine S. Gaylord, Daniel P. Foote, John J. Wheeler, Frederic L. Eaton, Sr.
Barge Towing Schooner in the Old Lumbering Days
Peter C. Andre.
HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY, MICHIGAN
CHAPTER I. PRE-HISTORIC RACES
The Work of the Mound-Builders - Earth-Works in the Ohio Valley - Finding Human Remains - Antiquities in Michigan - Copper Mining on Isle Royal - Ancient Fortifications Discovered - Unique "Garden Beds" - Village Sites in Saginaw County - Mounds and Ancient Relics - Pottery Exhumed - Caches and Workshops - Aboriginal Stone Weapons - Ancient Pipes - Ornaments and Charms.
T THROUGHOUT the region of the Great Lakes abundant evidence, often of the most interesting character, of the presence in by-gone ages of a peculiar race of men, has constantly been brought to light : and numerous and well-authenticated accounts of antiquities dis- covered in various parts, clearly demonstrate that a people civilized, and even highly cultivated, occupied this broad section long before its posses- sion by the Indians. Our own State of Michigan, from the low monotonous shores of Lake Erie to the rocky cliffs of Lake Superior, has contributed, in numerous ways, some of the most remarkable relics and monuments of a people whose cranial affinities and evidently advanced civilization totally separate them from the North American Indian, and ally them to some race of men who inhabited another hemisphere in the remote past. But the date of their rule of this continent is so ancient that all traces of their history, their progress and decay, lie buried in the deepest obscurity.
Nature, at the time the first Europeans came, had asserted her original dominion of the earth; the forests were all in their full luxuriance - the growth of many centuries; and nothing existed to point out who and what manner of men they were who formerly lived, and labored, and died in this land. Only the imperishable implements of their trades, crude and un- wiedy though they be, and articles of domestic utility, together with the bones of the dead, has Mother Earth preserved to us through the ages. The oblivion which has closed over them is so complete that only conjecture can be indulged in concerning their mode and habits of life. They seem to have finished their work on earth before the real life-work of men and nations began, and left their monuments behind them to puzzle us with curious investigations and strange questions never perhaps to be answered.
This race of men, belonging to a period antecedent to that covered by written history, is known as the Mound-Builders, from the numerous large mounds of earth-works left by them, which form the most interesting class of antiquities discovered in the United States. Their character can be but dimly perceived and only partially gleaned from the internal evidence and the peculiarities of their mounds, which consist of the remains of what were apparently villages, camps, fortifications, gardens and burial places. Their habitations must have been tents, structures of wood or other perishable
2
HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
material, for had stone been used in their construction their remains would be numerous. They built their fortifications and erected their monuments on our principal rivers, particularly the Ohio and Mississippi, and their tributaries : but they left not a word, not a sign - nothing to betray their origin, nothing to reveal the secret of a great people long vanished from the earth. The scientific and educational value of these discoveries is far greater than our present knowledge of them ; but in the past decade many of the antiquities have been destroyed by road building and less laudable enterprises.
At what period this race came to this country is likewise a matter of speculation. From the comparatively rude state of the arts among them, it must be inferred that the time was very remote. Their axes and hammers were of stone, their vessels for cooking were of clay baked in the rays of the sun; and their raiment, judging from fragments which have been dis- covered, consisted of the bark of trees, interwoven with feathers. Their military works were such as a people would erect who had just passed to the pastoral state of society from that dependent alone upon hunting and fishing. Their ancient earth-works, moreover, are far more numerous than generally supposed, from the fact that while some are quite large, the greater part of them are small and inconspicuous. Along nearly all our water courses, that are large enough to be navigated by a canoe, mounds are almost invariably found, covering the base points and headlands of the bluffs which border the narrower valleys. So numerous are the mounds that when one stands in such places that command the grandest views of river scenery, he may well believe that he is in close proximity to some trace, though it be invisible to his undiscerning eve, of the labors of an ancient people.
