USA > Michigan > Saginaw County > History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume II > Part 73
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The log house of the early Saginaw farmers, with its plain and oft-time rude furnishings, and its huge fireplace made of stones, sticks and clay, was a comfortable and cheerful abode. The old fireplace contributed much to the health and happiness of the settler's home, and he. after a hard day's work. seated with his family in front of his glowing fire, with an abundance of wood
VVVALL
in the corner, enjoyed all the comforts of frontier life. There was an art in building a good fire, and was kept in constant practice in laying down aright the backlog and forestick, and building thereon with small wood, in so skill- ful a manner that a little kindling wood would start the fire and give out the most heat and light to the household. If the fire was too dull to give light in the evening, some fat was put in a saucer, a rag was twisted for a wick and then coiled about in the grease, one end being left on the edge of the saucer and lighted. This was a primitive lighting taper. As pine trees were plentiful in some parts, pine knots were largely used and created a bright blaze that lasted for some time.
The old iron crane, with its pot-books and links of chain, swung at the will of the housewife, who hung on it the kettles containing the food to be cooked, and pushed it back over the fire. Pigs, chickens and spare ribs were roasted to a rich brown by suspending them by a wire before the fire. The baking was mostly done in the old brick oven built in one side of the chimney, although the "tin reflector" that was placed before the fire, was much used to bake bread and cakes, and the Pink-eye and Meshanic potatoes.
The "Michigan Appetite"
The settler's daily fare, from want of variety in his larder, was neces- sarily frugal. There was no fruit save the wild plums and the various berries that grew in the woods and low lands. The fare for the table was bread, pork and potatoes. Pork was often very scarce, some families going without meat. except the wild game they killed, for a whole season at a time. Salt was also hard to get, and once sold as high as twenty-one dollars a barrel. Tea, coffee, sugar and butter were rarely seen on a settler's table. An herb called the teaweed, a kind of wild Bohea that grew in the woods. was used by some, the leaves being steeped like our imported teas and the decoction drunk. Crust coffee, made from wheat or other grains browned. was in common use for drink at table.
Farmers were told that they would get the "Michigan Appetite" after they had lived here for a short time. When it came, which was in the first year, it was ravenous and pork and potatoes were delicious. The usual meal of the family consisted of a huge platter of boiled potatoes, piled up steaming hot and placed in the center of the table, bread or Johnny-cake, perhaps some meat boiled or fried, and a large bowl of flour gravy. This was eaten with a relish that swept the table of all edibles, and left a slim fare for the family dog. Various reasons were adduced as to the cause of this appetite, but the one good cause was hunger. The pioneer farmers, working long hours at hard manual labor, seldom had enough to eat, and hence were always hungry and ready to eat.
Value of Bottom Lands
During the period of settlement and for many years after, the impression went forth that the Saginaw Valley was low and monotonous, traversed by swamps with miasmatic vapors, populated by wild animals and bull-frogs. and entirely unfit for human habitation. In the immediate vicinity of some of the rivers and the bay this was to a certain extent true, but in localities all over the valley were to be found beautiful rolling lands and ridges covered with luxurious growth of timber peculiar to this latitude. The bottom lands were often confounded with the wet prairie that skirted the main streams, and while the latter was covered with wild rice and reeds and under water a good portion of the year, the former along the water courses in their native state were lined with a rich growth of walnut, linden, soft maple and wild plums. These trees were usually festooned with grape vines which attained to a large size and bore abundant fruit. The lands
1
A TYPICAL FARM SCENE
were subject to inundation in the Spring, but the waters usually receded in time for the farmer to prepare the soil for seed. This soil was composed of rich alluvial formation of wonderful fertility, and the crops it produced, par- ticularly cereals, were remunerative in the highest degree. The bottoms also afforded the best meadow lands, and had the advantage over the sandy ridges in that they seldom suffered from drouth.
