History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan, Part 9

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 9
USA > Michigan > Shiawassee County > History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan > Part 9

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INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

as it is at present. It has been extended from Howard City to Big Rapids, Mecosta Co., and was opened for traffic to the last-named point May 31, 1880. The road passes through Clinton County for a distance of about twelve miles, and three of its stations-those of Eagle, Delta, and In- gersoll's-are located in the townships of Eagle and Water- town.

THIE PORT HURON RAILROAD PROJECT.

Soon after the abandonment of the old " Northern Rail- road" by the State,-which has been mentioned in pre- ceding pages,-the project was taken up by an association of individuals who were, by act of Legislature approved Jan. 30, 1847,* incorporated as " the Port Huron and Lake Michigan Railroad Company," with authority " to construct a railroad with a double or single track from Port Huron, in St. Clair County, running westerly until it shall intersect Lake Michigan at or near the mouth of Grand River, with power to take, transport, and carry property and persons upon the said railroad, or any part thereof herein author- ized to be constructed, by the power and force of' steam or of animals, or of any mechanical or other power, or of any combination of them which the said company may choose to use or apply." John Wells, Alvin N. Hart, Charles C. Ilascall, Alfred L. Williams, Jesse F. Turner, Ira Porter, Edmond B. Bostwick, and Thomas W. White were ap- pointed charter commissioners to receive subscriptions to the capital stock, which was authorized to the amount of two millions of dollars. The company was required to com- mence its road in five years, and to complete it in fifteen years, from the passage of the act. And the State relin- quished to the company all her rights and privileges in the line of the Northern road wherever the company might wish to construct its road over that route. In alluding to this relinquishment by the State, the directors of the com- pany (in a statement published for the purpose of' influen- cing subscriptions to the stock ) said that "instead of pay- ing the State for what it has done towards the construction of the road, the company have a donation of all that one hundred and ten thousand dollars in cash, and twenty thousand acres of land, have accomplished."

It was, in effect, a revival, by a private company, of the Northern Railroad scheme, which had been commenced and abandoned by the State; and its proposed route, east of lonia County, was to be the same as that which had been grubbed and cleared in 1838-39 for the old road. Of course, the resuscitation of the scheme, and the prospect that after all a railroad would be built through Shiawassee and Clinton Counties (the Oakland and Ottawa company not having then been chartered), was very cheering to the people living ou or contiguous to the route, but the hopes thus raised were destined never to be realized.

During a long series of years great efforts were made by the promoters to secure funds for the construction of the road, and many changes were made in the management of

the company, but all to no effect ; the accomplishment of the object so earnestly desired seemed as remote as ever. In 1855, Mr. N. P. Stewart, of Detroit, procured the or- ganization of a new company, under the general railroad law, called the " Port Huron and Milwaukee Railroad Com- pany," to build a railway line from Port Huron to Grand Haven, there to connect with steamers for Milwaukee. The survey of the route was made without delay, the right of way obtained, and for a time the work of construction was pushed most vigorously. A doek was built at Port Huron, some twenty miles of grading was done, and about a mile of track was laid at the Port Huron end of the line, so that the people living in the counties traversed by the route (who cared chiefly for the success of the project, with but little regard as to which company should build the road) began to feel sure that at last their hopes were to be real- ized. But they were again to be disappointed, for, about the time that the work had progressed to the stage above mentioned, Mr. Stewart procured-or at least assented to- the passage of an act of Legislature consolidating this with the Detroit and Milwaukee road at Owosso; and from that time, work on the eastern portion of the road was sus- pended, and the means raised for its construction were used on the last-named road west of Owosso. This help to the Detroit and Milwaukee road pushed that line westward through Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, but it prostrated all hope of the building of the additional liue to Port Huron.

To follow the history of the hopes, disappointments, and delays in the building of the Port Huron and Lake Michi- gan road is unnecessary, for it has little reference to these counties. It is sufficient to mention that, under a reor- ganization of the company, work was resumed near Port Huron in March, 1866, and that after nearly six years more of disaster and delay the road was, on the 13th of December, 1871, opened for travel from Port Huron to the city of Flint, beyond which point, westward on the original route to Owosso, nothing has since been done. A con- siderable part of the route, however, had previously been graded between Flint and Owosso, several miles of this grading being in Shiawassee County.

CHICAGO AND LAKE HURON RAILROAD LINE.

