USA > Michigan > Saginaw County > History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume II > Part 44
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MASONIC TEMPLE
The Grotto has for its purpose the bringing together of all Masons into one common body and promoting the spirit of good-fellowship.
389
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL LIFE
Other Fraternal Orders
Of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Saginaw Lodge, No. 42, was the first to be instituted in Saginaw. On February 9, 1849, this lodge was organized by Charles D. Little, special D. D. G. M., and the following officers were elected: W. L. P. Little, N. G .: J. S. Woodruff. V. G .; J. B. Chamberlain, secretary, and J. Bookstaver, treasurer.
Oriental Lodge, No. 188, meets Friday evening at 2710 South Washing- ton Avenue. James P. King is N. G .: Roy W. Phoenix, R. S .; and Frank Newvine, treasurer.
The Star Lodge, No. 156, was the second circle of Odd-Fellowship organ- ized in this city, with Charles Move as N. G., in 1853. The lodge was reorganized in 1872. Its officers are G. J. Watkins, N. G .: William Parkins. secretary ; Frank Maruna, treasurer.
O-Saw-Wa-Bon Lodge, No. 74, was instituted at East Saginaw on June 2, 1855. Owing to the small population of the place and other causes, the lodge, whose first officers were Charles B. Mott, N. G., and Alexander Fer- guson, V. G., gave up its charter two years later. It was reorganized in 1865 with J. S. Curtis, N. G .: A. Ferguson, R. S .: C. 11. Barton, P. S .; and WV. F. Glasby. S. This lodge has since become one of the largest and most influential in the city. The present officers are: John T. Dunn, N. G .; Edward J. Diehl, recording secretary : George E. Dunn, treasurer.
Washington Encampment was instituted May 9, 1866, by M. W. G. P. Dennis, with thirty members among whom were A. G. Van Wey, W. MeRath, D. H. Buel. A. O. T. Eaton. B. Rice and A. F. Rockwith. Valley Encamp- ment, No. 20. was instituted May 10. 1866, with J. S. Curtis, C. H. Burton, A. Ferguson. T. E. Doughty, W. H. Southwick, J. M. Luther and J. H. Mc Farlin, charter members.
The other lodges of this order are the Empire, organized August 12, 1874 ; the Buena Vista Lodge, on February 26, 1872: the Oriental, instituted in 1872 with LeRoy H. DeLavergne, N. G .: and the Magara Encampment. organized April 28, 1875.
Saginaw Lodge, No. 10, Knights of Pythias, was organized March 28. 1873, with James G. Terry as C. C. This important lodge has been well maintained through the years, and its social and financial condition is uner- celled. The present officers are: Charles W. Light, C. C .: A. E. Gold- smith, K. of R. and S. and M. of F.
Thesus Lodge, No. 119, meets every Wednesday evening at 413 Court Street. The officers are: Clinton W. Osborn. C. C .: Benjamin F. Eaton. V. C .: Charles W. Ellis, prel .: John Ferguson, M. of A .; E. Baskins, trustee.
The Achilles Lodge, No. 15, was instituted January 7, 1874; and in 1881 Charles D. Little, Robert J. Birney, Benjamin Geer, Thomas L. Jackson. Racine Purmort, C. M. Beach, and J. T. Burnham. all prominent citizens of Saginaw City, were its most active members.
East Saginaw Lodge, No. 172. Good Templars, was established Novem- ber 24. 1865, with Reverend B. F. Taylor. W. C. T. Fountain Head Lodge was instituted May 19, 1875. with George Stevens, W. C. T., and forty charter members.
Among the older orders of which record is found was a lodge of the Daughters of Rebekah, known as Azure Lodge. No. 43, which was instituted in Saginaw in 1871. At present the order is represented here by Azure Lodge, No. 37. Ilah Lodge. No. 174, Magnolia Lodge, and Naomi Lodge, No. 270, all of which are in flourishing condition.
