History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan, Part 7

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, D.W. Ensign & co.
Number of Pages: 716

USA > Michigan > Clinton County > History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan > Part 7
USA > Michigan > Shiawassee County > History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan > Part 7

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The Pontiac and Corunna Plank-Road Company-in- corporated by aet approved March 17, 1847-was "em- powered and authorized to survey and lay out a road com- mencing at the village of Pontiac, and running thence northwesterly through the village of Byron and the village of Shiawassee to the village of Corunna, in the county of Shiawassee, . .. and to construet and keep in repair a plank or macadamized road on the route so established from the village of Pontiac to the village of Corunna." Horace C. Thurber, J. W. Crandall, Jairah Hillman, George C. Ilolmes, J. B. Bloss, Seth Beach, and William Axford were appointed commissioners to receive subseriptions to the capital stock, which was authorized to the amount of two hundred thousand dollars.

The Portland and Shiawassee Plank-Road Company was incorporated at the same time as the above. This company was authorized " to survey and lay out, on the line of any existing highway, or elsewhere, a road commencing at the village of Portland and running thence easterly to some eligible point on the Pontiac and Corunna Plank-Road." Commissioners appointed, Peter Laing, David Sturgis, and Harvey Hunter. Capital authorized, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The object of these two companies was to plank the Pontiac aud Grand River Road from Poutiac to Portland.

After 1847, and before the enactment of the general plank-road law, the Legislature incorporated the following- named companies, each of which proposed to build plank- roads through some part of Shiawassee or Clinton County, viz. :

The Cliuton and Bad River Plank-Road Company, in-

corporated April 3, 1848. Route, "from the village of De Witt, in the county of Clinton, on the most eligible route to the forks of Bad River, in the county of Saginaw." Commissioners, J. W. Turner, Daniel Ferguson, Stephen W. Downer, Chandler W. Coy, and Robert E. Craver. Capital, seventy-five thousand dollars.

The Portland and Michigan Plank-Road Company, in- corporated April 3, 1848. To build a plank-road from Portland, Ionia Co., to the town of Michigan (now Lan- sing), Ingham Co. Commissioners, William F. Jennison, A. Newman, and Hezekiah Smith. Capital, fifty thousand dollars. An amendatory act, approved March 8, 1851, empowered this company to enter upon and use the De- troit and Graud River turnpike between Lansing and Port- land.

The Owosso and Bad River Plank-Road Company. In- corporated April 3, 1848, to build a road from the village of Owosso to the forks of Bad River, in Saginaw County. Commissioners, Alfred L. Williams, Amos Gould, and John B. Barnes. Capital, forty thousand dollars.

The Michigan and De Witt Plank-Road Company. In- corporated April 3, 1848. Proposed route, " from the town of Michigan, in the county of Ingham, to the village of De Witt, in the county of Clinton." Capital, ten thousand dollars. Commissioners, James Seymour, Siloam S. Carter, J. W. Turner, George T. Clark, and David Ferguson.

The Corunna and Saginaw Plank-Road Company. In- eorporated April 3, 1848, " to lay out, establish, and con- struet a plank-road from Corunna, in the county of Shia- wassee, to Saginaw, in the county of Saginaw, or to such intermediate point as the stockholders of said company shall determine." Capital, fifty thousand dollars (after- wards increased to seventy thousand dollars). Commis- sioners, Isaac Castle, Alexander McArthur, Ransom W. Hawley, Luke H. Parsons, Ebenezer C. Kimberly, and Samuel W. Cooper. To these were afterwards added Gardner D. Williams, Jatues Fraser, Charles S. Kimberly, and David Eaton.

The Howell and Byron Plank-Road Company. Incor- porated March 25, 1850, to construct a plank-road from Howell, Livingston Co., to Byron, Shiawassee Co. Capital, thirty thousand dollars. Commissioners, Josiah Turner, George W. Lee, B. W. Dennis, F. J. Prevost, and Noah Ramsdell.

None of the above-mentioned companies built their pro- posed roads, or any part of them, within these two counties, and the only reason why they have been noticed here is to show how general was the plank-road mania here, as in other portions of the State, and also to show what were the several projects of this kind, and who were their originators.

MAPLE RIVER NAVIGATION PROJECTS.