The " Chicago and Northeastern Railroad Company" was incorporated under the general law by the filing of articles of association in the office of the Secretary of State, Aug. 12, 1874, the object of its formation being the construction of a railroad from Lansing to Flint, to connect at the former city with the Peninsular Railway aud at Flint with the Port Huron Railroad, and with these to form a through line from Chicago to the city of Port Huron.

The preliminary work on the Chicago and Northeastern road was commenced in November, 1874, and it was pushed with vigor during 1875 and 1876, so that at the close of the latter year the road was nearly ready for traffic. It was formally opened about the Ist of February, 1877, and was operated as a part of the " Chicago and Lake Iluron" line, which enjoyed a very heavy business (particularly in freighting) until the early part of 1879, when it was broken up by the Chicago and Northeastern link being purchased

The Legislature had passed an act of incorporation of the samo company in 1846, but it had been vetoed by Governor Felch on the ground that it might defeat the sale of the Southern and Central roads, negotiations for their purchase from the State being then in progress. This sale having been effected, and the objection thus removed, the incorporating aet was approved in 1847, as stated.

IHISTORY OF SIHIAWASSEE AND CLINTON COUNTIES, MICHIGAN.

by an Eastern capitalist (understood to be William Il. Van- derbilt, or parties in his interest), for the purpose of de- stroying a formidable competitor to other through lines under his control. This was for a time a severe blow to the Grand Trunk Railway, as it destroyed its Chicago con- nection, and measures were at once taken by that company to supply the place of the Chicago and Northeastern link by a new road from Flint to Lansing by way of Owosso. A survey of the route (or rather a resurvey of the original route of the Port Huron and Lake Michigan road between Flint and Owosso) was made in April, 1879, and this re- sulted so favorably that in July of that year Mr. Charles B. Peck, general manager of the Chicago and Lake Huron, advertised for bids for the immediate construction of the road, full-tied, with stone and iron bridges and steel rails. It seemed then as if the old project of a railroad from Shiawassee County direct to Flint and Port Huron-a pro- jeet which, as the Northern Railroad and afterwards as the Port Huron and Lake Michigan Railroad, had been agitated, but held in abeyanee for more than forty years- was destined at last to be realized ; but the hopes of the people in this direction were destined to be again disap- pointed, for the Grand Trunk Company afterwards suc- ceeded in regaining possession of the Chicago and North- eastern link between Flint and Lansing, which is still owned and operated by that company as a part of their through line to Chicago. The road, entering Shiawassee County at its southwestern corner, passes in a northeasterly direction diagonally through the townships of Woodhull, Perry, An- trim, Shiawassee, and Vernon, from which last- named town- ship it erosses the county-line into Genesee.

OTHER PROJECTED RAILROAD LINES.

In August, 1869, the Owosso and Big Rapids Railroad Company was incorporated under the general railroad law, having for its object the construction of a railroad from Owosso to Big Rapids, Mecosta Co., this being intended as a northern connection of the Toledo, Ann Arbor and Northern Railroad, which was incorporated in the same year, designing to build a road from Toledo by way of Ann Arbor, Ilowell, and Oak Grove, in Livingston County, to Owosso. Nothing was accomplished by this company (the Owosso and Big Rapids), and in 1871 it was changed in name and object, becoming incorporated as the Owosso and Northwestern Railroad Company, with T. D. Dewey as president, Gilbert R. Lyon secretary, and E. A. Todd as treasurer, for the purpose of building a road from Owosso to Frankfort, Benzie Co., on Lake Michigan. Work was commenced on the line, and a great part of the necessary grading was done on a section of about thirty miles in length, from Owosso to Pine River, in Gratiot County. This was done prior to the financial revulsiou of 1873, but the panie of that year caused a suspension of operations, and no progress has since been made in the prosecution of the enterprise. Its promoters, however, believe that the road is destined to be completed, and to prove successful.

The subject of railroad communication from St. John's village southward began to be agitated in 1864, upon the incorporation of the Jackson and Lansing Railroad Cow-

pany, which, as was understood, contemplated not only the building of a road from Jackson to Lansing, but also the securing of a northern connection through the counties of Clinton, Gratiot, and Isabella. The route, if so extended, would almost necessarily pass through St. John's, and so great was the confidence of the people of this part of Clin- ton County that such a result would surely be reached that one of the papers of the village, in its issue of June 3, 1864, announced, in reference to this project, that " the enterprise is now a fixed fact." The opinion, however, proved to be unfounded, for in the following year the Jackson and Lansing became the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw Rail- road Company, and changed the proposed route of its road to conform to its change of name and title. The old " Ramshorn" road to Owosso was purchased, and became a part of the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw line, and St. John's had no longer anything to hope for from that com- : pany.