OLD-TIME PORTRAITS OF WELL-KNOWN CITIZENS
Charles R. Penney
Walter Gardner
Mrs. E. J. Ring Frederick Il Herbert
Isaac Parsons
Mrs. C. W. Wells
Nicholas A. Randall
John Weller
John Jeffers
Isaac Bearinger
Gurdon Corning and Idla C.
Dr. Il Williams Judge L. (1. Holden
391
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL LIFE
Court Valley, No. 232, of the Independent Order of Foresters meets in Foresters' Temple with C. E. Hamilton as C. R .; W. P. Stewart, V. C. R. : L. W. Hodgins, recording secretary ; A. G. Meakin, treasurer ; H. J. Lemcke, financial secretary, and A. Robertson and William J. McDonald, trustees.
Other lodges of this order are: Court Acme, No. 551; Court Mount- aineer, No. 577; Court Starlight, No. 1024; Court Waldon, No. 529; and Court Wanigas, No. 4529. There are also four courts of the Lady Com- panion Independent Order of Foresters.
The Macabees are a strong fraternal order in Saginaw, having no less than ten tents, namely : Allemania Tent, No. 114; Concordia Tent, No. 132; East Side Tent, No. 385: Gage Tent, No. 111: Italy Tent, No. 866; Jesse Hoyt Tent, No. 51; John A. Edget Tent, No. 430; Lincoln Tent, No. 113; Penoyer Tent, No. 204; and Saginaw Tent, No. 107. There are also nine hives of Ladies of the Macabees.
The Prudent Patricians of Pompeii, of Washington, D. C., is splendidly represented here by nine primaries, which are: Peninsular Primary, No. 1 ; Paragon Primary, No. 3; Purity Primary, No. 5; Peerless Primary, No. 6; Pleasant Primary, No. 8: Puritan Primary, No. 16; Peerless Primary, No. 21: Philemon Primary, No. 29; and Penoyer Primary, No. 54: all of which are in flourishing condition.
The Tribe of Ben Flur is represented by Saginaw Court, No. 85, of which J. B. Johnson is P. C .: John McDonald, Chief; Robert Schenk, Judge ; E. Schenk, Scribe: and by Eros Court, No. 27, with Otto A. Weidemann, Chief ; Clarence L. Hay, Judge ; Anna B. Gray, Scribe ; and also by Wash- ington Court, No. 116. William H. Borrowman is Deputy.
The Royal Arcanum has two councils in this city, Central Council. No. 29, having for its officers Elmer E. Bishop, P. R. : William E. Goodman. R; William Curtin, V. R .; J. C. Baner, O .; H. J. Lemcke, secretary ; J. H. Woollacott, collector, and Carl R. Rogner, treasurer. Saginaw Council, No. 33, meets at K. of P. Hall on the West Side, and is also in flourishing condition.
The Royal League has one council, Saginaw Council, No. 44, organized in March. 1887. Gordon Robertson is archon; W. W. Grobe, scribe, and D. A. King, treasurer.
The Roval Neighbors of America has Clover Leaf Camp, No. 157, and Woodbine Camp, No. 1549: the Royal Order of Lions is represented by Saginaw Den, No. 304; and the Protected Home Cirele by Saginaw Circle. No. 133, and by Silver Leaf Circle, No. 243. The Loyal Guard has Saginaw Division, No. 21; the Loyal Order of Moose by Saginaw Lodge, No. 82: the Modern Brotherhood of America by Michigan Lodge, No. 1099, and Saginaw Lodge, No. 1255.
The Modern Woodmen of America has three camps, East Saginaw Camp, No. 915; South Saginaw Camp, No. 4723, and Wheeler Camp, No. 4848. The Orangemen have Eden Lodge, No. 120; and the National Union, East Saginaw Council, No. 179.
The Fraternal Order of Eagles is represented in this city by Saginaw Aerie, No. 497, with Fred L. Travers, W. P .; Charles C. Holmes. W. V. P. : E. B. Mowers, W. C .; H. J. Lemcke, secretary, and John N. Richter, treasurer.