Earth-Works in the Ohio Valley
At Grave Creek, in West Virginia, there is a mound seventy-five feet high and a thousand feet around at the base; at Miamisburg, Ohio, there is one sixty-eight feet high and eight hundred at the base, while at Cahokia. Illinois, is the great truncated pyramid, seven hundred feet long and five hundred wide. Enclosures are often protected by heavy embankments, formed of earth and stone, with buttresses and gateways, and are a most interesting subject of study. Inside, they are laid out into squares, circles and parallelograms, into figures of serpents, birds, and beasts, and often exhibit some degree of art. An enclosure in Adams County, Ohio, contains a huge relievo, in the shape of a serpent, a thousand feet in length, in grace- ful curves, the mouth wide open in the act of swallowing an egg-like figure, the tail coiled. In Ohio alone, ten thousand mounds are found and fifteen hundred ramparts and enclosures. In Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri and on the upper lakes, many remains are found in the form of animals, birds, ser- pents and men. These wonderful works of past generations extend along the rivers throughout the Southern States, marking the existence and departure of a great people; but they left no traces in New England.
It is curious to know, moreover, that this ancient race seems to have been actuated by the same motives and governed by the same passions, in locating their cities, that their successors were. They saw, as we have since seen, having trade and speculation in their eye, the commercial advantage of such physical locations as St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Detroit. They appro- priated rich valleys, like the Scioto and the Grand, for life and business ; and their works were not all a mere labor of defense, nor their occupation merely that of a soldier. They cultivated the soil and had work-shops (quarries) for the fabrication of useful articles and ornaments.
3
PRE-HISTORIC RACES
Finding Human Remains
The Mound-Builders were early pioneers, for the banks and streams upon which they built declare the fact. The river channels have been cut deeper since they laid out their grounds by the banks and built their cities thereon. Terraces have evidently been formed below their work since they passed away, for it may still be seen where the streams have destroyed a portion of their enclosures higher up. Skulls are found at the bottom, show- ing that mounds were raised over them, and that the body was not after- ward buried in them, although subsequent burial remains of Indians are found nearer the top. Almost always there is the evidence of an altar hav- ing been erected, upon which the body was laid and consumed, with the rites and ceremonies over some great chieftain, now forever forgotten.
It is through these skulls, more than by any other means, that physi- ologists have been able to determine that the Mound-Builders, whoever they were, were not Indians, the shape and outlines of the head being different and indicating an entirely distinct race of people. Although the cranial capacity of various specimens vary greatly, the average bulk of the brain is
HEAVY ABORIGINAL IMPLEMENTS [from the Dustin collection]
From left to right (one-third natural size): Grooved stone hatchet of fine symmetric form, broken off in groove; Stone hatchet, not grooved; Grooved axe, weight 134 pounds; Grooved maul, weight 311 pounds.
close to the average Indian cranium, or eighty-four cubic inches. The aver- age volume of brain in the Teutonic ciania is ninety-two inches. Thus it will be seen that while the relatively large brain capacity of pre-historic man is indicative of power of some sort, it does not imply a high degree of civilization and refinement, since it is exceeded slightly by the degraded, brutal North American Indian. Still the crania of the Mound-Builders present some char- acteristics, which, in the language of Foster, "indicate a low intellectual organization." And the tibiae (the inner bone of the leg below the knee ) present, in an extreme degree, the peculiar flattening or compression pertain- ing to the chimpanzee.
Occasional discoveries of the skeletons of a gigantic race puzzle ethnol- ogists to determine to what race they belonged. About 1875, in the Town- ship of Cayuga on the Grand River, in Ontario, five or six feet below the surface, were found two hundred skeletons in a nearly perfect state of preser-
1
HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
vation. A string of beads was around the neck of each, stone pipes were in the jaws of several, and many stone axes and skiners were scattered around in the dirt. The skeletons were gigantic, some of them measuring nine feet, and few were less than seven feet, some of the thigh bones being six inches longer than any now known. The place had been cultivated for more than a century and was originally covered with a growth of pine. There was evidence from the crushed bones that a battle had been fought, and these were the remains of the slain. Decayed remains of houses had been found near this spot many generations before, indicating that the region had at some time been inhabited. Who and what filled this ghastly pit? Were they Indians or some other race?