Another erroneous impression in regard to these Saginaw Valley lands due, no doubt, to being wet and unforbidding at certain seasons, was that they could not be drained and thus warmed into life and usefulness. It was also believed that the county was too frosty and unreliable as to climate to warrant the broad extent of improvements that were deemed necessary to redeem the "pine barrens." Someone, however, discovered that a large por- tion of these lands lay several feet above the normal surface of the river and bay, and undertook to show that they could be made dry and rendered susceptible to high cultivation, at the same time driving away innumerable reptiles and noxious vapors and miasmas, which were a detriment to good health and comfort. Many parcels of land which were considered worthless on account of their spongy condition, were redeemed and made valuable by a proper system of drainage and ditching. This improvement work, despite the grave doubts of many pioneers that the valley would ever become even a moderately productive farming district, went on continually, and today greater attention than ever is given to improvements of this nature, and to proper fertilization of the soil.
As an illustration of the fertility of the alluvial bottom lands, an early pioneer contributes some interesting figures from actual experience. Ile relates that he once traded the forty acres, known as Mapes' Addition to East Saginaw, which now includes the site of the Pere Marquette Railroad depot and other railroad buildings, for the Fraser Farm on the Tittabawassee, situated two miles below the present railroad crossing at Paines'. The farm was considered a choice selection, there being sixty acres of river bottom, on which the crops raised might well satisfy any farmer, and the abundance of them amply compensate him for the inconvenience of an occasional over- flow during the Spring freshets. Seventy bushels of shelled corn to the acre was no uncommon yield. He raised common field pumpkins that weighed sixty pounds each, and from one vine gathered twenty-two pumpkins the aggregate weight of which was three hundred and eighty-two pounds. In 1833 Duncan Mclellan raised eight hundred bushels of potatoes, the yield being between three hundred and four hundred bushels to the acre.
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
In November, 1830. the elder McCarty and his son, Thomas, came from Boston and settled on the Tittabawassee, and although neither had ever chopped a stick of timber, they cut the logs and built a house with their own hands. In the rough log cabin they lived and cooked their own food. During the Winter and Spring they cut the timber into short lengths that they could roll into heaps by hand, and thus partially cleared the land, upon which they raised a crop of corn that they sold in the Fall of 1831 for sixty dollars. This first crop was raised without any team work. It was cus- tomary for settlers to fell the timber and pile the brush neatly and burn it in the Spring, and plant and raise their first crop of corn among the logs. Edward McCarty, a younger brother of Thomas, afterward occupied the same and surrounding lands and became one of the wealthy farmers of Saginaw County.
Wild Fruits and Berries
Wild or native fruits, such as plums, cherries, grapes and berries grew in great abundance upon the bottom lands and along the margins of the streams. All manner of shrub fruits and berries were found in the greatest profusion in the woods, including currants and gooseberries of several varieties, and whortleberries, blackberries and red and black raspberries. The cranberry which grew in some of the marshes, was for a few years an important article of export here, and hundreds of bushels were shipped an- nually from the port of Saginaw to eastern cities. About 1868 this trade fell off, owing to the great home consumption, and the destruction of the marshes by fire and other causes. During the Fall of 1856 hundreds of acres of cran- berry marshes were consumed by the fires which raged incessantly for weeks along the rivers.
Strawberries seemed to be peculiarly adapted to the soil here, and when properly cultivated and given the care which the delicate nature of the plant requires, yielded abundantly. About 1856 the late Joseph Halstead told of a wonderful yield of delicious strawberries in the garden of a friend. He was at tea at his friend's house on several occasions when the table was bountifully supplied with luscious berries, and he remarked to the lady that they must have a large number of plants to gather from. "Yes," she replied. "we have a dozen." lle thought if such supplies of berries could be produced from a dozen plants, it might be profitable to raise them in larger quantities, so he became the agent for an eastern grower of the plants, and introduced them into many gardens in Saginaw.