The Knights of Columbus have a strong council in Saginaw Council, No. 593, which has a fine building on North Washington Avenue for its club home. The membership is said to be about five hundred, comprising the foremost Roman Catholic citizens. There are also the Knights of St. John with District Commandery and No. 158; and Knights of Honor repre- sented by Schiller Lodge, No. 837, organized January 1, 1878, which meets on the West Side.
GENESEE AVENUE, LOOKING WEST FROM JEFFERSON, 1900
WASHINGTON AVENUE, LOOKING NORTH FROM BANCROFT HOUSE, 1900
THE INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF SAGINAW
CHAPTER XVI THE LUMBER INDUSTRY
Predictions of First Settlers - Earliest Saw Mills - The "Williams" Mill - The First Mill on the East Side - Emerson Shipped the First Lumber - Evolution of Saw- ing Machinery - Logs and Booms - The Output of the Tittabawassee - The Famous Cork Pine of the Cass - Lumber Production of the Saginaw River - Experiences in the North Woods - Theology in Camp - "Captain" Naegely and the Lumber-jacks - Some Old-time Mills - A Model Establishment - Saw Mills in the Eighties - Output of Saginaw Mills in 1892 - Saginaw Becomes a Distributing Market - Charles Mer- rill - John S. Estabrook - Samuel Il. Webster - Benjamin F. Webster -- Washing- ton S. Green - Isaac Parsons - Characteristics of Ammi W. Wright - Ralph A. Love- land - William 11. Edwards.
T HAT the Saginaw Valley is entitled to pre-eminence in a history of the lumber industry of the Northwest, is generally conceded, in view of the fact that from the earliest days of the State's development, it was the central figure around which the lumber business of a large section of Michigan revolved, while in the main its conditions were an index to those of the State at large. The Saginaw River is the effluent of a number of streams which penetrate the confines of the Huron watershed, and drain an area of thirty-two hundred square miles. The principal stream is the Titta- bawassee with numerous branches extending to the North and West. At the confluence of this river with the Saginaw is the Shiawassee River run- ning southward, while a short distance above are the Cass and Flint rivers. extending to the East and Northeast, with various creeks penetrating the pine forests of the "Thumb."
The early settlers of Saginaw Valley of the period of 1830, while fully aware of the existence of vast forests of pine throughout this section of the State, did not fully comprehend their extent or value, yet knew enough to render them skeptical as to the possibility of their exhaustion in their own. or the lifetime of their children. The supply of timber in the illimitable, but accessible forests of Maine, was supposed to be sufficient with the most wasteful extravagance, to answer all the demands of the East for a century, hence the idea that the timber of Michigan could ever be in more than local demand, was preposterous. How correct these predictions; how short a time - scarcely more than half a century - it has taken to tell of the destruc- tion of the vast pine forests of Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as those of Maine. Even the present timber resources of Canada would provide for the consumptive demand of the United States for only a few months. Later, when lumber was shipped by cargo to the Albany market, in active competi- tion with the product of Maine, the views of the early settlers underwent a change ; and late in the sixties it was foreseen that, at the rate the pine was then disappearing, before the close of the century the pine lumber business of Michigan would end.
1
394
HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
The Earliest Saw Mills
Albert Miller. in his interesting contributions to pioneer history, men- tions that, on his first visit to Saginaw in 1830, he passed the saw mill of Rufus Stevens at the crossing of the Thread River, near Flint, and asserts that this was the first mill on waters tributary to the Saginaw. Another mill was that of Rowland Perry and Harvey Spencer at Grand Blanc, on the head waters of the Thread River. The first raft of timber floated on the tributaries of the Saginaw was out at the Stevens mill, and hauled to the Flint River, a distance of about three miles, where it was rafted. In 1830 an attempt was made by Alden Tupper to build a mill on the Flint below Flushing, but it never did any work. George Oliver ran the Thread River mill for Mr. Stevens, and a few years later a grist mill was added, and there- upon became known as the "Thread Mills."
