USA > Michigan > St Clair County > History of the St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources.. > Part 70
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spect. The French Government early manifested a disposition to extend her dominion in America. At the very commencement of the seventeenth contury, she had colonized Acadia. In 1605. Quebec was founded. In 1663. New France (Canada) was made a royal colony. The reports circulated in France of the advantages of the fur trade were such as to induce many of the nobility and gentry to invest their fortunes in the New World. With this patronage. and the constantly increasing number of colonists, New France grow rapidly in commerce, the most Juerative branch of which was dealing in furs. The traders and voyageurs were the usual agents employed by the French Government to extend and upholdl its dominion in the North- west. The traffic in furs maintained with the Indians constituted the only value of this region in the eyes of Frenchmen, so long as France continued her dominion over it. The regular fur trader was licensed by the Government, this license generally stipulating the territory in which he was permitted to operate. It was drawn in the nature of a colonial commission. confer ring on the licensed trader the authority of a military officer over the voyageurs in his employ. It also made him a commercial agent of the Government among the Indians. He was fre quently employed as special agent of the colony, to make treaties. Sometimes he was regnired to lead his voyageurs upon war expeditions, in return for his for trading privileges. His
employes therefore were always around, equipped and familiarized with military duties. partly from necessity of defending themselves from attacks of hostile Indians, and partly to be enabled to carry out any requisition made by the Government. The dominion of France over
the Western country was thus made self-sustaining. But the Government found some trouble
in controlling the triflie in furs. There grew up an illicit trade maintained by couriers de bois, in contradistinction to the regular traders or voyageurs. They followed the Indians in their wanderings, and sometimes became as barbarous as the red man. A few years of forest life seemed to wean them from all thought or desire for civilization. They spread over the
458
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
Northwest, the outlaws of the forest. Although ron lering essential aid, at times, to the Gov- erment, the King of France, in 1699, launched a declaration against them. The following hymn of those olden travelers is still remembered:
Derrièrchez nous yátnn étang,
En roulant ma boule. (("horus.)
Trois beaux canards s'en vout baignant,
Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant, En roulant ma boule, roulant. (C'horns.)
En roulant ma boule.
Trois beaux canards s'en von baignant
En roulant ma boule,
Le fils du roi s'en va chassant,
Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant,
En roulant, ma boule, roulant,
En roulant ma boule.
Le fils du roi s'en va chassant
En roulant ma boule.
Avec son grand fusil d'argent. Rouli roulant, ma boule roulant, En ronlant, ma boule, roulant,
En roulant ma boule.
THE PINE.
A few words in relation to this tree, the object of the early settlements of most of Michi- gan. Unlike the oak and most other trees, the pino is not reproductive; when a generation matures or is cut off, it will not again produce a crop on the same soil. It is confined to its peculiar territory, and when we remember that the average age of a pine tree is only 300 years, it is seen that our pine forests were not in existence when Columbus discovered America. The pine evidently succeeded some growth that could not be reproduced. and it evidently exhausted the soil of the special material for its growth, leaving it, however, in a condition to grow oak and a variety of other productions. In the growth of a pine forest there is a constant death and decay of inferior or overshadowed trees, and comparatively a small number come to a con- dition suitable for the lumberman's ax. The pine has several canses of decay. There are no known insects that originate decay. but several that hasten it, when once started from any and loose knots. The punk is a kind of cancerous growth on the side of a tree, that eats into cause. The three most prominent causes of decay in the pine are punk or rot, wind shakes its very vitals. A low state of vitality will produce it. The black knot is a decayed limb that has not been closely grown around, and induces decay. The wind-shake is a most exasperat- ing defect of lumber, occuring near the hutt, and is caused by the bending of the tree in high winds, when the annual growths are separated by sliding on each other. Another external en- emy of the pine tree