USA > Michigan > Wexford County > History of Wexford County, Michigan, embracing a concise review of its early settlement, industrial development and present conditions > Part 32
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The campaign was waged with the ut- most vigor, the Democrats and Greenback- ers having "fused" on the county ticket, and ยท through their untiring efforts they suc- ceeded in electing one of their candidates, the treasurer, by a small majority, The
candidates and the votes each polled were as follows: Sheriff, William Kelley, Rep., 407 ; William Marin, Dem., 355. Clerk and register, C. J. Manlelow, Rep., 559; A. J. Teed, Dem., 518. Treasurer, R. D. Cudde- back, Rep., 399 ; E. Shay, Dem., 499. Prose- cuting attorney, D. A. Rice, Rep., 537 ; E. F. Sawyer, Dem., 521. Circuit court commis- sioner, D. E. McIntyre, Rep., 544; E. F. Sawyer, Dem., 523.
It will thus be seen that the largest ma- jority any candidate on the Republican ticket received was fifty-two for Sheriff Kelley. Mr. Kelley died before the time arrived for him to assume the duties of his office, January 1, 1879, and a special election was held on the first Monday of April to fill the vacancy, at which election Charles C. Dunham was elected, receiving five hun- dred and seventy-nine votes to four hundred and four cast for E. Harger and two hun- dred and thirty-two for Frank Weaver.
On the 5th of August, 1878, George A. Mitchell, the founder of the village of Clam Lake (now city of Cadillac), met with a fatal accident on the streets of that village. The village was yet in its infancy and the main streets were incumbered with the stumps from which the pine trees had been cut. Mr. Mitchell had a shingle mill at that time on Pine street, and while return- ing to his home from the mill lie was thrown from his buggy, his head striking against a stump by the roadside, rendering him 111- conscious, from which state he never fully recovered. He died August 8, and his death was a severe blow to the community. He was a very public-spirited man, having do- nated sites for the different churches in the village and giving liberally of his means toward the erection of church buildings.
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When the war of the Rebellion commenced he was given the appointment of paymaster. He proved such a competent and energetic official that when the war closed he had risen to the rank of brevet lieutenant-colonel. During his services in this position he re- ceived and paid out millions of dollars for the government, and it was said of him that his accounts always balanced to a cent. It had been one of his greater desires to see the county seat located in Clam Lake and he had reserved block "F" of the original plat for such purpose, but his death came nearly four years before its arrival.
About this time E. Shay, mentioned heretofore as having been elected county treasurer in the fall of 1878, invented a logging engine which practically revolu- tionized logging operations. Hitherto all logging had been done with teams and sleighs in the winter and with "big wheels" with occasional "tram." or "pole," roads in the summer. With this new invention it was possible to haul long trains of log cars over considerable grades and at much less expense than with teams, and to extend lumbering operations to a much greater dis- tance from the mills, or water courses, with profit, than could possibly be done by handling the logs with teams. With the aid of this new means of conveying forest prod- ucts to the mills, the mill owners of Cadillac began to enlarge their holdings of timber by purchasing tracts in adjoining counties, and thus the lumbering business, which it was thought could not last more than eight or ten years, has continued until the present time, with timber enough still in sight to keep the mills of Cadillac busy for the next fifteen or twenty years. It was not long after the inauguration of the narrow-gauge
railroad logging that it was found practica- ble to move logs on the standard railroads, and this business has now grown to such gi- gantic proportions that the railroads find it almost impossible to furnish cars enough to supply the demand and logs are often car- ried a hundred miles to be manufactured.
The extension of one of these logging railroads, running northeasterly from Cad- illac, gave Lake City, in Missaukee county, her first railroad connection with the out- side world. This was known as the Cadillac & Northeastern Railroad, and for several years it ran regular passenger trains to Lake City. The Grand Rapids & Indiana Rail- road finally extended its Long Lake branch to Lake City, and the Cadillac & Northeast- ern discontinued its passenger trains, but was still used for logging purposes until the summer of 1901, when, having exhausted the supply of timber through which it ran, it was abandoned and its rails and rolling stock were used in building and equipping a similar road which is now penetrating the forests in a northwesterly direction from the city of Cadillac, supplying the mills and chemical plant of Cummer, Diggins & Com- pany with the necessary material to keep them in constant operation.