Early Fruit Growing
The cultivation of domestic fruits received very little attention in Sagi- naw Valley until the villages began to grow, and the people created some demand for them. Tradition tells us that the earliest fruit grown here in great abundance was produced without effort by anyone. When the first fur traders came here more than a hundred years ago, they found several clumps of apple trees growing near the banks of the river, which yearly produced large quantities of rich fruit. At that time some of the trees indi- cated an age of sixty years or more, and there was much conjecture as to their origin. But it was at length conceded that in all probability the trees originated from seeds brought by the Indians from Canada or some of the Eastern States. One clump of these trees, though few in number, was situated at Carrollton, near the bank of the river; another group was found on land which afterward became the A. B. Paine Farm, a short distance above the crossing of the Michigan Central Railroad at Paines' station ; and others were at different places on the Tittabawassee above Paines'.
One of the apple trees on l'aines' Farm had a peculiar formation, with four or five large trunks springing from one root, and was always a prolific
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DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE
bearer. One year, during the early settlement of the place, this tree bore one hundred and eleven bushels of choice fruit, and each white family then residing in the valley was presented with a large bag of delicious apples by james Fraser, who at that time owned the farm. Afterward Mr. Fraser had an abundant harvest of plums, and after supplying his own wants and those of particular friends, he directed his man to gather the remainder in large tubs and distribute the fruit among the families of the village. Most of the old Indian apple trees died many years ago, the cause generally attributed being the overflow of the lands adjacent to the rivers, in the Spring foods which began about 1836-7, which it was supposed killed the roots.
The first orchards in the county were grown from seeds brought from New York State by Asa and Abram Whitney, and were on the banks of the Tittabawassee near where Parker's brick yard was afterward located. Messrs. Little and Ladd also brought apple seeds from Livingston County, New York, which were planted by Eleazer Jewett on his land at Green Point,
AN EXAMPLE OF SUCCESSFUL FRUIT GROWING
but owing to ravages of mice which girdled the trees, only a few survived to furnish trees for several gardeners. The want of roads in the early days made it very difficult to transport fruit trees, but a few were brought in from the farm of Oliver Williams, at Silver Lake, near Ponitac, and planted in the gardens of his sons, Gardner D. and Ephraim S. Williams. These probably were the first bearing trees propagated by the settlers of Saginaw County.
James Fraser, who was very active in introducing fruit here at an early date, brought seeds from New York State, which he planted and distributed the trees among the farmers. Some very choice varieties of peaches were procured in this way, and there was no difficulty in growing delicious fruit in great abundance until 1856. That winter was so severe that nearly all peach trees were killed. A few that were covered by snow drifts were preserved and bore fruit many years after, but as a general thing peaches have not been so sure a crop as some other fruits. Plums were grown in great abundance by grafting cultivated fruit on native wild stock. About 1840 Harvey Williams went to Detroit, and possibly to the Windsor nurseries in Canada, to gather select fruit trees, and returned with a large wagon load of choice varieties, which were planted and well cared for, the result of which was a bountiful harvest of fruit for at least forty years.
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
Grains and Vegetables
All kinds of field and garden cereals and vegetables were easily grown on the bottom lands, and even further back on higher ground the soil was found to be adapted to the growing of grass and root crops. Potatoes, tur- nips, beets, carrots, parsnips and other vegetables proved by their large yield and size the fertility of the soil, while varieties of garden vines produced to a surprising degree. Peas, beans, tomatoes, cabbages and lettuce grew in private gardens and fields to perfection and flavor. It was nothing unusual for the pioneer farmer to dig three hundred bushels and upward of potatoes to the acre. Wheat, barley, oats, rye, corn and buckwheat yielded profitable crops, and while wheat, as a general rule, did better upon heavy soil back from the streams, all other grains flourished in almost any locality in the valley.
Rapid Increase in Agriculture
As lands became more cleared and opened to the light and heat of the sun they improved every year, and in the broader clearings untimely frosts became an exception rather than the rule. The certainty of a ready market for all classes of farm products was an inducement to work all available ground, and for immigrants to locate where no difficulties in the way of transportation or slack demand were liable to prevent regular returns from their labors. From 1870 to 1874 there was more activity in clearing land and making farms than in all the twenty years preceding ; and the value of farm products more than doubled within five years following eighteen seventy- fonr.