is fire. A pine tree that has been scorched must be utilized, or the insects will render it useless. Among these is the pine weevil, tornicus, zylographus, which goes for a sound tree, but not a live one. There is another worm that goes straight to the heart, leav- ing a small, black hole. The hurricane may also be stated as one of the causes of destruction. A full-grown pine is from ninety to 160 feet high, averaging 125. A log sixteen feet long will average 250 feet of lumber, although some have yielded ten times this amount. The roots of a tree are supposed to equal ono-half the lumber above ground. The diameter of a log aver- ages thirty inches; sometimes it is six feet. A pine, as found standing in the forest, has branches for the top third of its height. The task of reproducing the pine forests that are now falling with such remorseless rapidity, is a hopeless one, and science and art will combine to produce a substitute, for it is only a question of time as to when an article made of so com- mon a material as pine shall be eagerly sought after as a curiosity. to be carefully preserved among the bric-a-brac of future generations. In years to come, when the pine lumber which is so plentiful to-day may have been superseded by a material resulting from the combined art and skill of the chemist and mechanic, it will be interesting to read an account of the pecul- iarities of lumbering on the Black River, the hazardous, uncertain and excitable part of which is even now among the things that were, having been supplanted by railway transportation
459
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
almost exclusively. Realizing the rapidity with which old things are passing away and all things becoming new, the methods of conducting the Iumbering operations on the Black and St. Clair Rivers will be here recorded. Lands were purchased up the rivers by the various lumber companies, who sent an expert to estimate the amount of lumber per acre. This was done in various ways: the most simple was to count the trees, noting their average size, and. by well tried rules estimating three, four or more trees to the 1.000 feet, arrive at a close ap- proximation of the yield On the approach of winter, camps were sent into the woods-so many teams, so many men, so much feed and so much provision. Contracts were sometimes made at a certain price per thousand. The logs were ent in lengths of twelve, fourteen and sixteen feet, and exceptionally longer for specific purposes; hanled to the river to await the breaking-up of the ice and the rise of the river in the spring. Every lumberman had a regis- tered mark, which was one or more initials, or some other device, cut into the log. When the freshet came on, the logs consigned to the stream floated on with the current; but in the some- times narrow and tortnons stream there was not unfrequently a jam, where millions of feet piled up, tier upon tier, to finally break loose and, with the accompanying flood. hurry on, to be caught in the booms below. The boom was a floating dam kept in position by piers or wing rudders, which could be adjusted to maintain its position by the current itself. From the boom connected with the mill, the logs were hanled up by various devices and sawed into tim ber, scantling or boards, as they seemed best to work up. The boards were sawed one and one-eighth of an inch thick, so that they could bo dressed down to ono inch with little waste. The old North Atlantic method of marking the number of feet upon the board was not followed here. The manner of shipping by the river, formerly the only method of getting humber to market, was by means of rafts, after being sawed. A raft was formed in this way: The mm ber was laid up in eribs composed of three grub planks at the bottom, about five feet apart, with three two inch anger holes to insert the grub pins of hard wood, four feet long. The crib was made up this way: 12x16 feet, or twelve feet square, by alternating the layers longth wise and crosswise, until from ten to twenty tiers of boards were laid, when they were seenrely pinned together. Six of these were placed end to end by coupling planks, and a stick of tim- ber secured across each ond. To this was pivoted the oar, a stick thirty-six feet long, with a board blade on the water and. By means of a spring polo, the forward end of the raft was turned np to some extent, to facilitate its movements over the various obstructions. Thus arranged, it was called a "rapid piece." A rope ran from end to end to enable the raftsmen to hold on, as the piece might becomo submerged on diving over the rapids. Each erib would contain about 3,500 feet. It would take from two to eight men to manage one of these pieces. And what was called a "fleet." consisted of twenty of those pieces, all under the charge of a pitot with his gang.