The Greenback heresy had somewhat lost its hold upon the people in 1880 and as a result the Republican county ticket nomi- nated that year was elected by old-time ma- jorities, except the treasurer, for which office the vote was quite evenly divided, and also on prosecuting attorney, for which office there were three candidates, D. A. Rice running as an independent candidate. The candidates and the vote for each is here- with given :
Judge of probate, H. N. Green, Rep.,
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926; I. N. Carpenter, Dem., 707. Sheriff, C. C. Dunham, Rep., 1190; W. H. Cushing, Dem., 404. County clerk, T. J. Thorp, Rep., 852; J. Crowley, Dem., 495; C. J. Mankleton, Ind., 301. Register of deeds, T. J. Thorp, Rep., 774: J. Crowley, Dem., 502; C. J. Mankleton, Ind., 300. Treas- urerr, John Mansfield, Rep., 878; H. C. Mc- Farlan, Dem., 755. Prosecuting attorney, S. J. Wall, Rep., 738; J. B. Rosevelt, Dem., 292; D. A. Rice, Ind., 600.
The legislature which convened in Janut- ary, 1881, passed an act creating the twenty- eighth judicial circuit, composed of Benzie, Kalkaska, Missaukee, Roscommon and Wexford counties. The first judge of the new circuit was John M. Rice, who was appointed soon after the act creating the circuit took effect, but resigned in April, 1882. His successor was Silas S. Fallass, then living in Cadillac, who served out the balance of the term for which Judge Rice was appointed and the next full term of six years. Wexford county has been honored by furnishing a judge for the twenty-eightli judicial circuit ever since its first organiza- tion until the present time. The several in- cumbents have been John M. Rice, Silas S. Fallass, Fred II. Aldrich and Clyde C. Chiit- tenden, who is now serving his third year on the bench.
Great improvements had been made in the county for the first ten years of its ex- istence as a county, as shown by the census of 1880, which showed a population of sixty-eight hundred and fifteen, compared with thirty-one hundred and ninety-four at the state census of 1874 and seven hundred and eighty in 1870. Many pieces of land were purchased by new settlers from the railroad company, and from the state, which
liad reserved several thousand acres of tlie farming lands in the county, under an act authorizing the reservation of a large quantity of land for the support of an agri- cultural college. This last class of lands could be purchased then for three dollars per acre, and only one-quarter of this was required at the time of purchase, the balance to run as long as the purchaser chose to let it run, by paying interest at the rate of seven per cent. per annum. The railroad lands were for a long time sold on one-quarter payment at time of purchase and balance in four or five annual payments. The price of the railroad lands varied according to location, but none were sold for less than six dollars per acre.
Many people have thought that the land-grant system was a great injury to the county, but in the light of experience this claim will hardly stand close scrutiny. Had all the land in the county been subject to homestead entry the timber would largely have disappeared, as farming would have been the chief industry, and the vast forests of hardwood would have been swept away to enable the homesteaders to raise the necessaries of life. In looking over the county at the present time one may see litin- dreds of farms upon which once stood a splendid growth of hardwood, nearly all of which disappeared long before it had any commercial value. By occasionally raising the price of their lands the state and the railroad company had to keep most of their lands until the time was ripe for the utiliza- tion of the hardwoods and hemlock with which they were principally covered, and this paved the way for the present most prosperous times the county has ever seen, when hemlock and hardwood lumbering dis-
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tributes more money throughout the county and furnishes a better market for the prod- ucts of the farm than did the pine lumbering in its palmiest days.