The first lumber at Saginaw probably was cut by Albert Miller in the primitive man-power method, he being the "pit" sawyer and Joseph Busby or Charles A. Lull the "top" sawyer. This was early in the thirties, and the lumber thus laboriously made was used for building their homes.
The "Williams" Mill
It was in 1834 that Harvey Williams, familiarly known as "Uncle Har- vey." came to Saginaw from Detroit and built for Gardner D. and Ephraim S. Williams, his cousins, the first steam saw mill on the Saginaw River, thus inaugurating the lumber industry of this stream. This mill, which was first operated in 1835, was a very primitive affair, having a single gate saw driven by an engine of wonderful proportions, and calculated to cut about two thou- sand feet of one-inch boards in a day of twelve hours. The engine, originally built for the first steamboat, the Walk-in-the-Water, to ply the Great Lakes, had a cylinder six inches in diameter by forty-eight inches stroke, and after- ward, following the wrecking of that boat in 1822, had been installed in the steamboat Superior, and rendered good service for more than ten years longer. Harvey Williams was an excellent blacksmith and all-round mechanic. and personally forged the main parts of the iron work for the mill, bringing it from Detroit when ready for use. He succeeded in adapting the peculiar construction and power of the engine to the uses and needs of sawing machinery ; and afterward provided a run of stone for gristing.
To Gardner D. Williams, who came to this forest wilderness in 1826, is honor due for being the first lumberman on the Saginaw. He was of the sturdy, progressive type of pioneer, fearless, and undaunted by the difficulties of border life. A strong man, physically and mentally, he became inured to hardship and privation, and in following the occupation of fur trader grad- ually assumed the customs and habits of the native Indians, whose true friend he was. (A portrait of Mr. Williams appears on page ninety.) In this connection an interesting tale is told by a well known lady of the East Side, who, coming to the settlement on the Saginaw when a mere child, lived with her family in the old block house, which had been a part of Fort Sagi- naw in 1822-23.
"It was vet in the thirties," she said. "that one delightful day in Summer a young Indian girl appeared at the block house, with basketry and other articles of craftsmanship of her race for sale. Because of her beauty and grace of bearing, as well as by the fine texture of her dress, she everywhere attracted attention and was an object of my curiosity, though I was but a mere child. Instead of the loose and much soiled garments of the average Indian, she was clad in a beautiful robe, evidently of European manufac- ture, her stockings were silken, and instead of moccassins she wore fine
395
THE LUMBER INDUSTRY
CHOPPERS AT WORK IN THE FOREST
leather shoes of style and fit which betrayed a foreign origin. Her skin, though tanned by exposure to the elements, was soft and fair, her hands were shapely and without the appearance of toil or drudgery, and her luxur- iant hair was carefully combed and dressed in some semblance to the style of the frontier. ller manner was gentle and her voice soft and musical, denoting care and patience in her training to young womanhood. I had never seen so striking a beauty among the Indian girls, and was eager to know her name and whence she came.
"When she had gone I asked the woman who conducted the little tavern, who she was and where she lived. ""Why, have you not heard?' she replied. 'the little Indian girl is the daughter of the great trader. Gard Williams. whose Indian wigwam is on the banks of the Tittabawassee.' AAfterward, I learned that the abode of the squaw who was her mother, and one among a thousand of her race, was indeed up the river on the site of an ancient Indian village. Within, it was lacking the tawdry trappings of the savage, but was comfortably furnished with home-like articles of real utility, and the clothing of the Indian woman was of the finest texture and weave.'
In extenuation, it may be said that in the earliest days of settlement of the wilderness, when the whites were so few and interspersed with renegades from Canada, the mixing of the races and rearing of Indian families by the traders, was not an uncommon occurrence, though frowned upon by the better element of the scant population.
