USA > Michigan > Wexford County > History of Wexford County, Michigan, embracing a concise review of its early settlement, industrial development and present conditions > Part 38
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Sylvester Clark came to Wexford count- ty in the spring of 1869. locating at Sher- man and starting the first hotel in the coun- ty seat town. It was kept in a log house which was originally erected for a dwelling house, but which Mr. Clark remodeled in- to a hotel. Soon after starting this busi- ness a separation occurred between him and his wife, which was followed by divorce. A few years later he married the widow of Abram Finch, an old soldier who came to the county in 1866, and only lived two or three years after his arrival. She still lives in Sherman and often at the reunions of the old settlers tells of being treed by a bear, when she and her first husband were living on their homestead, and how her little dog kept nipping at the bear's hind feet, thus detracting his attention and enab- ling her to get far enough up the tree to be out of reach. After his second marriage Mr. Clark took up farming and continued in this occupation until the infirmity of age obliged him to give it up. He then moved!
into Sherman village, and lived there until the winter of 1901, when he went to the Pa- cific coast, thinking it would improve his physical condition. In this he was disap- pointed, as he lived but a few weeks after reaching his journey's end.
Lewis J. Clark, though not a relative of Sylvester Clark, was one of the carly pion- eers of the county. He was a carpenter and joiner by trade and came to the county in the employ of George W. Bryant, of Trav- erse City, who owned a piece of land at the point where the Newaygo and Northport state road crossed the Manistee river. Mr. Bryant had a small clearing made near the bank of the river, and erected a good sized building intended for a hotel, and it was used for a short time for that purpose. Mr. Clark did the work of building the house and rented it for a while, putting in a stock of groceries. In 1868 he severed his connec- tion with Mr. Bryant and put up the first frame building in the village of Sherman, moving his stock of groceries into it as soon as it was ready to occupy. He afterwards went into the drug business, putting up an- other building for that purpose and moving the old one and using it as an addition to the drug store. Mr. Clark was a very obliging gentleman, and was liked by every one. As an evidence of this fact, he was unanimously recommended for postmaster, though a strong Democrat, and was appointed by a Republican administration. He died in De- cember, 1877, and was buried under the aus- pices of the Independent Order of Red Men. of which he was a member, and was sincerely mourned by the entire community.
Frederick S. Kieldsen, for many years a prominent merchant in Cadillac, was born in Denmark in 1849, arriving in Cadillac
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in 1872. He was a shrewd business man, and after enlarging his mercantile stock to his satisfaction purchased a large farm. built a good farm house and large barns and at one time had a dairy of forty-five cows. mostly Holsteins. He was a lover of hors- es and kept some fine specimens on his farm. He suffered some severe reverses during the panic following the second election of Grov- er Cleveland. and subsequently retired from business. He died quite suddenly in 1891, leaving a widow and two children.
John G. Mosser was born in Canada in 1840. He early learned the carpenter trade and at the time of the building of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad secur- ed the position of foreman of the bridge building part of the construction, and stayed with the company until the road reached Petosky. He then settled in Cadillac and engaged in house building, and later went into the brickmaking business, at length go- ing into the regular contract building occu- pation and keeping a stock of builder's ma- terial. He superintended the construction of nearly all the larger buildings in the city. including churches, school houses, stores, the Masonic Temple and many private residen- ces. He secured a good many contracts for work in other counties and had a constant- ly increasing business. He disappeared sud- denly from the city in 1893, and it was a long time before any of his friends knew of his whereabouts, and it was at first sup- posed he had committed suicide, but at length his wife received a communication from Alberta, Canada, in 1896, conveying the information that he had died there and had told his companions where his wife and family lived. Mr. Mosser represented his ward for many years on the board of su-
pervisors, and was several times honored by being elected as chairman of the board.
James Ilaynes started the first planing- mill in the county, coming to the village of Clam Lake (now city of Cadillac) in 1872. He was born in New York in 1825, moving to Michigan with his father's family in 1836. Ilis mill was destroyed by fire in 1877, and as showing the energy with which Mr. Haynes conducted business, it is re- lated that in just fifty-nine days after the fire another mill had been erected, the ma- chinery purchased and placed in position and the mill ready for business. Some time before his death Mr. Haynes associated his three sons with him in the business, the firm being known as James Haynes & Sons. One of the sons retired before the death of the father, the other two remaining and suc- ceeding to the business, which they still continue. Mr. Haynes held several im- portant village and city offices and served a part of one term as county treasurer, death overtaking him during his incumbency of the office in 1889.
