USA > Michigan > Saginaw County > History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume II > Part 75
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Experiences in Early Road Making
About November 15. 1831, John Todd and Phineas Thompson started from Flint with a tent and two weeks' provisions on their backs, and passed over the trail a few miles where they were to begin work, when they pitched their tents for two days' labor, working one day on each side of the trail. Their experiences were graphically related by Todd many years after, and published in the Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. VII, pp. 252-3, as follows : "After spending the day at labor on the road we had no lack of music to beguile the tedious hours of night. Soon after dark, wolves would gather around so near that we could hear every note of their fierce howls ; and we had
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to each our provisions above their reach. At one place, when retiring for the night. I left my leather mittens outside the tent, and that night a larger pack of wolves than usual gathered around the tent and varied their savage growls with snapping their teeth together as if they meant to devour us. In the morning we found a large space trampled about the camp where the wolves had fought over the mittens, the strongest one probably securing the prize for his supper. It was not pleasant to spend nights so near a pack of hungry wolves with nothing but a frail tent between them and you.
"On arriving at Cass River , ur job was completed, but we had no means of crossing. So we felled an ash tree, cut it into as large pieces as we could handle, and made a raft which would bear the weight of two men by sinking in the water nearly to our knees. Two first passed over, when by placing the raft in the current it soon floated back so near the other bank that the third party caught it and got safely over.
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SAGINAW, MICHIGAN. U. S. A.
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SAGINAW THE SHIPPING CENTER OF THE GREAT LAKES REGION
"We all started for Green Point, where my sister had taken up her resi- dence a month before. On our arrival at the river we called for some one to put us across. There was no one about the place but my sister, and she was not accustomed to handle a canoe; but hearing my voice the ventured out and, with the directions we gave her, landed safely. We all got aboard and crossed to Eleazer Jewett's house, where we were very glad to find shelter after two weeks' camping in the wilderness.
"That was my first visit to Saginaw. I was delighted with the broad. deep river, with the beautiful prairie bevond Green Point, and the fine tim- bered land on the opposite side; and I afterward purchased from the govern- ment the land upon which I stood when I first saw the Saginaw River.
" After spending a few days at Green Point and Saginaw City, the weather having become cold, We started on our return trip. We made a raft at Cass River, upon which we crossed. and pushed on hoping to reach Pine Run before dark. But night set in with a snow storm before we reached there, and we had great difficulty in kindling a fire, everything being wet with snow and
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ATLANTIC OCEAN
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having nothing but a flint and steel to start a fire with. We finally succeeded in making a blaze, but were so tired with the days' travel that we did not pitch our tent, but spread it over us. It was covered with four inches of snow in the morning, when we completed our journey to Flint.
Difficulties of Travel
Of the condition of the main trail and the difficulties of travel in pioncer days, Albert Miller, the first white settler on the east side of the river, relates: Michigan Pioneer Colections. Vol. XVIIL., pp. 27.
"On November 23, 1836, I started from Detroit on horseback to go to Portsmouth, to which place I had dispatched a vessel loaded with four thousand dollars worth of goods and machinery for a saw mill. It had been very wet and the roads were intolerably muddy, but it turned cold and when they froze up they were so rough as to be almost impassable.
"I got along very slowly but arrived at last at Flint River on my pony A friend said. 'You may as well leave your pony here as leave him in the woods, for it is not possible for a horse to go through to Saginaw." On con- sideration I concluded that it was so. The whole country was covered with water, and the ice was not frozen hard enough to bear a horse, but was just thick enough for him to break through and out his legs. I was worn out and did not feel that I could walk to Saginaw, but I was at home in a canoe. so I purchased one and started down the river. I got along about thirty miles when I found the ice had blocked up the river completely. I hauled the canoe ashore, put my paddles under it, and started on foot following the river. I could see no trail and had to be guided by the river At length I came to a bayou, and as I could not see the end of it. I waded in and broke the skim of ice with my arms as I went along, and finally get across to the other side. I passed along and that night got to a shanty where an old settler lived. and I stayed with him over night and partially dried my clothes. The next day I went on, but there was no road on either side of the river and I took a course I never had followed before. But I knew there was some way of getting around, and I crossed some creeks as best I could and finally arrived at Port -- mouth nearly frozen.