The mill of the Williams Brothers, at the foot of Mackinaw Street, was for several years of more than ample capacity to supply the wants of the few settlers who had made homes for themselves in the valley. A cut of two thousand feet per day was considered excellent, and required the engine to be run at its full power, with its ponderous sash or gate rising and falling with every revolution of the twelve-foot fly wheel, to which it was directly connected. With various improvements of equipment this mill was operated off and on for a number of years, but was finally burned July 4, 1854. having been set on fire, it was supposed. by a fire-cracker. It was rebuilt and oper-
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396
HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
ated during the period of increasing production of lumber on the river, but was again destroyed by fire in the early eighties. Rebuilt by George F., William A. and Stewart B. Williams, sons of Gardner D., on a much larger scale and equipped with modern sawing machinery, with an extensive salt block, this mill was one of the largest at the upper end of the river, and con- tinued in operation until the exhaustion of the pine timber resources of this section. At the close of the century the "Williams" mill, as it was commonly called, was for the third time wiped out by fire. and nothing remained to mark the location of a once prosperous business.
The First Mill on the East Side
In the Fall of 1836 "Uncle Harvey" Williams built a mulay mill on the east side of the river for Mackie. Oakley & Jennison, of New York, in which firm he had a financial interest, and thus, with Norman Little began a new settlement. The mill was situated (see page 141) on rising ground just south of the present Bristol Street bridge, on the site of the gas works. When ready to commence operations in 1837. with an engine of ten inch bore and fourteen inch stroke, it was confidently expected that its capacity was fully equal to any demand for lumber for at least a quarter of a century. How little was it comprehended that within the lifetime of the pioneer lum- bermen, the demand upon, and the production of lumber in the Saginaw Valley would reach a thousand million feet in a year, as was the case in 1882.
The mill was engaged in the first few years of its operation in cutting "long stuff" for the Michigan Central Railroad, then but recently commenced. After an uncertain existence of eight years the mill was closed down, and with three empty houses stood as a reminder of shattered hopes. Its use- fulness was not ended, however, for under the influence of youthful energy and determination, and ample capital, its machinery was overhauled and again put into action.
Curtis Emerson was the rejuvenating spirit of the old mill, who, in the Spring of 1846, in association with Charles W. Grant, purchased the prop- erty and one hundred and seventy-five acres of land in the vicinity, for six thousand dollars. Having spent ten thousand dollars in placing new boilers, engine and other new equipment. the mill was ready for successful opera- tion : and was thereafter known as the "Emerson" mill. It was fifty-five feet by one hundred and twenty feet in dimensions, and had three upright saws of three thousand feet a day capacity, each : one edging table and a butting saw. The engine was of seventy-five horse power, with a stroke of four and a half feet, and the new boilers were eighteen feet long by forty-two inches in diameter. The annual capacity was about three million feet, work- ing by day only. In those days no slabs or saw-dust were used as fuel, the refuse from the saws being hauled away to dumps at an expense of five dol- lars a day, though the boilers consumed seven cords of mixed wood in twelve hours, at a cost of two dollars a cord. In later years, when cord wood was not so easily obtained, a large part of the waste was burned under the boilers of the river mills.
Emerson Shipped the First Cargo of Lumber
The first cargo of clear lumber ever shipped from the Saginaws was loaded at the Emerson mill in 1847. It was consigned to C. P. Williams & Company, of Albany, New York, and was the first cargo of clear cork pine to reach that market. Its peculiar value quickly attracted attention, and an immediate demand for Saginaw pine humber was created. This first ship- ment to a foreign market was the birth of the lumber business in the valley, and Emerson & Eldridge, who then operated the mill, projected better facili- ties for transportation.
397
THE LUMBER INDUSTRY
In 1850 Charles W. Grant and Jesse Hoyt built the second mill on the east side of the river, at the foot of German Street. It was known as the "Hoyt" mill, and was successfully operated until March 26, 1854, when it was destroyed with a large quantity of lumber, in the great fire which swept from the river to Washington Street. The next mill in succession was that of Sears & Holland, erected in 1855, near the foot of Atwater Street.