In 1860 the number of acres of improved land (a part only slashed) in Saginaw County was eighteen thousand and forty-eight, and the value of the crops was one hundred sixty-five thousand three hundred and eighty dollars, while in 1870 the acreage had increased to thirty-three thousand three hundred and eighty-five, and the valuation of crops to six hundred ninety thousand three hundred and eighty-two dollars. A fair estimate of the entire farm production, including dairy and stock returns not included in the figures for the years given above, in 1874, was two million dollars.
Dairy farming began to attract attention of the farmers early in the seventies, the cities on the Saginaw affording a good market for such pro- ducts. The rich alluvial soil of the valley was found to afford the best quality of grazing lands; and thousands of tons of very good hay were annually cut upon the prairies and wild meadows. Whenever the foreign and domes- tic grasses were introduced on such lands the crops were uniformly satisfactory. The constant demands of the lumbering districts, the wants of an increasing population engaged in mechanical, manufacturing and mer- cantile business, and ultimately the demand for shipment to the Lake Superior region, all tended to keep the Saginaw market active and to increase the demand.
The Marshes Early Attract Buyers
Persons who have only seen the Saginaw River in its present condition or when the lumber and salt industries were at their height, with its banks confined by docks and booms, can form no idea of the beautiful scenery along its course. The river banks on either side were well defined, except at the month of creeks and bayous, and the prairie was covered with blue- joint grass free from any other vegetation, except near the banks of the river where it was interspersed with morning glories, wild roses and other wild flowers, presenting the appearance of a beautiful flower garden. The ground was firm and solid so that a person could ride on horseback or drive over it in any direction ; and parties who visited it in the Summer of 1835 were captivated by the beauties of the surroundings.
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DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE
In June of that year Daniel H. Fitzhugh made his first visit to the valley and rode over the prairies where the bluejoint grass was as high as the pony's back, with nothing in view except the distant timber and the flower-decked banks of the river. Ile was so pleased with the prospect that he purchased a large tract of prairie land below Zilwaukee, where the New York Works were afterward located. Another traveller who came West that Summer with a view of investing in government lands was Albert H. Dorr, a wealthy broker of New York City.
Wintering Stock on the Rushes
Mr. Dorr was delighted with the country, and the sight of so much nutritious grass suggested at once the idea of stock raising. Among the lands he selected for purchase was a tract of eight hundred acres of prairie located on the east side of the river at the south end of Crow Island, which he proposed to develop into a stock farm. He accordingly advanced one hundred and fifty dollars to parties at Saginaw City with which to pay for cutting and stacking one hundred tons of hay on his land, and employed a man named John Hall to go with him to Ohio and assist in gathering a stock of cattle and horses for his farm, which he purchased from the govern- ment upon his arrival at Detroit. But so little faith had the people of Sagi- naw City that Dorr would carry out his plans, that the parties who were to have cut the hay paid no attention to the matter, so that when he returned late in November with one hundred and fifty head of horned cattle and fifty horses, there was nothing provided for their wintering. There were but few people then in the village and no surplus fodder in store, and the owner of the stock knew not what to do.
After a few days' deliberation he went to Albert Miller, who then lived opposite Green Point, to see if he could help him out of his trouble. It was on Thanksgiving day. He offered to turn over the land and stock for a period of ten years, and to write a lease for the same that would satisfy Miller, which was done, one provision of it being that the latter should only be responsible for the stock that should be alive on the first day of the following May. He then gave Miller three hundred dollars with which to cio the best he could towards wintering the animals, and started at once on his return to New York.
Mr. Miller then purchased all the hay and grain there was for sale in the valley, with which to feed the stock until he could make other provision for their sustenance. He had heard of great quantities of rushes growing in the vicinity of the bay, upon which stock could be wintered, so he hired an Indian to guide him, and, after several days' search, found on the east side of Quanicasse River, a quantity of rushes that he considered an ample supply for all the stock for the winter. Feeding the animals on the hay and grain until the ice was strong enough to bear them, he started with two loads of hay with which to feed them on the way, and drove the first day to a point just above where Portsmouth was afterwards located. There he found some hay that had been put up by Joseph and Medore Tromble, a part of which he fed to the cattle, and in the morning continued to the month of the river, where the hay brought from Saginaw was fed to them. The third day, just before night set in, the cattle were driven into the rushes and they had such a feast as they never had before. The growth of rushes, which were of the jointed variety, commenced in the timber near the prairie and extended over a large tract of land, and was about three feet high.