In the first half of the present century, before the days of railroad communication, the people of Michigan, like those of other States, were disposed to place an extrava- gantly high estimate on the importance and value of their rivers for purposes of navigation, and to favor bold and often visionary projects for the improvement of the streams, in the expectation (which was seldom if ever realized) of securing great advantages from the utilization of these

HISTORY OF SHIAWASSEE AND CLINTON COUNTIES, MICHIGAN.

water-ways. Such projects were conceived and their pro- secution commenced with regard to the principal rivers of Clinton and Shiawassee Counties,-the Shiawassee, Grand, and Maple, and the improvement of the latter two was em- braced in the internal improvement system (more fully noticed in succeeding pages) which was adopted by the State at the regular session of its second Legislature in 1837.

In that year an act was passed (approved March 20th) which provided: "Section 5 .- That the sum of twenty thousand dollars be and the same is hereby appropriated out of any moneys which shall come into the treasury to the credit of the internal improvement fund, for the fol- lowing surveys, to be made under the direction of the board of commissioners : for the survey of a canal or for a canal part of the way and railroad the balance of the route, com- mencing at or near Mount Clemens, on the Clinton River, to terminate at or near the mouth of Kalamazoo River ; and for the survey of a canal route to unite the waters of the Saginaw River with the navigable waters of the Maple or Grand Rivers, and for the purchase of surveyors' and other instruments; and for the survey of the St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, and Grand Rivers, with a view to the improve- ment of the same by slack-water navigation." Section 7 of the same act provided : " That the sum of fifteen thou- sand dollars be and the same is hereby appropriated out of any moneys which shall come into the treasury to the credit of the said internal improvement fund, to be applied to the construction of a canal to unite the waters of the Saginaw with the navigable waters of the Grand or Maple Rivers, if said board of commissioners shall decide that it is practicable to construct a canal on said route."

Under the authority conferred by this act the board of internal improvement caused a survey to be made by Tracy McCracken, Esq., chief engineer of the Saginaw and Maple Rivers Canal, and this survey resulted in the location and adoption of a route running from the forks of the Bad River (a navigable tributary of the Saginaw), in Saginaw County, westward to the Maple River, at its " Big Bend," in Gratiot County. The report of the survey was regarded as exceedingly favorable, showing the existence of a remarkable valley or depression, extending westward from the waters of the Saginaw to those of the Maple ; that these waters, flowing in opposite directions, were only three miles distant from each other at one point, and that between them the highest elevation necessary to be crossed was only seventy- two feet above Lake Michigan. It was along this valley and across this low summit that the engineer located the route of the canal, which, with certain slack-water improve- ments to be made to the east and west of it, on the Bad, the Maple, and the Grand Rivers, was to open a line of uninterrupted navigation between Lake Michigan and Sag- inaw Bay, and to bring prosperity to all the country contig- nous to it.

Contracts were let for the grubbing and clearing of the route and for the excavations upon a five-mile section on the most difficult portion of it; the last-named contract being taken by Norman Little, of Saginaw. Another part of this work was taken by Alpheus Williams. Work was commenced in 1838, and was continued with more or less

vigor until July of the following year, when it was sus- pended. The immediate cause of the suspension is made apparent by the following extract from the official report of Rix Robinson, president of the State board of internal improvement, dated Nov. 30, 1839. He says : " Early in the season Norman Little, Esq., the principal contractor on this work, expressed to me his ineapacity to procced with the work in case the State should fail to pay his estimate for labor monthly, and punctually according to the tenor of his contract. There being no possible means for me to obtain sufficient funds for that purpose, the work has ac- cordiugly been abandoned by him. The chief engineer, Mr. McCracken, in his report for 1839, said : " It was not to be expected that the contractor for this work, which, from its position, is one of the most difficult to execute, would be able or willing to prosecute it without prompt payment on the part of the State, which, failing to meet its engage- - ment in the payment of the monthly estimates, was averred by the contractor as the cause of the work being aban- doned. This occurred some time in June last [1839] ; since then nothing has been done towards the construction of the work. . .. Most of the work required upon one section of the canal, together with the greater part of the clearing and grubbing of the line under contract, has been completed. There is now upon the line several thousand feet of plank and timber intended for the locks and dams. A great portion of the timber is framed, and will, from its present exposed condition, decay very rapidly."