The Lansing, St. John's and Mackinac Railroad Company (having for its object " the construction of a road from Lansing northward through the villages of De Witt, St. John's, Ithaca, Alina, St. Louis, and Salt River to Mount Pleasant, Isabella Co., and thence north to a junetion with the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad," and eventually to Mackinac) was incorporated about May 1, 1869, its officers being R. M. Steel, President; I. A. Fancher, Vice-Presi- dent ; Oliver L. Spaulding, Secretary ; and S. S. Walker, Treasurer. In aid of the construction of this road the townships of De Witt, Olive, Bingham, and Greenbush, in Clinton County, voted an aggregate sum of eighty-five thousand dollars, and deposited their bonds to that amount in the office of the Secretary of State, under Act No. 45, of the Laws of Michigan for 1869. But this aet was de- clared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the State; and upon this announcement the townships took the neces- sary measures to recall and cancel their bonds. In conse- quence of this the company proceeded no further towards the construction of the road, and became to all intents and purposes dead. The survey of the route of the road be- tween Lansing and St. John's had been made in November, 1869, and it was continued northward from St. John's, but beyond these preliminary surveys the company did no work upon the line.

Upon the collapse of the Lansing, St. John's and Macki- nac Railroad the Gratiot and Isabella County promoters of that enterprise transferred their support to the Owosso and Big Rapids and Saginaw and St. Louis Railroad projects, which were then being agitated. This withdrawal of sup- port, however, did not wholly discourage the people of St. John's from making a further attempt, and in the fall of 1871 the Lansing and St. John's Railroad Company was incorporated for the purpose of building a railroad between the two points named in its title. The corporators resident iu St. John's were Oliver L. Spaulding, Alvah II. Walker, Henry M. Perrin, Porter K. Perrin, John Hicks, Charles Kipp, O. W. Munger, R. M. Steel, Samuel S. Walker, Randolph Strickland, M. Heavenrich, George W. Eu- mons. The officers of the company were R. M. Steel, President ; H. M. Perrin, Treasurer ; O. W. Munger, Secretary ; O. L. Spaulding, Charles Kipp, and P. K. Per-

MILITARY RECORD OF SIHIAWASSEE AND CLINTON.

rin, Executive Committee. The sum of sixty thousand dollars was raised by subscriptions to the stock, and the company proceeded to make the preliminary surveys ; but the monetary panie of 1873 caused a suspension of opera- tions, and nothing has been done towards grading the road- bed.

CHAPTER IV.

MILITARY RECORD OF SHIAWASSEE AND CLIN- TON.

The Mexican War-The First Michigan Regiment-Record of the two Counties in the War of the Rebellion-The Second Infantry- Bull Run Campaign-Peninsula Campaign-Battles of Williams- burg and Fair Oaks-The Seven Days' Fight-Campaign under Gen. Pope-Fredericksburg-Campaigns in Kentucky and Missis- sippi-In East Tennessee-Veteran Re-enlistment-Campaign of the Wilderness-In Front of Petersburg-Fall of Petersburg- Muster Out, and Return Home.

NEITIIER Shiawassee nor Clinton County has any mili- tary history dating farther back than the commencement of the war between the United States and Mexico. At the breaking out of the " Black Hawk War," about fourteen years before that time, the entire territory of these coun- ties was but a wilderness, containing less than ten white inhabitants; and its condition was nearly the same when, three years later, the quarrel known as the " Toledo War" caused the mustering of a considerable number of troops, which were furnished by the older counties of the State. At the outbreak of the Mexican war the circumstances were different. The total population of these two counties had increased to nearly nine thousand, and included about thirteen hundred men liable to do military duty, but still there were not many who were in a condition which made it possible for them to leave their families and farms to be- come soldiers. Of these a few volunteered in the Michigan Regiment (and some probably in other commands), and served honorably through the war. A part of the names of those who so volunteered have been found, and are given in this chapter.