Austin W. Mitchell came to Wexford county in 1879 and his first business venture was the purchase of a tract of pine land about four miles north of the city. This timber was manufactured by Bond & Kysor and quite a little village sprung up where their mill was located, the place being known on the railroad maps as Bond's Mill, but not a vestige of the place is left except the railroad siding. Mr. Mitchell was a member of the firm of Mitchell Brothers, who still do a heavy lumbering business in Missau- kce county and have a large handle factory in Cadillac. An incompatible domestic con- dition evidently preyed upon his mind to such an extent that his friends persuaded
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him to take a trip across the ocean to see if it would not bring a change for the bet - ter. Accordingly he set sail from San Fran- cisco in the spring of 1902 in company with his physician. Dr. C. E. Miller, of Cadillac. When five days out Mr. Mitchell very sud- denly and unexpectedly leaped over the side of the ship and almost immediately sank to the bottom. It was a great blow to his friends in this city and county, of whom he had a large circle.
David A. Rice was one of the first at- torneys to locate in the village of Clan Lake. Mr. Rice first studied medicine with a view of becoming a physician, but changed his mind and took a law course at the uni- versity at Ann Arbor. He was admitted to the bar in Oceana county in 1870. At the commencement of the war of the Rebellion he enlisted in the Sixty-fifth Illinois Volun- teers. He was taken prisoner at the time of the surrender of Harper's Ferry, was paroled and several months later exchanged, when he again joined his regiment, serving until the close of the war. He served the county as prosecuting attorney eight years in all, held different offices under the village and city organization, and also filled the office of supervisor of his ward one or two terms. He died at Ypsilanti, this state, ill the fall of 1901.
Byron Ballou was one of the very first to settle in the village of Clam Lake; in fact, he came several months before the vil- lage was platted. He was born in Cleve- land, Ohio, in 1827. He came with liis fa- ther to Ypsilanti. Michigan, in 1830, the journey being made with an ox team, as there was no public conveyance to be had in those days in that section of the state. It is related that food became so scarce the
first year that they had to resort to pound- ing corn on a stump preparatory to cooking it for the family. At the death of his father he went to live with an aunt in Kalamazoo in 1839. where he learned the trade of car- penter. His first business venture in this county was in the hardware line with John M. Cloud, the firm being known as Cloud & Ballou. Mr. Ballon was a radical Repub- lican and often took the stump in the inter- ests of his party. Though not a gifted speaker, he could tell the plain truths in such a matter-of-fact way that they carried con- viction. He was for several years chairman of the Republican county committee, twice held the office of postmaster in Cadillac and Clam Lake village, and was once elected mayor of the city. After severing his con- nection with Mr. Cloud, he conducted a flour and feed store in the city for several years until he was forced to abandon work by reason of the infirmity of age. His death occurred in the winter of 1902.
Samuel F. Long was another early set- tler in the village of Clam Lake, coming in the spring of 1873. He was born in Frank- lin county, Pennsylvania, in 1820. When twenty-two years of age he moved to Ohio, and one year later to Michigan. In the summer of 1862 he enlisted in the Sixth Michigan Cavalry, first serving with the Army of the Potomac and later was in the scouting service in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. He was discharged in July, 1865. For the first five years after coming to Clam Lake he was in the employ of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad Company. The next year he had charge of the H. N. Green water works, after which he had charge of M. H. Bond's grocery business for about two years, He held the office of justice of
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the peace for eight years, at the same time doing something of a real estate and collec- tion business. He died in 1896. leaving a widow and five children.