"The poor ye have always with you." and consequently all counties have to take care of such indigent persons as live within their borders. The county had erected a commodious poor house, as heretofore noted, but the location did not suit those who were bent on moving the county seat to Cadillac. It happened that the superin- tendents of the poor were obliged to take care of a family by the name of Root, in consequence of the husband and father hav- ing been sentenced to the state prison for quite a long term of years. The family con- sisted of the mother and six or seven chil- dren, ranging from one to fourteen or fif- teen years of age. The superintendents de- cided that the county should be reimbursed for the cost it might be put to in caring for the family, so they took a mortgage on the farm, subject to a mortgage that had already been given. The result was that the county had to foreclose its mortgage and take care of the first mortgage, and thus it was that the county came into possession of the pres- ent poor farm. As early as 1880 an effort was made to have the old county farm sold and make a poor farm out of the "Root farm." but without success. At the annual meeting of the board of supervisors in 1881 a resolution was adopted making the chair- man of the board a committee of one to receive proposals for the sale of the poor farm. . \ sale was effected as the outgrowth of this action, the price agreed upon being nineteen hundred and twenty-five dollars, less than the buildings had cost, to say noth- ing of the hundreds of dollars that had been
expended in clearing and fencing the land. Of this amount one thousand dollars was paid in cash and a mortgage given for the balance. The county was obliged to fore- close the mortgage and several years later sold the farm again for eighteen hundred dollars.
At the same session of the board which took action to sell the 6ld poor farm provis- ion was made for putting the buildings on the Root farm in condition to care for such paupers as might have to be permanently supported by the county, and the next year a large and well-equipped building was erected and furnished for this purpose. Hitherto all expenses for the support of the poor had been borne by the county at large, but at the annual meeting of the board of supervisors a resolution was passed reviving the distinction between town and county poor. Under this arrangement each town had to support its own poor, and only transient poor were cared for by the county. The towns could send their paupers to the county house and have them cared for there by the week, or could hire them supported elsewhere if they preferred. As it took a year to gain a residence in the county to make the expense of an indigent person chargeable to any town or city. and as the support of such had to be borne by the county at large in the meantime, and the towns had to bear their share of this ex- pense, as well as the expense of caring for their own poor, the arrangement was not very satisfactory and only remained in force a couple of years before the distinction was abolished, since which all poor expenses have been borne by the county.
The valuation of the county as fixed by the board of supervisors at its annual meet-
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ing in 1882 was $3.676.739.25. This was a fine showing for the county in view of the fact that thousands of acres of pine land liad been denuded of its forests, and the lum- ber had been shipped out of the county dur- ing the preceding ten years, and augured well for the future greatness of the county as an agricultural community.
At this meeting of the board a resolution was also passed to submit to a vote of the people at the April election of 1883 the ques- tion of bonding the county for five thousand dollars for the purpose of building a county jail at Cadillac. The proposition was car- ried by a vote of eight hundred and eighty- eight to six hundred and sixty-nine, but a question arising as to the legality of the passage of the resolution of the board, the matter was again placed before the people at the spring election in 1884 and was again carried by a vote of eleven hundred and nine to nine hundred and five, but the bonds were never issued.
When the county seat was removed to Cadillac the second story of the building then owned by Fred S. Kieldsen was rented for county offices and court room. This building stood on the site now occupied by the city hall. The county continued to oc- cupy the second floor until 1887, when it rented the second floor of the Laber & Cornwell building, which it occupied for several years. When the Masonic fraternity decided to erect a temple in Cadillac a com- mittee was appointed to confer with the board of supervisors with a view to having the second story of their proposed building fitted especially for the use of the county, provided the county woukl contract to rent
it for a period of ten years at a rental to be agreed upon between the contracting par- ties. This arrangement was carried out, and in March, 1890, the county moved into its new quarters, where it has remained until the present time. The new quarters con- sisted of a large court room, a commodious supervisor's room, a suite of three rooms for the clerk and register of deeds, two rooms for the prosecuting attorney and one each for the judge of probate, sheriff, treas- urer and superintendent of the poor. One or two attempts have been made to have the board of supervisors pass a resolution sub- mitting to the people the question of bonding the county for the purpose of building a court house, but without success.
At the election in 1882 the Republican party was again successful on its entire ticket except prosecuting attorney, the can- didates of the two parties and the vote given for each being as follows: Sheriff, David C. Cook, Rep., 726; Horton Crandall, Dem., 288; F. Weaver, Ind., 427. County clerk, T. J. Thorp, Rep., 881: James Crowley, Dem .. 566. Register of deeds, T. J. Thorp. Rep., 887; James Crowley, Dem., 568. Treasurer, Jolm Mansfield, Rep., 1079: C. T. Chapin, Dem .. 352. Prosecuting attor- ney, E. F. Sawyer, Rep., 562: J. B. Rose- velt. Dem., 32: D. E. McIntyre, Ind., 689.