"I was completely used up, and I thought if I could only get home where mother was and lie down I could be content. When I got there the little log house was crowded with men working on the saw mill, there being sixteen boarders besides my brother's family, and it didn't seem like home to me at all. I was homesick, but said nothing about it."
In 1834 the United States government undertook the improvement of the territorial road, or Saginaw turnpike as it was generally known, and the route was surveyed by Orange Kisdon, who afterward published a map of this region. The road had literally been chopped out of the forest, and was graded to within eighteen miles of Saginaw when the work was abandoned. Later the improvement work was resumed and completed in 1841. It was then far from being a good road, and at some seasons was almost impassable.
Travel in these days was limited to horseback and foot, but in May, 1834. Charles A. Lull, with his father and mother, two sisters and a brother, and Phineas Spaulding, drove from Flint with an ox cart, which was the first wheeled vehicle, so far as known, to come over the old trail to Saginaw. Years after the road was little better. for Thomas A. Babcock, an old pioneer who, though in his eighty fifth year is in the enjoyment of excellent health. relates that when he came to Saginaw in March, 1852. he walked the entire distance from St. Clair County, the roads being in such condition that travel by horse and wagon was impossible.
The old Indian trail, which was followed by the earliest settlers, came out on the east bank of the river opposite Green Point, but afterward, during
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the various improvements to it, a diversion was made to meet the river opposite the foot of Mackinaw Street, at which point there was a ferry to the other side. There was no road or path on the east side of the river, and it was necessary for the early pioneers of East Saginaw, in going to Detroit, to cross over the river and bayou at the foot of Plank Road (Genesee Street ), wade through the mud of the Indian trail, which followed closely the present lines of Michigan Avenue, to Saginaw City and then recross the river to the east bank where they met the Flint trail. This was a roundabout way of travel, and the necessity of first passing through Saginaw City in getting to civiliza- tion was very distasteful to the enterprising promoters and progressive settlers of East Saginaw. It was evident that if the new settlement was to grow and prosper, a direct road to Flint and the outside world would be necessary.
The First Plank Road
In order to provide better facilities for travel and put East Saginaw on the map. Norman Little and his associates undertook the construction of a plank road all the way to Flint, a distance of about thirty-two miles. This was a large project involving an enormous expenditure of money for those times, and was considered by many as a visionary one (see Chapter IN, page 150). Some opposition was aroused to the scheme, but a charter was at length granted by the Legislature, and the work of building the road was begun. After overcoming many difficulties the road was put through by the way of Cass River and Pine Run, and was completed in 1851. It came into the settlement by Genesee Street, then known as Plank Road, and the first toll-gate was at the corner of Millard Street beyond which was an almost unbroken forest. As a result of this enterprise a post office was soon estab- lished, and a stage line brought in and carried out mail daily. Immigration was greatly stimulated by extensive advertising in the East and the settlement of East Saginaw began to show signs of activity.
As the village grew and was at length incorporated as a city, other plank roads were projected including a road built in the early fifties from Zilwankee to a point opposite East Saginaw. by Johnson Brothers, the projectors of the village of Zilwaukee. According to Fox's History of Saginaw Valley, 1868, there were, in addition to the Saginaw and Genesee plank road. the East Saginaw and Vassar plank road, nineteen and a half miles long; the East Saginaw and Watronsville plank road, about twenty miles long, and the Saginaw and Gratiot plank road, from Saginaw City to St. Louis, with a length of thirty-six miles.
Early River Navigation
Nature has bestowed upon the Saginaw Valley an abundance of rivers, there being no less than ten dignified by that name, besides a number of small streams. The Saginaw River is one of the largest streams in Michigan. It is twenty miles long, and in its primitive state was from three hundred to eight hundred feet in width, with a depth of ten to fifteen feet. Formed by the Cass River on the East, the Flint and Shiawassee on the South, and the Titta- bawassee on the Northwest, it serves as an outlet for a vast expanse of country, once covered by dense forests of pine and hard woods. The Saginaw River afforded practically the only means of transportation for heavy mer- chandise to and from Detroit and the East, and it was a highway of travel for the early settlers in passing to and from Saginaw Bay.