GETTING THE KEY LOG
Reference is made to a jam in the river. To clear this jam was what is, even now, known as cutting the key log. The first thing to be done was to find out where the jam occurred, and then to discover what is called "key log." that it to say, the log which holds the base of the "janı." An old experienced "stream driver" is soon on the spot, for the news is soon carried up stream that there is a "jam" below. Every minute is of consequence, as logs are coming down the "jam" increasing in strength. The "key log" being found, there is a ery for volunteers to en it. Now, when you consider that there are some hundred big logs of timber forming a dam, and the instant the key log is ent the whole fabric comes rushing down with a crush, you will see that unless the ax-man gets instantly away he is crushed to death. There are usually in a camp plenty of men ready to volunteer; for a man who ents a key log is looked upon by the rest of the loggers just as a soldier is by his regiment when bo has done any act of bravery. The man I saw ent away a log which brought down the whole jam of logs, was a quiet, young fellow, some twenty years of age. Ho stripped everything save his drawers; a strong rope was placed under his arms, and a gang of smart young follows held the end. The man shook hands with his comrades, and quietly walked out on the logs, ax in hand. I do not know how the loggy road one felt. but I shall never forget my feelings. The man was quietly walking to what very likely might be his death. At any moment the jam might break of its own accord,
460
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
and also if he cut the key log, unless he instantly got out of the way, he would be crushed by the falling timber. There was a dead silence while the keen ax was dropped with force and skill on the pine log. Now the notch was nearly half through the log, one or two more blows, and a crack was heard. The men got in all the slack of the rope that held the ax-man; one more blow and there was a crash like thunder, and down came the wall of timber, to all ap- pearances on the ax-man. Like many others, I rushed to help haul away the poor fellow, but to my great joy I saw him safe on the bank, certainly sadly bruised and bleeding from sundry wounds, but safe.
THE SAW MILL CHANGES
Among the most marvelous of the many wonderful things which distinguish the United States from other nations are the results which have grown out of the possession of immense forests of valuable timber in stimulating inventive genius to the preparation of an article of building material so cheap as to enable the poorest to have a comfortable home, while at the same time so excellent in character as to be not only suited. but indispensable to the working classes. Those more readily accessible regions of the continent which possessed these forest growths in the greatest abundance were among the first to receive large accessions to their population, drawn together at those centers which presented the easiest access to cheap build- ing material, not less than for their personal safety from a savage foe. It has not until the demand for lumber far exceeded the ability of the "greatest" mills of half a century ago to supply, leading the manufacturers to feel the need of a more extended system of production, that the star of empire made any progress westward, or it became a possibility to settle upon the prairies of the West, or to develop the mineral resources which have already shown our nation to be the peer of, if it does not excel, all others in the extent of its possessions. To possess is to need. And the cheap building material which the cheap mills of the days long gone by enabled a scanty population to utilize, stimulated a more extended immigration, with its increased needs, as well as a higher order of inventive genius to increase the supply.
The mills of the olden time were, tirst, the windmill, with its uncertain power, scarce ex- ceeding that of the men who ran the pit saws which were then in a measure superseded, and whose indignation at the effort to lessen their manual labor caused them to mob the owner and tear down his machinery. Second, the adaptation of a current water-wheel of scarcely greater power, if more reliable, run by the natural current of a small stream. Next came the simple flutter-wheel. to impart motion to which required the building of dams to hold large bodies of water, which should at all times be available. But for large operations, the futter-wheel was found to possess too little power, and the overshot or undershot wheel became a necessity, to be superseded later by the adaptation of turbine-wheels, now so much in favor with mill own- ers who control water power. For the first fifty years of our national growth, as well as dur- ing the preceding portion of the world's history, none of the mills were equipped with any- thing more than a single upright saw working in a gate, and when another saw was added, as the ineeptive idea of the gang, which quickly succeeded with its large number of saws, words could scarcely express the astonishment of all who saw the working of the bold innovation.