On the other hand, ornaments and implements made of copper, silver. obsidian, porphyry and greenstone, finely wrought, are found in various mounds in the region of the Great Lakes. There are copper and stone axes, chisels and knives, bracelets, pendants and beads, toys of bone and mica. elegant patterns of pottery, all showing a people not deficient in art and mechanical ingenuity, and exhibiting a style and finish beyond anything furnished by the modern tribes of Indians on this continent. Porphyry is a hard material to work and required a hard tool to cut it. Did the Mound- Builder know how to temper his copper tool as the Egyptian did? Obsid- ian, or volcanic glass, was used by the Mexicans and Peruvians for arrows and instruments, and is a product of the mountains of Cerre Gordo, in Mex- ico, and of a mountain in Yellowstone National Park containing a vast weapon and implement quarry. Does this indicate a communication and reciprocity between people wide apart - between that mysterious nation, whoever they were, who erected those wonderful buildings in Central Amer- ica ages ago, and the people we know as the Mound-Builders? Or does it lead to the conclusion that these artisans and mechanics belonged to still another race of men, of higher intelligence and civilization, who dwelt here before or after the other race? These questions, and works of art left by an ancient people, perplex and instruct antiquarians. They examine them. theorize over them, solve the mystery today, upset their theory tomorrow, believe and disbelieve, and finally retreat into darkness again and almost fancy they hear the chuckle of the old Mould-Builder at their discomfiture.
FRAGMENTS OF ANCIENT POTTERY [from the Dustin collection]
Rims of vessels showing varying ornamentation, being sections of tops of large and small pieces. Two-fifths natural size.
5
PRE-HISTORIC RACES
Antiquities in Michigan
The Mound-Builders were also early pioneers in Michigan, and were the first miners in the Upper Peninsula. But how they worked, whether as members of a joint stock company on a percentage, or as individuals, every man for himself, no one can tell. We do know. however, that they went deep down into the copper ore, and dug, and raised, and probably transported large quantities of it, but by what means and where is shrouded in mystery. Some of the copper from these ancient workings found its way into the mounds of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, and the chain of evi- dence by which this is determined is the fact that the copper so found, or some of it, has little globules of silver attached to it, which, it is said, dis- tinguishes no other copper in the world. The silver found in other copper ore is associated with the mass rather than with the copper itself, and is brought out only by fire.
The ancient mining at Isle Royal. in Lake Superior, has excited the wonder and amazement of the scientific world. The island is about fifty miles in length, from five to nine miles in breadth, has a ragged, rocky shore cut up into deep gorges, and is covered with a growth of timber. The pits are from ten to thirty feet in diameter, from twenty to sixty feet in depth, and are scattered throughout the island following the richest veins of cre with marvelous precision, showing that the pre-historic miners had great knowledge and skill in the art of mining. The pits were connected under- ground, and drains were cut to carry off the water. There is one deep cut in the rock, covered its entire length by timbers that have long since decayed, and is now a mass of rotten wood. At McCargoe's Cove there are nearly two miles of pits very closely connected : quantities of stone hammers and mauls, weighing from ten to thirty pounds have been found, some broken from use and some in good condition ; and copper chisels, knives and arrow heads have been discovered. The copper tools seem to have been hardened by fire, but owing to corrosion it is difficult to determine their original work- manship, though there is evidence to show that they were originally of care- ful artisanship and polished.