In the early days the Shiawassee and Bad Rivers were navigable for small vessels as far as St. Charles, a distance of nearly twenty miles ; and the Tittabawassee River accommodated a navigation as far as Midland City, about thirty miles above Saginaw City. Public interest in up-river navigation is shown by the organization in 1837 of the Owosso and Saginaw Navigation
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Company, with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars. Its purpose was to improve the Shiawassee River so as to make slack water navigation between Owosso and its junction with the Flint River, in order that steam- boats and barges might operate on it to the former point. After expending a large sum for labor in clearing the driftwood from the river, and using it for transporting merchandise in small boats, it was found impracticable to con- tinne this mode of transportation.
Albert Miller in his "Pioneer Sketches," published in the Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. VII, pages 234-5, relates an incident concerning the "first raft that ever floated on waters tributary to the Saginaw River :"
"While I was at Saginaw preparing timber for my house, Eleazer Jewett went to Detroit to settle some business in connection with the fur trade that he had been engaged in. About the time he was expected home, Thomas Simp- son came through from Flint on horseback and said that Mr. Jewett was there and about to start for home by way of the river, in a canoe. After a
BARGE TOWING SCHOONER IN THE OLD LUMBERING DAYS
week had passed and no tidings of him came, we became very much alarmed at his delay, and I determined to go with some Indians and follow up the river to determine if possible Jewett's fate.
"At night we arrived at the Indian's wigwam, and I was provided with a place to spread my blanket for rest. It being late in November, the weather was cold, but there was no lack of warmth in the wigwam. It was small with a large fire in the center, and a dozen Indians, male and female, were lying around it. I slept until about two o'clock in the morning when I awoke and, seeing the moon shining brightly, and being anxious to pursue my journey, I prevailed upon a young Indian, by giving him a silver coin, to pilot me on the trail to a point on the river where the trail crossed it. We arrived about day-break and I ferried myself across the river in a canoe I found at the bank. I was following the trail, which would soon leave the bank of the river and pass inland across a bend, when I heard noises on the river near me. I raised my voice on an Indian whoop (which was a signal in all emergencies), and was answered. I soon saw Mr. Jewett and two other men floating on a raft of sawed lumber. Ilad I been three minutes earlier or later I would have missed seeing them. The raft was guided to the shore and I joyfully
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leaped aboard, when Mr. Jewett, considering he had a full crew, dismissed the other men to return to Flint, and we two floated leisurely down the stream. "After Mr. Simpson had left Flint, Jewett purchased a quantity of lumber from Rufus Stevens at his mill on the Thread River, and hauled it across to the Flint, where he built a raft to float as far towards Saginaw as it would run. There was no horseman or footman passing from Flint to Saginaw whereby he could send word to his family of the cause of his delay.
"Before night on the day I met Jewett, the further progress of the raft was stopped by driftwood in the river. We went to the wigwam where I spent the night before, and remained until morning, when we went home through the first snow of the season. Mr. Jewett's arrival caused great rejoincing, the alarm having increased at his long absence, and the settlers were preparing to turn out and search for him.
"I purchased a part of the lumber from Mr. Jewett, and decided to build a frame house instead of a log block-house. The lumber was taken out of the river and piled on the bank, from which point it was hauled in winter about eight miles to the place where I intended to build. This was in December, 1832, a month the weather was very mild and continued like Indian Summer until the first week in February, and on account of the mud I was unable to remove my effects from Grand Blanc to Saginaw. It was not until the thirteenth of February that we were able to start with our household goods on sleds drawn by two yokes of oxen, with our cows and hogs driven behind the loads."