The suspension of work by the contractors in July, 1839, proved to be a final abandonment of the construction of the canal as a State work. The timbers mentioned by the chief engineer as having been intended for the construction of Joeks and dams remained to rot on the ground, and the remnants of some of them have been visible in recent years in the town of Chapin, Saginaw Co. (a few miles from the northeast corner of Clinton County), having been left to decay in the place where they were framed more than forty years ago.

The sums expended on the Saginaw and Maple River Canal (and which were, of course, a total loss to the State) were as follows : In the year 1838, $6271.12 ; in the year 1839, $15,985.69 ; total, 822,256.81.

Ten years after the abandonment of this canal project by the State, the Legislature of Michigan (by act approved March 30, 1819) incorporated Gardner D. Williams, James Frazier, and D. J. Johnson, of Saginaw City ; Adam L. Roof, of Tonia County ; Rix Robinson, of Kent; D. 11. Fitzhugh, John F. Mackie, and Charles Yates, of New York City, as the " Saginaw and Grand River Canal Com- pany," with authority " to enter upon the canal commenced by the State, as their property, at the forks of the Bad River, and upon lands on either side and through which the said canal may pass, to the bend of Maple River, a tributary of Grand River, and as far on that river as may be thought proper ; to construct a tow-path, and concen- trate the water for canal use, and to dig, construct, or ex- cavate the earth ; to erect or set up any dams, locks, waste- weirs, sluices, feeders, or any other device whatsoever to render the same navigable with boats, barges, or other craft." The company was also empowered to make such

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

improvements on the Bad, Maple, and Grand Rivers as might be necessary to carry out the objects for which it was incorporated. The capital stock of the company was placed at two hundred thousand dollars, and its charter was to continue for a term of sixty years. The revival of the project reawakened hopes that the Maple River was at last to become part of a navigable waterway between the two great lakes ; but no work on the canal was ever done by the company, and finally the enterprise was definitely abandoned, never to be again revived.

At the present time a small steamboat, named the " May Queen," is running on the river from Maple Rapids to Bridgeville, Gratiot Co .; this part of the stream being deopened and made navigable for craft of that size, by the dam at the Rapids, which sets the water back for many miles.

At about the same time when the Maple River improve- ments were in agitation, a project was started for the con- struction of a canal along the Looking-Glass River between De Witt and Wacousta, but the work was never aceom- plished, or even actually commenced.

NAVIGATION ON THE SHIAWASSEE.

The improvement of the Shiawassee River, so as to form a slack-water navigation from the Big Rapids of that stream northward to the Saginaw, was a project which had been con- templated by the founders of Owosso from the time when the first settlements were made at that place. Between them and the outside world there were no roads practicable for heavy transportation, and the obstacles to the construction of such for a distance of more than fifty miles (to Pontiac) were at that early day regarded as almost insurmountable. It seemed to them, therefore, that their settlement must continue in its isolated condition, and that very little im- provemeut as a village could be expected until they could secure communication with Saginaw by making the river boatable. These were the considerations which gave birth to the idea of improving the Shiawassee, and but a short time elapsed before they moved towards the execution of the plan by procuring the necessary authority from the Legislature.

The "Owosso and Saginaw Navigation Company" was incorporated by aet approved March 21, 1837. By this aet Daniel Ball, Alfred L. Williams, Benjamin O. Wil- liams, Lewis Findley, William Gage, Gardner D. Williams, Norman Little, Samuel G. Watson, Ephraim S. Williams, Elias Comstock, Alexander Hilton, and Perry G. Gardner were appointed commissioners to receive subscriptions to the capital stock, which was authorized to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars. The company thus incor- porated was empowered " to enter upon the river Shiawas- see, and upon the lands on either side, and to use the rocks, stones, gravel, or earth which may be found thereon in the construction of their works, first giving notice to the owners or occupiers of the land; and to form and make, erect and set up any dams, locks, or any other device whatsoever which they shall think most fit and convenient to make a complete slack-water navigation between the points herein mentioned, to wit : from the village of Owosso, situate on the

Shiawassee River, to and down said river to a point where the Flint River intersects the Shiawassee ; and the locks for the purposes of passing steamboats, barges, and other craft up and down said river shall be of suthcient width and length to admit a safe and easy passage for steamboats, barges, and other craft, up as well as down said river."