Holden N. Green was also an early pio- neer in the village of Clam Lake; in fact, he arrived on the shore of Little Clam lake, now Lake Cadillac, nearly a year before the village was platted. He first engaged in the lumber business in 1871, and continued his operations in that line until 1878. It was during this latter year that he undertook the work of supplying the city with water. His engine house and pumps were built at the foot of West Harris street, nearly or quite on the site now occupied by the steam laundry. He operated this plant about fourteen years, during which time the build- ing was once destroyed by fire. Judge Green acquired his title by a four-years term as probate judge of Wexford county. He was born in Rushville, New York, in 1827, and when quite young he, with the rest of his father's family, moved west. which meant in those days anywhere west of the western line of New York state. He was at one time engaged as mail carrier to and from Chicago, when that city was a mere hamlet. He married in Chicago and a short time afterward went to Manistee, and was there when that county was or- ganized, and became its first prosecuting at- torney. During his last five years' resi- dence in Cadillac his health so failed him that he was obliged to give up all work and remain indoors most of the time. Mr. Green served two or three terms as a mem- ber of the board of supervisors of Wexford county, taking part in the memorable county-seat struggle that was waged for nearly a dozen years. During the latter part
of 1893 he removed to Ypsilanti, where he remained until the summons of death reached him. in December, 1895.
Henry F. May was one of the early business adventurers in the village of Clam Lake (now city of Cadillac), being a men- ber of the firm of Holbrook & May, who engaged in the mercantile business in the new village in 1871. Mr. May was born in Plymouth, Michigan, in 1842, receiving a common school education at that place. After coming to Clam Lake he was fre- quently elected to different offices, serving as village treasurer, village trustee, county superintendent of the poor and member of the Cadillac city board of education. In 1878 he was elected to represent the Wex- ford-Grand Traverse district in the lower house of the Michigan legislature. A few years after he removed to Grand Rapids. where he lived until 1899, when death put an end to a long and useful career.
Jonathan W. Cobbs came to Clam Lake village in 1872 from Butlerville, Indiana, where he had been engaged in the manufac- ture of hardwood lumber for a number of years. His first business venture in the new village was the purchase of what was then known as the Hall saw-mill, the first one built at Clam Lake. At first he ran the mill in cutting timber for George A. Mitchell. but in 1877 he formed a partnership with William W. Mitchell, the firm name from that time being Cobbs & Mitchell. The firin prospered to a wonderful degree. and finally. in 1899, the firm was incorporated under the laws of the state. The firm purchased large tracts of pine land soon after its organiza . tion, and to give an idea of the extent of their lumbering operations while engaged in cutting pine, we quote from what has here-
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tofore been compiled relative to shipment of lumber in the 'eighties: "In 1880, 14,053 - 000 feet : 1881, 21.612,000 feet; 1882, 20,- 906,000 feet ; 1883, 26,924,000 feet; 1884, to June I, II, 111,000 feet. Lumber in yards, 17,000,000 feet." Mr. Cobbs died September 28, 1898, at the age of sixty-nine years, his son. Frank J. Cobbs, president of the Cadillac State Bank, succeeding his fa- ther in the firm. A more detailed account of their present lumbering operations will be found in another part of this work.
A. M. Lamb, a former resident of Cad- illac, was one of the very early pioneers in Wexford county, having taken up a home- stead in 1865. At the death of his first wife, which occurred in the early 'seventies, he came to what was then the village of Clam Lake and went into business. About the same time he was appointed one of the coun- ty superintendents of the poor, which office he held for several years. He finally sokl out his business in Cadillac and removed to Grand Rapids, where he did a commission business for a number of years. He then came back to Cadillac, and was engaged in the fruit commission business for some time, finally returning to Grand Rapids, where he (lied in 1902.