First Vessels on Saginaw River
The first craft to sail the Saginaw River was a small sloop, named the Savage, of only forty tons burden, which was used by the American Fur Company, about 1831 and a few years after, for carrying furs from their posts on the river to Buffalo. In June, 1832, a vessel of fifty tons burden came into the river, and after discharging a cargo of supplies for the fur company, sailed 111> the Tittabawassee to Duncan Mclellan's farm and took on a load of potatoes. This was the first cargo of farm produce shipped from the Saginaw Valley. Five years later Captain George Raby sailed into Saginaw River as master of the schooner North America. Captain J. D. Smith commanded the Richmond, formerly the Conneaut Packet, which was wrecked on the Canadian shore of Lake Huron. There was also a small schooner named the Mary, Captain Wilson, which sailed between Detroit and Saginaw, but in the Fall of 1836 was wrecked proving a total loss.
Building of the "Julia Smith"
Nelson Smith, a brother-in-law of Norman and Colonel W. L. P. Little, who owned the Mary, then decided to build a larger vessel to supply the demands of the increasing trade of the Saginaw River. He thereupon em- ployed a Frenchman who devised a neat model of a vessel well adapted to river and lake navigation, and several shipwrights were brought here for the construction of the boat. Furnishing the timber for the shipbuilding opera- tions kept neighboring farmers busy with their teams ; and Jewett's Hotel was well filled with boarders from the little shipyard. The vessel was of about seventy tons burden, strongly built of the best oak timber, of which there was an abundant supply nearby, and when fully loaded had a draft of four and a half feet. The construction work was directed by Captain Lock, of St. Clair, and he was the first master of the vessel. When launched the new boat was named the Julia Smith, after the owner's daughter.
After fitting out and commencing regular trips to Detroit, the Julia Smith proved a great convenience and benefit to the settlers at Saginaw. Wants which could not be supplied by the small traders were looked after by Captain Lock, who made the purchases in Detroit without charge for commission,
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only charging for freight on the goods; and large sums of money passed through his hands for that purpose. This was before the days of steamboats on the river, and the settlers, when they could, took passage on the sailing vessel in going to and from Portsmouth and Lower Saginaw (Bay City).
One evening late in November, 1837, a pioneer settler boarded the Julia Smith at Lower Saginaw, bound for Saginaw City. Scarcely had they cast off from the dock when a heavy storm of rain and wind came up, but they passed Portsmouth, the Lone Tree, Devil's Elbow and Willow Island without much difficulty, and at dark came to the critical point in the navigation of the river. the Carrollton bar. The willows from which an acute angle to the left was to be made, were visible. the helm was put down to guide the vessel through the narrow channel across the bar to deep water above. But the captain had not made sufficient allowance for the strength of the gale, and they soon ran hard aground on the south side of the channel. That night the passengers retired on board the little vessel. The weather became cold and in the morning the ground was covered with eight inches of snow, through which the settler waded three miles to his home.
The Julia Smith left the Saginaw River trade about 1850, but as late as 1871 was still a staunch and sound craft sailing on Lake Michigan. Captain Lock was swept from the deck of the schooner in a severe storm on Lake St. Clair, in 1857, and drowned.
Coming of the First Steamboat
As early as 1836 the waters of the Saginaw River were churned by steamboats. the first of which to enter the river was the Governor Marcy. commanded by Captain Gorham. She was a logy old boat of only sixteen tons net burden, and was chartered by Norman Little for Mackie, Oakley and Jennison, who were then engaged in building up Saginaw City. A full account of the coming of this steamboat is given in Chapter VIII, pp. 125-6.