The working out of the copper was no doubt done by heating a mass of the solid ore, and then pouring on water - a very slow and tedious pro- cess. The rock being sufficiently disintegrated they then attacked and sepa- rated it with their great stone mauls. Even with a large force constantly employed in this labor, it must have taken a long series of years to accom- plish the work exhibited. Although two hundred men with their rude meth- ods of mining, it has been estimated, could not accomplish any more work than two skilled miners can at the present day, with modern pneumatic drills and high explosives, at one point alone on Isle Royal, the amount of labor performed exceeds that done on one of the oldest mines on the south shore of the lake, which has been operated with a large force for more than twenty years.
When and by whom were these pits opened? Who can tell? Forests have grown up and fallen and mouldered over them, and great trees, three hundred and four hundred years old, stand around them today, counting so much, and only so much time in fixing the age of these mines. Some of these trees, four feet or more in diameter, are now growing in the pits. on the sides, and on the excavated debris which surround them. In one case. the partially decayed stump of a red oak was found at the edge of a pit. This tree had not been blown down, but had grown and decayed where the stump stood, only the red, interior portion of the stump remaining sound. A careful enumeration of the annual rings composing the undecayed centre of the tree, gave the number of three hundred and eighty-four, to
- 8
2-18
FLINT IMPLEMENTS USED BY MOUND-BUILDERS [from the Dustin collection]
From left to right (one-half natural size): 1 to 3 inclusive, Perforators; 4 to 9, Drills 10, Delicate lance-like blade; 11, Eccentric form, perhaps a perforator; 12. Fine spear-like point; 13, Point with somated edges, use unknown; 14, Small implement used for cutting of scraping; 15 to 17, 19 and 22-24 inclusive, Various patterns of knives and cutting blades; 18, Implement, perhaps unfinished; 20, Curious shuttle-shaped object of unknown use - perhaps totemic; 21, Fish-shaped implement, too thick for knife, possibly totemic.
HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
7
PRE-HISTORIC RACES
which was added two hundred rings, as representing the decayed outer por- tion of the stump, and five hundred and eighty-four years was arrived at as the period of its growth. Allowing for the time which may have elapsed before it commenced growing on this peculiar site, and for the number of years required for it to reach the stage of decay exhibited, it is probable that from seven hundred to eight hundred years would not be far from the truth. On removing this stump the debris beneath was found to consist of fragments of copper-bearing rock, thrown out from the adjoining pit, a large number of stone hammers, some perfect, others fractured from use, and, more interesting still, a knife made of copper. This only proves that the pits had not been worked within the time mentioned, and does not pre- vent the period of desertion of the works being placed back twice or even three times that distance.
From another pit, beneath a third deposit of vegetable matter, the remains of a skeleton of a deer were exhumed, the bones so decayed that they crumbled to pieces. Another interesting relic discovered was a sheet- like piece of copper, which had apparently been exposed to the action of fire and then hammered into a bowl-shaped utensil. This exhibits the character of the copper generally sought by the primitive miners. It is manifest from the working of the veins that they followed the deposits of sheet-like copper, which varied from a quarter of an inch to an inch in thickness, rejecting as unmanageable the fragments of rock which contained even large-sized nuggets of the metal. These fragments are found in large quantities in the rubbish at the mouths of the pits, as well as within, they seemingly having been pushed behind those miners as they advanced in the exploration of the vein.
With all these evidences of industrial activity, no hint or chute remains as to how and where the ore was removed, to what purpose so much of it was consumed, or where the laborers received their support in their work. No bones of pre-historic man have been found there - no evidence of com- merce - no remains of vessels, or wharves, or houses, and yet vast amounts of copper have been taken out, not only there, but throughout portions of the Upper Peninsula, and the treasure no doubt exported to the central and southern sections of our continent. It must, in all probability, have been conveyed in vessels, great or small, across a stormy and treacherous sea, whose dangers are formidable to us now, often proving the destruction of our largest craft. This gives us a totally different conception of the char- acter of the Mound-Builders, and dignifies them with something of the prowess and spirit of adventure which we associate with the higher races of men. Leaving their homes, these men dared to face the unknown - to brave the hardships and perils of the deep and the wilderness, actuated by an ambition which we today would not be ashamed to acknowledge.
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