Georgiana I. Wheeler came to Wexford county with her husband, J. H. Wheeler, in the fall of 1865, their westward journey being their wedding trip, as they started from western New York immediately fol- lowing their marriage ceremony. They came by boat from Buffalo to Traverse City, leaving the lake boat at Northport and mak- ing the trip up the Traverse Bay in the lit- tle "Sunny Side," the first boat owned and operated by Traverse City interests on the bay, and it took a week to make the trip at
that time. They arrived in Wexford county the last day of October. They began house- keeping with one chair, a rocker, and one bed, using Mr. Wheeler's tool chest for a table until he could make one of pine boards. He also soon made a set of splint-bottom chairs and another rocker, and they were soon cosily established in their new home. Mrs. Wheeler was a school teacher and a music teacher, and in later years took an active part in temperance work and con- tributed occasionally to the columns of the Wexford County Pioncer after that paper was established, and when her husband be- came the owner of the paper she did a large amount of the work on its local columns, besides editing the Woman's Christian Tem- perance Union department. Her untimely death, in 1882, was a shock to the whole community and her funeral was attended by the largest gathering ever, to that time, seen in Sherman on such occasions. The following is taken from the columns of the Pioneer having the account of her death : "Not many refined and talented young ladies of the present day, who delight in social intercourse and pleasant surroundings, would think that they could go away back into an almost unbroken wilderness, one hundred and twenty-five miles from the nearest railroad, with six months of the year practically closed to all outside con- munication, except the slow, tedious over- land mail, which only enabled a person to get an answer to a letter after four or five weeks of anxious waiting, their little log house, twelve by sixteen feet in size, con- stituting kitchen, pantry, bed-room, sitting- room and parlor, the only partitions being imaginary lines on the puncheon floor ; their nearest neighbor half or three-fourths of a
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mile distant, and the only road thereto being a line of blazed trees through the dense for- est. Yet true love conquers all difficulties and laughs at all privations, and when man's strong arm is nerved by a noble woman's love, the densest forest will melt away; houses, mills and work shops will grow up. and the grandeur of happy homes and noble aspirations will so fill the heart that their memory can never be effaced. Such the love, such the privations, such the fruition and such the memory."
We give place to the following little gem, written a year after Mrs. Wheeler's death :
I've been out to the old homestead to-day, Georgia, but 'twas with sad and lonely heart
That I viewed the scenes of bygone years -- their memory seemed to dart
Like a gleaming blade through the misty shade of the half forgotten past,
And carry me back on its glimmering track to the pleasures that could not last.
I saw once again the little log house with its bark- covered roof as of yore;
Its one tiny window, its one narrow door, its old fashioned, rude puncheon floor;
The tall trees all 'round thickly studding the ground, so the sunlight could scarcely creep in,
And you, my fond wife, the joy of my life, making sunshine and gladness within.
llow the warmth of that glorious sunlight 'round the heart's deep emotions did twine!
Its brightness made my life so happy! Its reflex brought pleasure to thine!
And life's silv'ry stream, like a beautiful dream, stretched forth to our wondering gaze
'Neath the magical flame that silently came through the glint of its soul-stirring rays.
Oh, those happy old pioneer days, Georgia! What pen can their grandeur recall?
What artist can paint half their beauties? What poetic rapture enthrall
The senses, and make such echoes awake, in the heart, 'though 'tis saddened and lone,
Like the memory of days we see through the haze, of the years that are faded and gone.
Ah, yes, they have gone to decay, Georgia! Their phantoms are all that remain:
The heart, then so light and so buoyant, now beats to a mournful refrain;
For the beauties of youth, with its freshness, its truth, its hope, its ambition, its trust,
Have perished and died, and lie side by side with the forms that now moulder to dust.
Yet, I would not forget those glad days, Georgia, their mem'ry's too sacred and dear-
Though they bring to the heart keenest anguish, and moisten the eye with a tear-
I cherish them still. The heart will e'er thrill, as the vision recurs to its gaze,
Of the joys that were ours in those happy hours- those blissful old pioneer days.
Rinaldo Fuller came to the county in 1880, settling in the village of Manton, where he soon went into the drug business. He was born in Canada in 1841, lived sev- eral years in Ontonogan, Michigan, and two years in Ingham county. Ile then went west to Kansas, where he remained two and a half years. Ile served three or four terms as president of the village of Manton, two terms as township treasurer, besides various other local offices. Ile was the Republican candidate for county treasurer in 1890. but was defeated by James Ransom in the Democratic landslide of that year. Soon after he sold out his business at Mantou and removed to Traverse City. He went into the drug business again at Interlocken. Grand Traverse county, where he died a few years ago.