First Steamboat Built on Saginaw River
In 1847, at a suggestion of Captain Mowry, who had navigated the upper Ohio River and knew the requirements of navigation in shallow waters, James Fraser, Daniel H. Fitzhugh, Curtis Emerson and Captain Mowry formed a company to build a steamboat for use on the Saginaw River. The keel of the vessel was laid at the mill of Emerson & Eldridge, and that summer Messrs. Fraser and Fitzhugh went to Pittsburg and contracted for the engines. The steamboat was completed in 1848 with oak timber and other materials furnished by Mr. Fitzhugh, and was given the name Buena Vista. It was a queer looking craft, having a large stern wheel with two engines placed in the stern, and the boiler at the bow. the steam being conveyed to the engines ty cast iron pipes placed under the upper deck. Although a slow and awkward vessel the Buena Vista filled very well the purposes for which she was built, and did a goodly amount of business, both as a tug and packet, in navigating the upper streams. The early residents looked upon her as a marvel of speed and convenience, despite the fact that her movements were somewhat asthmatic and noisy : and she was a favorite means of communication between the settlements on the river. (For an illustration of this strange craft see the picture on page 141. )
Before the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad was built across the State, the settlers of Shiawassee County, who needed some means of getting their produce to market, proposed to build a plank road from Owosso to the forks of the Bad River (now St. Charles), and secure the steamboat Buena Vista to take their wheat and other products to Saginaw. In the Summer of 1849, Andrew Parsons, of Corunna, afterward a governor of this State, and Amos Gould, of Owosso, and other prominent men explored the route for the plank
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road, and came to Saginaw to confer with the owners of the steamboat as to the feasibility of the plan. As they were to return on the Buena L'ista, it was arranged to run an excursion up the river, and on the appointed day an early start was made in the morning with the expectation of getting back to Sagi- naw by noon or a little later.
Almost the whole of the adult male population went along, but without any lunch or drink ( except whiskey). The boat passed up the Saginaw and Shiawassee Rivers without difficulty, though making slow progress, until it entered the Bad River which was narrow and so crooked that the boat some- times became wedged between two points, thus filling with mud the pipes that conveyed water to the boiler. Long before the boat reached the head of navigation, the water ran low and she was propelled by heated gas, blue streams issuing from every joint in the boiler and molten lead from the joints of the steam pipes.
The progress of the steamboat was thus impeded, and the engineer waded beside the hull in an effort to open the pipes to the boiler, but in this he Jailed and very fortunately for all on board, for had a dash of water entered
THE "SKYLARK" LOADING AT SAGINAW The Third Man from the Bow was Walter Frazee
the boiler in its overheated condition. an explosion would have scattered all to the four winds. In this dilemma with fifty hungry men sixteen miles from their base of supplies, no dwelling house within several miles, and no road in any direction, a council was held ; and Daniel L. C. Eaton and E. F. Bird volunteered to go to Saginaw in a canoe and bring a supply of provisions. A little after midnight these sturdy pioneers returned to their friends with a canoe well filled with cooked food, which the women of Saginaw City had hastily furnished from their larders. A real banquet was partaken of in the wilderness to the enjoyment of all, and which was never forgotten by those present. As the boat had no cabin and only rows of benches for seats, there was not much sleep that night for any one, and they whiled away the time as best they could until morning.
What canoes there were were then quickly manned for the return trip to Saginaw, and the balance of the crowd wended their way through the woods to the Indian settlement at Swan Creek. From there they tramped over the country to their homes, and being Sunday some of them were deeply humiliated at seeing their Indian friends engaged in their devotions. The Buena Vista remained at the forks two weeks for repairs, when she returned to deep water. That experience ended the project for a plank road and river navigation of the upper rivers to Saginaw.
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Shipbuilding on the Saginaw River
Some of the largest and most seaworthy vessels on the lakes in the old lumbering days were built on the Saginaw River, the general excellence of the oak timber in these parts being recognized by all vessel men. For flexi- bility, elasticity, toughness and durability it was pronounced equal to the old English oak, and superior to most of the ship timber found elsewhere on the lakes.
The second steamboat built here was the General Walcott, launched in 1850 by Captain Darius Cole, and used in the trade between Saginaw and Bay City, constituting the first river line. About that time Daniel Johnson built at Zilwaukee a small steamboat named the Snowe; and Curtis Emerson launched a barge called the Ethan Allen, at his mill, the occasion being cele- brated in his usual flamboyance with a banquet at the Webster House. Soon after, propelling machinery was placed in the Whitney, built by Thomas Whitney & Company, of Bay City, and commanded by Captain Burns. This was the first steamboat at the lower end of the river. In 1854 Captain Cole ran the Columbia between Saginaw and Detroit; and four years later he established a line between Bay City and Alpena, with the same steamer. The tug Lathrop came to the river for towing in 1853, and the next year the For appeared, commanded by Captain Wolverton, followed by the Ariel, Ruby, Magnet and Evening Star.
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