On the 18th of May, 1846, was issued the requisition of the President of the United States, calling upon the several States for troops to serve in the war with Mexico; and under this requisition the " First Michigan Volunteer In- fantry Regiment" was organized and placed under command of Col. T. B. W. Stockton. Company C of that regiment was raised and commanded by Capt. A. 11. Hanscom, of Pontiac, assisted by his first lieutenant, Thomas II. Hunt, and second lientenants (for it had two of that grade) C. O. Conant and A. P. Hanscom. It was made up of men of whom a few were enlisted at Detroit, but by far the greater part at Pontiac and other points in Oakland County, at Brighton in Livingston County, and at Corunna and other places in Shiawassee County ; recruited in November and December, 1846. From the roll of the company, as mus- tered at the Detroit Barracks, Dee. 22, 1846, are taken the names of those who enlisted in Shiawassee County, as fol- lows :

Charles Baker, enlisted at Corunna.

Timothy W. Brown, enlisted at Corunna.

Charles Curl, enlisted at Corunna. . James Culbert, enlisted at Corunna. Charles Harpe, enlisted at Corunna.

J. Jingall, enlisted at Corunna. Lewis Lyons, enlisted at Corunna.

William II. Lovejoy, enlisted at Corunna.

Andrew H. Letts, enlisted at Corunna.

Elisha A. Morgan, enlisted at Corunna. William R. Chapman, enlisted at Owosso.

H. P. Murray, enlisted at Owosso.

Levi Prangley, enlisted at Caledonia.

Daniel Phelps, enlisted at Caledonia.

Nathan M. Smith, enlisted at Caledonia.

Matthias Schermerhorn, enlisted at Caledonia.

Bartley Siegel, enlisted at Caledonia.

George W. Ormsby, enlisted at Burns.

Joseph B. Stone, enlisted at Burns.

The First Michigan Regiment was rendezvoused at Detroit, where it was mustered on the 22d of December, and on the 25th of the same month (before its ranks were full) it left for the seat of war to move by way of Spring- field, Ohio, Cincinnati, and New Orleans. Arriving at Cincinnati it was embarked on the steamer " Andrew Jaek- son," and arrived in New Orleans ten days later. After a stay of about one week, during which time it was eneamped on Gen. Jackson's battle-ground of 1815, it took passage for Vera Cruz, and arrived at that city about the middle of January, 1847. It remained encamped outside the walls of Vera Cruz for about three weeks, at the end of which time it moved with other forces, amounting in all to two thousand men, under command of Gen. Bankhead, to the city of Cordova, in the interior. A second detachment, under Lieut .- Col. (afterwards general) A. S. Williams, had left Detroit some time after the departure of the main body of the regiment ; and this detachment now came up and joined the command at Cordova. Col. Stockton, of the First Michigan, was made military governor of the city, and remained there in that capacity until the close of the war. While there the regiment was engaged in gar- rison duty aud occasional skirmishes with guerrillas while acting as guard to supply-trains, but did not participate in any general engagement, though it suffered severely from sickness among the men. It was ordered home in May, 1848, and in due time reached Detroit, where it was mus- tered out of the service July 18th in that year.

The Fifteenth United States Infantry, which served in Mexico in the division of Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, and fought in some of the principal battles, contained a large number of volunteers from this part of Michigan, and is said to have included a few from Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, but the names of these cannot be given here, for the reason that the muster-rulls of the regiment are not accessible.

The Mexican war, however, was but a trivial matter when compared with that mighty struggle-the war of the Re- bellion-which opened some fifteen years later, and it is with the commencement of' that great conflict that the real military history of these counties begins. When on the

HISTORY OF SIHIAWASSEE AND CLINTON COUNTIES, MICHIGAN.

13th of April, 1861, the tremendous news ran through the wires of the telegraph that a United States fort had struck its colors to a band of armed insurgents, and when, two days later, the President of the republic called on the States to furnish a great army of volunteers to preserve the life of the nation, there was no State which responded with more alaerity than Michigan, and there were none of the counties in the Beautiful Peninsula in which the fires of patriotism flamed up more promptly or burned more brightly than in Clinton and Shiawassee. Five days after the issuance of the President's call, and just one week after the day when the rebel flag supplanted the stripes and stars above the brown ramparts of Sumter, an impromptu mass- meeting (the largest which had ever convened in Shiawassee County) was held at Owosso, to take measures for sustain- ing the government in its time of peril. The Hon. Amos Gould was called to the chair, and Judge Josiah Turner, B. O. Williams, and T. D. Dewey were made vice-presi- dents of the meeting. Resolutions were presented and adopted by the meeting without a dissenting voice, calling upon every man to ignore and bury all party differences and prejudices, and to devote life, fortune, and sacred honor to the support of the government and the preservation of the Union.