James M. Brown was born in Chatau- qua county, New York, in 1825. His par- ents removed to Pennsylvania in 1835 and to Ottawa county, Michigan, in 1844. He kept a hotel at Byron. Kent county, Mich !- gan, five years and was engaged in mercan- tile business for several years before he came to this county in 1873. He kept a little hotel at Manton the first year after his .
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arrival, and then purchased a farm one mile west of that village, and for several years led the qual life of landlord and farmer. Ile was county superintendent of the poor six years, and filled the office of justice of the peace and other township offices for several years. Ilis death occurred in 1899 at his home in Cedar Creek.
F. A. Jamison was one of Manton's suc- cessful merchants, having located in that village in 1877. At first he engaged in the grocery business only, but later added dry goods and boots and shoes. He was born in Ottawa county, Michigan, in 1842, and (lied at his home in Manton in 1891.
Hon. Thomas A. Ferguson was born in losco, Livingston county, Michigan, Sep- tember 2, 1839. He enlisted in the spring of 1864, serving in the Army of the Cum- berland. Was promoted to first lieutenant, and mustered out at the close of the war in 1865. Soon after his return from the army he entered the law department of the Michi- gan University, at Ann Arbor, where he was graduated in 1869. He came to Wex- ford county in the summer of that year, being the first lawyer to settle in the new county just organized. He was appointed prosecuting attorney of the county and held the office until December, 1872. He was elected a member of the house of representa- tives, Michigan legislature, in 1872, and re- elected in 1874. He removed from Sher- man to Manton in 1877, and went into the lumbering business under the firm name of Brandenburg, Backus & Company. The firm failed in a short time after he became inter- ested in it, and investigation showed that it was on the verge of collapse when he was induced to go into it. He then commenced to deal in pine lands, and was quite suc-
cessful. Mr. Ferguson was left a widower in 1874, his wife dying December 19th of that year, leaving an infant daughter, now the wife of V. C. Wall, proprietor of the Wexford County Grist Mill at Sherman. He never remarried. Mr. Ferguson was an active and shrewd politician, taking part in all political campaigns. He was chairman of the Republican county committee at the time of his death, which occurred in 1883.
Leroy P. Champenois was born April 19, 1840, near Adrian, Michigan. His fa- ther was one of the early settlers in that part of the state, and during the 'fifties, when the agitation of the slavery question was at its height and the Dred Scott decis- ion and the fugitive slave law had so aroused the anti-slavery people of the northern states, he kept a station on what was called the "underground railroad." Many well-informed people of today will not comprehend what was meant by the "underground railroad." It was simply this: When a slave managed to escape from his master and reach the northern bank of the Ohio river he knew, in nine cases out of ten, just where he could find a friend who would shield him from the search of his master and would convey him or pilot him to some other friend farther toward Canada, where he could not be reached by his enraged and baffled master. Sometimes these fugitives were carried in wagons underneath loads of hay or straw; sometimes in boxes or barrels, and some- times they were piloted, during the darkness of the night, through forests and fields, avoiding the public highways in the fear of coming in contact with the slave hunter or his equally dangerous ally, the northern "doughfaces," for be it known that the fugi-
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tive slave law made every sheriff and con- stable in the whole country a slave hunter and every northern jail a slave pen. These stopping places for the poor escaped slave were called "stations," and this stealthy manner of transportation was called the "underground railroad." Leroy early im- bibed this intense anti-slavery feeling of his father, and when the cry of war sounded through the country, at the firing upon Fort Sumter, he was one of the first to respond to Lincoln's call for seventy-five thousand three-months men. lle participated in the first battle of Bull Run, and at the expira- tion of his first term re-enlisted for three years. When the matter of organization of negro regiments was undertaken he secured a commission as lieutenant and was trans-
ferred to one of those regiments. lle was severely wounded in one of the engagements near Holly Springs, losing all of his right hand except the thumb and index finger, and upon his recovery was assigned to a position on the staff of General Smith, where he served until the close of the war. He came to Wexford county in 1866, and settled in what is now Wexford township. At the organization of the county, in 1869, he was elected the first county clerk and register of deeds, which office he held for two years. Ile held various township offices, served two terms as county school examiner, and four years as postmaster at Sherman. He died at his home in Sherman in 1902, leaving a widow who survived him but a few months.
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