After getting the stock located on their feeding ground the men built a rough shanty of logs for shelter while attending the stock ; and two men were left in charge with orders to be among the cattle and horses every day to prevent their straying away. Mr. Miller visited the camp once a week to
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
HARVESTING GRAIN ON LOW LANDS
carry camp supplies for the men and salt for the cattle. llis route was along the whole length of Saginaw River, then across the head of the bay to the mouth of the Quanicasse, and up that river two or three miles to a point where the shanty stood.
The land he had leased down the river had no buildings on it, and after the ice became strong enough to bear the weight he placed a strong ox sled under each corner of his frame house at Green Point, and, hitching eight oxen to the sleds, hauled the house onto the ice and proceeded with it to the farm at Crow Island. The furniture remained undisturbed in the house, with fire burning in the stove and provisions being cooked upon it. The settlers at Saginaw City, having no intimation of his plans, were greatly surprised at seeing a house on runners passing down the river. Upon getting his house firmly set on land, he got out a large quantity of rail timber preparatory to farming on a large scale the next season. Ile then selected a nearer route by which he could pass to and from the cattle tenders' camp, which was ten miles by prairie and four miles through heavy timber. He was highly pleased with the condition of the stock; it was thriving nicely, and the coats of the animals were as smooth as those of stall-fed cattle.
After the frost was out of the ground he commenced plowing and caused the stock to be driven home for inventory. \ hundred or more head had gathered when the river began to rise and overflow the prairie, so that there was scarcely an acre of dry land remaining for them to stand on. It was necessary to remove them to higher ground, which was done by swimming them across half a mile of deep water, and was safely accomplished by Miller mounted on a horse followed by his men in canoes driving the animals after him. The water rose so that on the first of May, when the lease should commence, there was not a foot of dry land on the eight hundred
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DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE
acre farm. Mr. Miller then informed the owner of the situation, and asked to be permitted to give up the lease, which was granted and the stock was turned over to Gardner D. Williams to be disposed of. Some of the cattle were good beef and so used during the Summer of 1836, while others were driven to Detroit for beef or scattered over Saginaw and adjoining counties.
Reclaiming Marsh Lands
Although it was well known to Saginaw settlers and farmers that the soil of the prairie marshes was of exceeding fertility, and would undoubtedly produce wonderful crops, nothing was done to reclaim them. The Spring freshets which overflowed the marshes to a depth of ten to fifteen feet, leaving quantities of mud and refuse on the land, were the great obstacle to im- provements. There was still a great acreage of wild government lands on higher ground subject to drainage, offered at a low price, and there was no incentive to experiment with the muck lands which lay only two or three feet above the level of the lake. Northeasters from Georgian Bay often piled the sluggish river waters back upon it, a dingy scum on the trunks of trees revealing where the floods had risen head high. It was evidently not a proposition to be undertaken by the individual farmer, as only by extensive work on a large scale was there hope that reclamation of the marshes could be brought to a successful issue. Time and development of our farming lands were required to make a project of this nature seem feasible to capitalists, and until that point was reached little could be expected of any plans for reclamation.
It was late in the eighteen-eighties that the first efforts were made to re- claim muck lands of Saginaw County. Harlan P. Smith, a prominent dealer in choice farming lands, had delved into the subject very thoroughly and ac- quired title to considerable acreage about seventeen miles south of the city. He should be regarded as the pioneer in the improvement of our prairie marshes. Associated with him were Charles 11. Camp and George B. Brooks, who composed a well known law firm in East Saginaw, and together, under the firm name Camp, Brooks & Smith, added to the hoklings already acquired until they owned about ten thousand acres. This large acreage in one parcel was situated in Albee and St. Charles Townships, south and east of the Flint and Shiawassee Rivers.
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