The salary of the prosecuting attorney was raised to twelve hundred dollars at the October session of the board of supervisors, which induced Mr. McIntyre to enter the race for that office as an independent can- didate, and so strenuous did he wage his campaign that he won by more than a hun- dred plurality.
CHAPTER IX.
NEW RAILROAD-NEW VILLAGES-NEW IMPETUS TO FARMING AND LUMBERING.
The one great hindrance to the rapid development of the county was the lack of facilities for reaching a market. The whole western half of the county had to drive either to Cadillac or Manton, on the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad, to reach a market for a load of potatoes or any other farm product. To some the distance was over twenty miles, necessitating a two-days trip. The roads were rough and the hills sandy, and thirty or thirty-five bushels of potatoes was all a team could draw. By the time the farmer had paid for his expenses at the hotel over night he would not have much left out of his load of potatoes unless they brought more than twenty-five or thirty cents per bushel. Under these circumstances it is not strange that there was a lack of "push" on the part of the farmers. About the only farm product that there was any money in was hay. The close proximity of the lumbering camps afforded a ready sale for all the hay the farmers could spare, at a good price, sometimes running as high as twenty dollars per ton. The fact that hay always found a ready sale caused many farmers to keep their land seeded to grass
so much that it greatly impoverished the soil and thus retarded future farming, as a light soil once run down is very hard to again put into condition to raise good crops.
During the winter of 1883-4 the survey- ors of the Chicago & West Michigan Rail- road visited northern Michigan, taking ob- servations as to the most desirable route for the extension of their road. They visited Sherman and looked up the approaches to the Manistee river from the north and south, and expressed themselves as well satisfied with the feasibility of crossing at that point and following the valley of the Wheeler creek northward, running a little east of Wexford Corners and then drop- ping over into the Boardmian river valley, thus making an easy grade into Traverse City. The people in the western part of the county were greatly elated over the pros- pects of having a railroad near their farms, but railroads have queer ways and their building is accompanied often with vex- ations delays, and so it happened that when the Chicago & West Michigan Railroad was built several years later it took an entirely new route and did not touch Wexford
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county ; in fact, it was run so far west as to be of very little practical benefit to the farm- ers of the county.
In the meantime the Toledo, Ann Arbor & North Michigan Railroad Company had been organized and had started in to build a road to some point on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. The projectors of this un- dertaking were the Ashleys, of Toledo- father and two sons, Harry and James, or "Jim," as he was familiarly called. Neither of these parties had much money of their own, but they had enterprise and push, especially "Jim," who could overcome more difficulties and surmount more obstacles than half a dozen ordinary business men, and it was largely through these qualities that the road was completed, though its building covered a period of several years, and more than once it was said, "The Ash- leys have got to the end of their rope and the road will never go any farther;" but still the next year would witness another exten- sion, and so, little by little, the work pro- gressed. In the summer of 1886, through the promise of thirty-five thousand dollars on the part of the city of Cadillac, the work of extending the road from Mt. Pleasant, its then terminus, to Cadillac was under- taken. A large force of men were put to work at various points along the line and before September the laying of rails was commenced. This work progressed from both ends of this section, the rails being brought to Cadillac over the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad to use in laying the northern end of the section. Winter set in before the last rail was laid, and some of the grading and several miles of track lay- ing was done when the snow covered the
ground to a depth of several inches. But notwithstanding the cold and the snow the first train over the new extension reached Cadillac within the time agreed upon, Janu- ary 1, 1887, and its arrival marked a new era in the county's history.
To fittingly celebrate this event the rail- road company gave a free excursion to Alma and a free dinner at the celebrated Wright Hotel at that place, inviting many of the prominent men of the city and the county at large, and the city arranged for a grand banquet at the Hotel Mckinnon when the party, including railroad officials and the railroad commissioner of the state, should return in the evening.