Meanwhile, the great flow of capital to the valley had stimulated invest- ment in timber lands and building of saw mills, and by 1854 there were, upon the authority of John S. Estabrook, twenty-nine mills on the river, and nine others in process of building, with an estimated cutting capacity of one hun- dred million feet a year. At the upper, or Saginaw, end of the river there were in 1857 fourteen saw mills, and nine on the tributary streams, and these cut in that year sixty million feet. An authentic list of these mills appeared in the first History of Saginaw County, published by Truman B. Fox. in 1858, and is herewith transcribed :
East Saginaw
Value
Cushing & Company
Cut 4,500,000 feet
$ 36.000.00
J. Hill
2,500.000 feet
21,000.00
L. B. Curtis.
3,000,000 feet
24,000.00
D. G. Holland.
1,500.000 feet
10,000.00
Whitney & Garrison
3,000,000 feet
24,000.00
Gallagher Mill, ( W. F. Glasby )
2,000,000 feet
14,000.00
Copeland & Company.
1,500,000 feet
10.000.00
Atwater Mill, (Sears & Holland )
3.500,000 feet
30.000.00
Saginaw City
Gang Mill
7.000.000 feet
$ 30,000.00
G. D. Williams & Son.
2,500,000 feet
21,000.00
Millard Mill, (Curtis & King)
3.500,000 feet
30.000.00
Zilwaukee
Johnson's, ( John Drake )
4.000,000 feet
35,000.00
B. F. Fisher.
1.500,000 feet
10,000.00
J. A. Westervelt
4.000,000 feet
35,000.00
44,000,000 feet
$330.000.00
Tributary mills, including four water power, at
St. Charles. Chesaning. Birch Run and
16.000,000 feet
105,000.00
Total
.60,000.000 feet
$435,000.00
Frankenmuth
Average value, per thousand feet, seven dollars and twenty-five cents.
Evolution of Sawing Machinery
Up to this time the mills of the valley had passed through the evolution from the sash to the mulay saw, which was superseded in turn by the rotary, or "circular," as it was commonly called. Ten years later nearly all the mills had discarded both gate and mulay, and the circular with a few gangs did practically all the cutting, the former, of four to six gauge, having a capacity of about one thousand feet an hour. The Sage & McGraw mill, at the southern limit of Bay City, which was the largest mill on the river, had one mulay for siding down the large logs, (which were then quite common, and too valuable to be slaughtered on a rotary, the width of whose cut was limited ), one rotary saw, two slabbing gangs, and two stock gangs of forty saws, each, making a seasons cut of about thirty million feet.
398
HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
The rough edges of the lumber as it fell from the saw were removed by a single circular saw on a table at the side of the mill, which was operated by men who walked its length, returned, turned the board over and repeated the operation for each individual piece. But long in the sixties William H. Taylor, a lumberman of Saginaw City, conceived the idea that the circular saw was capable of cutting more than one thousand feet an hour, and made a wager with George Williams that he could cut double that quantity. On a given day a test was made in the presence of a large number of incredulous mill men, who came to be witnesses of Taylor's discomfiture. Imagine their chagrin when, in less than an hour the mill was piled full of unedged lumber, which the edging table could not take care of. The saw had cut more than four thousand feet of lumber in the hour, and demonstrated that its capacity was limited only by an ability to edge the lumber and remove it from the mill.
Inventive genius was at once set at work, and in a short time Thomas Munn, of Bay City, introduced a double-edging table which, with mechanical feed, quickly trimmed Loth edges of the board at one operation. The double
LOADING ON SLEIGHS
1587
HAULING TO SKIDWAY
edger was at once received into favor by mill men, and within a few years was to be found in nearly every mill in the country. The limit of capacity of the circular saw was so greatly increased that twenty-four thousand feet per hour has been attained by a Texas mill, cutting Southern long-leaf pine.
Improvement of the gang saw followed, and the great waste in the early cutting operations was largely eliminated. In this important advance the machinery firm of Wickes Brothers, composed of Henry D., Edward N .. and Charles T. Wickes, performed great service to the lumber industry, and their perfected gangs have been the standard wherever lumber is manufac- tured. Today. their gang saws, adapted to every and particular need of the industry, are made in this city, and are sent to every country in the world.
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