A meeting similar in purpose, and equally large and en- thusiastic, had been held on the previous evening (Friday, April 19, 1861), at Clinton Hall, in the village of St. John's. James W. Ransom was called to the chair, and a committee was chosen to draft resolutions. This committee, composed of Oliver L. Spaulding, Randolph Strickland, W. II. Moote, Joab Baker, Ilenry Walbridge, H. C. Hodge, and H. S. Gibbons, reported resolutions nearly identical with those passed at the Owosso meeting, and these were adopted unanimously, and with great enthusiasm. At this, as at the Owosso gathering, arrangements were made for holding another meeting a few days later, and at these sub- sequent meetings measures were taken to promote the raising of companies of volunteers in the two counties, and resolutions were passed pledging support (if needed) to the families of soldiers absent in the army.

These meetings at St. John's and Owosso were supple- mented by others, held in many of the townships of both counties, and at all these the same patriotie spirit was mani- fested. Enlistments commenced immediately. Men left the farm, the store, and the workshop to volunteer in their coun- try's service. Many of these, unwilling to wait for the organization of companies in their own county, went to other places to enlist, and before the 1st of May a few nien from both counties had left for Detroit, Lansing, and Grand Rapids, to place their names on the rolls of companies or- ganizing there. By that time, however, recruiting had com- menced both in Clinton and Shiawassee, and on the 4th of May the papers announced that Capt. Richard Baylis had made good progress towards enlisting a company at St. John's and Ovid, and that a company recruited at Owosso and Corunna was already full, and had been accepted by the military anthorities of the State.

From that time, during four years of war and terror, the counties of Clinton and Shiawassee responded well and promptly to the numerous calls for volunteers, and furnished

for the several armies fully three thousand men,* who served in more than fifty regiments,-infantry, cavalry, artillery, and engineers. Several of these regiments, most notice- able for the number of Shiawassee and Clinton County men included among their members, are especially men- tioned in succeeding pages in historical sketches of their organization and services iu the great war for the union.

SECOND INFANTRY.

When, at the fall of Fort Sumter, President Lincoln called on the several loyal States for an army of seventy- five thousand men to sustain the power of the government against a rebellion which had unexpectedly proved formid- able, Governor Blair, of Michigan, responded by issuing his proclamation calling for twenty companies out of the uniformed volunteer force of the State, with field and staff officers, to compose two regiments of infantry, to be placed - at the disposal of the President if required. The War Department had placed the quota of Michigan at one full regiment, but the Governor very wisely concluded-and the people of Michigan concurred in the opinion-that a second regiment should be made ready for service if it should be needed, as he believed it would be. Four days after the Governor's call (April 19th) the State's quota was filled, and her first regiment ready for muster into the service of the United States, fully equipped with arms, ammunition. and clothing, awaiting only the orders of the War Department, and on the 13th of May it left Detroit for Washington, being the first regiment to arrive at the capital from any point west of the Alleghany Mountains.

The Governor's call for twenty companies had been promptly and fully responded to ; and so, after making up the First Regiment, there still remained ten companies which, having failed to secure places in the First, were ready and anxious to be organized as the Second Regiment of Michigan. Nine of the companies composing this regi- ment contained men from Clinton and Shiawassee, though none of them were principally, or even largely, made up of volunteers from these counties.

On the 20th of May, 1861, the Second Regiment was announced to be full, and on the 25th it was mnstered into the United States service for three years by Lieut .- Col. E. Backus, U.S.A. The field-officers of the regiment were

* Clinton and Shiawassee were eredited in the adjutant-general's office for about three thousand four hundred men furnished to the government, but this is considerably above the number of those who actually served in the army from these counties. This discrepancy is to be explained by the fact that of the large number who re-enlisted as veterans each man was counted twice, and that each man who paid commutation money in lieu of personal service was counted as a soldier furnished by the county, though never actually in the service. A few men also volunteered in the naval service, and these went to swell the aggregate eredit.

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History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan, Part 9

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