The night preceding the day fixed for the excursion a heavy snow storm set in, accompanied with a gale of wind, and when morning dawned the streets and sidewalks in Cadillac were piled so full of snow that it was impossible for ladies to get to the train, and a number of the gentlemen who otherwise would have taken the trip staid at home on account of the drifts. As the road ran nearly all the way to Farwell through the woods. there was not much diffi- culty experienced in making the run to Alma, but the storm continued all day and it was not without some misgivings that the return journey was begun. A delay of over two hours in starting was caused by a wreck on a branch of the D. L. & N. Railroad, which crossed the Toledo, Ann Arbor & Northern Michigan Railroad just north of the station at Alma, by which a freight car was thrown upon the track just where the two roads intersected each other, and it had to be removed before the excursion train could start. Some of the excursionists were
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wise enough to return to the village, a half mile distant, and purchase a lunch, fearing they would be late at the banquet in Cadillac.
At last, just as it had begun to grow clark, the train pulled out. By the time it had reached Clare, on the Flint & Perc Marquette Railroad, those who had not provided themselves with a lunch at Alma made a rush for the lunch room kept at that-station, and soon had purchased everything eatable in sight. Here a tele- gram was sent to those in charge of the banquet at Cadillac that the train would arrive there about nine o'clock. Soon after leaving Farwell the train ran into a snow bank and came to a dead stop. Half a hundred men jumped out in the snow. tore boards from the fence beside the track, and by dint of stamping and pushing away the snow from the engine, the train was soon started again. All went well while on a down grade to the crossing of the Mus- kegon river, though progress was slow ow- ing to the fact that eight or ten inches of snow had fallen during the day and there having as yet been no freight trains over the new road the engine had to push its way through this fresh snow all the way. After crossing the Muskegon river there was a long up-grade to make, and while using all the steam possible to push through the snow and make the grade, the train suddenly came to a stop. Investigation disclosed the fact that the rails had spread and the engine was off the track. All the balance of the night the trainmen worked to get the engine ou the rails again. The tall form of "Jim" Ashley could be seen directing the work and assisting the men in their efforts to fix the track and right the engine. The accident was caused by the carelessness or negligence
of the track layers, who had failed to prop- erly spike the rails to the ties, and in the ex- tra pressure caused by the resistance of the snow the engine had found a weak spot and left the rails. The train was going at such a slow rate that there was hardly a jar felt by those on board. and at first they would hardly believe it could be so. When it was realized that a long time would be required to get under way again. all hope of getting a taste of the banquet at the Hotel McKin- non was banished and those who were for- tunate enough to have provided themselves with crackers and cheese proceeded to satisfy their appetites for the time being, hoping that Cadillac would be reached in time for breakfast. As before stated, it was long after daylight when everything had been gotten ready for a start, but by this time the engine's supply of water and coal was nearly exhausted and a trip must be made to Cadil- lac for a supply before it could haul the train in. It should be stated that as yet there was no telegraph line erected along the road, and as the accident occurred about half way between Farwell and Cadillac, in a dense forest devoid of roads or settlers, it was therefore impossible to communicate with any one. If it had been thought that it would take all night to get started, a mes- senger could have been dispatched to Cadil- lac and another engine and better appliances could have been sent to the rescue; but of course it was expected that it would not take more than an hour or two to get under way again, but hour after hour went by without witnessing success on the part of the work- ers.
The engine found great difficulty in reaching Cadillac, and by the time it had received its supply of coal and water, re-
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turned to the train and hauled it to the city, it was considerably after noon, and those of us who lived in the northern part of the county had just time to eat a hasty meal before taking the train on the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad for home. The managers of the banquet at Cadillac, after waiting until after ten o'clock P. M. with- out hearing from the train, proceeded with the programme so far as they could without the expected guests, but it is said to have been a very dull affair, caused in part by the absence of the railroad officials and partly by the thought which filled all minds that a dreadful accident had happened to the train. All in all it was an eventful trip, but notwithstanding the night spent in the woods everybody was in good spirits on the train except the trainmen and road officials, who were so vexed at the mishap that none of them would "crack a smile."
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