The company (in which Daniel Ball* was the leading man, and Sanford M. Green a prominent member) com- meneed the work in 1837, and continued it during that and the following season, expending several thousand dol- lars on the river in removing fallen timber, driftwood, and other obstructions (principally between Chesaning and the mouth of Bad River), ereeting dams, and constructing tow-paths above Chesaning. The river was thus made nav- igable for flat-bottomed boats or scows, several of which were built with foot-boards at each side, on which men walked forward and aft in " poling" the craft up the stream. This poling process was employed on that part of the river which is below Chesaning, but above that place horses were used. At some points the tow-path was made on the east side of the stream, and at others on the west ( for the sake of economy in its construction ), the horses being crossed on the boat from one side of the river to the other as occasion required. Larger boats were afterwards used for floating produce down the river from Owosso. One " Durham" boat, built at that place by Ebenezer Gould and others, carried a cargo of two hundred barrels of flour from Owosso to Saginaw.

The company was reincorporated under the same name by act approved May 15, 1846, Amos Gould, Alfred L. Wil- liams, Benjamin O. Williams, Elias Comstock, Ebenezer C. Kimberly, Lemuel Castle, Isaac Gale, George W. Slocum, George Chapman, Edward L. Ament, Anson B. Chipman, and John B. Barnes being appointed commissioners to re- ceive subscriptions to the stock, which was authorized to the amount of one hundred thousand dotlars. In addition to the powers granted by the incorporating act of 1837, the company was now authorized " to construct a canal from some point on said river Shiawassee to such point on Bad River as they may hereafter determine upon, and to make such improvements on said Bad River as will render the same navigable." After this reincorporation there were some further improvements made on the river by the con- strnetion of a lock at Chesaning, the building of several weir-dams, and in other ways; but the company never availed itself of the authority conferred to build the canal between the Bad and Shiawassee Rivers. Boats continued to be run on the river at favorable stages of water for some years, and in fact this navigation was never wholly aban- doned until the opening of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad superseded this unreliable and unsatisfactory means of transportation. It was then entirely discontinued, after having been used to a greater or less extent for some fifteen years, during which time it is doubtful whether its advantages ever compensated for the outlay incurred in the improvement of the river.

@ Mr. Ball had previously been engaged in boating on the Genesee River, in New York, an I it was he who originated the idea of secur- ing navigation by the Shiawassee River.

HISTORY OF SHIAWASSEE AND CLINTON COUNTIES, MICHIGAN.

NORTHERN RAILROAD AND NORTHERN WAGON- ROAD.

Very soon after Michigan emerged from the condition of a Territory to assume that of a sovereign State, and even before its admission as a member of the Federal Union, measures were originated having for their object the adop- tion by the State of a comprehensive system of public improvements ; and, in pursuance of this plan, the Legis- lature at the session of 1837 passed an act (approved March 20th in that year) " to provide for the construction of certain works of internal improvement, and for other purposes," by which the board of commissioners of internal improvements in the State was authorized and directed, " as soon as may be, to cause surveys to be made for three several railroad routes across the peninsula of Michigan ; the first of said routes to commence at Detroit, in the county of Wayne, and to terminate at the mouth of the St. Joseph River, in the county of Berrien, to be denomi- nated the Central Railroad. The second of said routes to commence at the navigable waters of the river Raisin, pass- ing through the village of Monroe, in the county of Mon- roe, to terminate at New Buffalo, in Berrien County, and to be denominated the Southern Railroad. The third of said routes to commence at Palmer, or at or near the mouth of Black River, in the county of St. Clair, and to terminate at the navigable waters of the Grand River, in the county of Kent, or on Lake Michigan, in the county of Ottawa, to be denominated the Northern Railroad ; which roads shall be located on the most eligible and dircet routes be- tween the termini above mentioned." It was provided by the same aet, " That the sum of five hundred and fifty thousand dollars be and the same is hereby appropriated, to be taken from any moneys which shall hereafter come into the treasury of this State to the credit of the fund for internal improvement, for the survey and making of the three railroads mentioned in the first section of this act, as follows : for the Southern Railroad, the sum of one hundred thousand dollars ; for the Central Railroad, the sum of four hundred thousand dollars ; and for the Northern Railroad, the sum of fifty thousand dollars."

The State Board of Internal Improvement, acting under the provisions of this act, caused the surveys to be made without unnecessary delay. The routes thus surveyed for the " Central Railroad" and the "Southern Railroad" were (excepting the western portion) substantially the same as those of the Michigan Central and Michigan Southern roads of the present. The " Northern Railroad" route was surveyed and located to run from the St. Clair River by way of Lapeer and Flint River village (now Flint City), nearly dne west, to the Big Rapids of the Shiawassee (now the city of ()wosso) ; thence through Owosso and Middle- bury townships, in Shiawassee County, and westwardly in the same tier of townships through Clinton County (pass- ing through the southern part of the present corporation limits of St. John's) to Lyons, in Ionia County, and from there westward to Lake Michigan, at the mouth of Grand River, a distance of two hundred and one miles. This was, of course, the first survey made for railroad purposes through any part of Clinton or Shiawassee Counties. The work was done by Tracy McCracken, chief engineer of the

road, and his assistants, under supervision of Commissioner James B. Hunt, who had been placed in charge of the survey by the Board of Internal Improvement.

In 1838 contraets were let for elearing and grubbing that portion of the line between its castern terminus and Lyons, Ionia Co., a distance of about one hundred and thirty miles. The contract for the section extending from Lyons to the line between ranges 2 and 3 east (near the cen- tre of Shiawassee County) was awarded to A. L. and B. O. Williams, of Owosso. The section joining this, and extending eastward across the remainder of Shiawassee County, was taken by A. II. Beach & Co., of Flint. The next section eastward was awarded to Gen. Charles C. Has- call, of Flint. Twenty miles of the section east of Lyons was sublet by the Williams brothers to Messrs. Moore & Kipp at about two hundred and fifty dollars per mile. The specifications required the grubbing of a central strip . twenty feet wide, and the clearing of a breadth of twenty feet on either side of this strip. Outside these elearings, on both sides, " slashings" were to be made, cach twenty feet in width, making a total breadth of one hundred feet. The work of clearing the route was commenced in the fall of 1838, and by the 1st of September following it was completed in all the sections between Lyons and Port Huron, except about three miles in Shiawassee County cast of Owosso, and seventeen miles east of Lapeer.

Contracts for grading some parts of the line were made in the fall of 1838, among these being that of a ten-mile section eastward from Lyons to B. O. Williams and Daniel Ball, of Owosso. The work of grading was commenced on the contracted sections in January, 1839, and was pros- eeuted till the following July. . " The contractors theu stated," said the chief engineer, in his report dated Dec. 7, 1839, " that unless they were paid punctually they could not proceed with their work. I then informed them, in accordance with my instructions, that if they continued the work their estimates would, as usual, be made monthly, but that it was probable that they would only be paid in treasury orders, which would be payable out of any moneys received into the treasury to the credit of the internal improvement fund. The contracts for grading were then abandoned immediately, but those for clearing and grubbing, which were not then finished, have since been completed." In regard to these contracts for grubbing and clearing the chief engineer said : " It may not be improper for me to state that it is probable that many of the contracts upon this road were let to those who considered that they were to be benefited by its speedy completion, and, in consequence, bid so low that they have lost money in the prosecution of the works assigned them." This remark of the engineer was probably as applicable to the grading contracts as to those made for clearing the line. It is certain at all events that those who took the latter class of contracts found them to be decidedly unprofit- able.

The last of the appropriations by the Legislature for the construction of the Northern Railroad was one of forty thousand dollars, made by act approved April 20, 1839, making the total amount appropriated for the enterprise one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Of this there was

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

expended upon the line in surveys, clearing, and construc- tion the following amounts, viz. :

In 1837. $8,226.25

" 1838. 12,772.11

" 1839.

39,122.09

Total .$60,120.78

The figures given above* show that at the close of oper- ations in 1839 there remained of the amount of appropria- tions made for this northern line of railroad an unexpended balance of eighty-nine thousand eight hundred and seventy- nine dollars and twenty-two cents. In view of this fact, it might at first be regarded as strange that, with this very considerable balance remaining, the work should have been so suddenly brought to a close, but it must be remembered that the figures indicating the unexpended balance did not represent a corresponding amount of ready cash on hand and immediately available. The extraet given above from the chief engineer's report fully explains the reason why the contractors abandoned their jobs in the summer of 1839; and it only remains to say that the construction of the Northern Railroad, being suspended at that time, was never resumed.

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History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan, Part 7

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, D.W. Ensign & co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, D.W. Ensign & co.
Number of Pages: 716