Up to this time, all the lumber which was manufactured had been edged upon the top of the log after it was turned down; an auxiliary saw was not thought of, for the buzz saw, just be- ginning to be used, was considered a most dangerous piece of machinery. But the increased manufacture growing out of an increase in the power and an increase in the number of saws, led to the introduction of the smalt circular or "buzz" saw, which was at once found to nearly double the capacity of the mill. It is needless for us to enlarge upon the introduction of steam power in the saw mill, or to follow the original idea of an engine, 6xS inches, attached to the lower end of the pitman or saw gate, through its successive stages of development and enlarge- ment to the present time, when the Corliss, or Estes, or other well-known engines, of a power from ten to one hundred times greater capacity than was the original device, are by the thou- sand in number engaged in turning ont lumber, each in one season aggregating a greater man- ufacture than were all the saw mills of the country combined at a period scarcely fifty years in the past.
The old gate saw was superseded by the innley, with a reduction of friction equal to thirty or fifty per cent increase in cutting capacity. The muley gave way to the circular, and
461
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
with the introduction may be dated the commencement of an era which has been prolific of in- novation, improvement and advantage to the saw mill world. As the use of the virenlar bo- came better understood, and men became expert in so dressing it as to make true lines and smooth surfaces, they found themelves able to produce more lumber in the rough than they could properl, edge and prepare for market. The old edging-table could not keep up with the ent of the saw. This was remedied by the introduction of gang edgers, which no mill doing any considerable business could now dispense with. Now the work of the main saw conkl be safely increased, for the gang -or, as it was at first known, "double"-edger was abundantly able to keep pace with it, and while at first a capacity equal to 1,000 feet per hour was doubt fully claimed. later developments have shown in not a few instances, an entire season's work at the rate of 6,000 feet per hour.
This increase in capacity called for a more speedy method of handling the logs on the carriage, and the lumber as it left the saw, and a multitude of inventive minds were concen- trated on mill dogs, which should successfully take the place of the lever and pike, driven by a mallet, and the modern saw mill could not now be operated with the original method of dogging the log. The "nigger" for turning the log on the carriage, as well as rolling it on the skids had supersedod the canthook and muscular power formerly relied upon, while the lumber, as it leaves the saw. drops upon a system of live rollers, which does the work to much better advantage than it was formerly accomplished by a hard-worked "offbearer," who could not in these days by any possibility, keep up with the work which would crowd upon them.
Plenty of lumber, cheaply manufactured and sold at reasonable prices, has enabled tho settling up of a nation at the rate of nearly fifty per cent increase of population during cach decade. This in turn has demanded a network of railroads, and carriage by them has not yet been redneed to a science, which enables us to believe that rates have reached a minimum which they will realize in the future. The manufacturer of lumber, bearing this in mind. mist reduce the weight of his produet to the lowest possible point, and the trimmer became a prime necessity as an economizer, not less than for an advantage in an aesthetic point of view. And the old gang mill. from its original adaptation of two saws, hung in a cumbrous frame, upon monstrous posts which headed in a weigh-beam, mado from the largest stick of timber which the forests afforded, and footed in the mill foundations, shaking the structure and the sur Founding country, and keeping the machinery about one- half the time in the repair shop from it's everlasting jar, has been displaced by the neat, effective, and comparatively noiseless devices of more modern times, developing a sawing capacity of which the fondest anticipation of the original inventor of the idea had not the remotest conception. The heavy woigh-beams have disappeared, the monstrous wooden posts have given way to equally advantageons and strong but less cumbersome and more sightly iron supports, resting upon foundations independent of those which support the mill frame. The old, stiff, and full-of-friction gate has been super- seded by oscillating slides, giving to the saws the same motion which the pit sawyer seeks to obtain in order to accomplish the most work with the least outlay of strength.
Time would fail us to trace ont all the changes which a quarter of a century has developed in the saw mill. Should a Rip Van Winkle of the last century be suddenly awakened from his long sloep. still dreaming of the last act of dogging the log on his old-fashioned carriage, in the old mill, when he took long naps between the ents, and esteemed a production of 1,000 feet per day something to brag of, and open his eyes on the floor of a modern mill of the smallest size, he wouldl truly think that the world had turned upside down; and if he saw the army of men carrying off a quarter of a million feet of boards per day from the saw's of some of the larger mills, he would not believe the evidence of his senses. All has changed; the water wheel has given place to the steam engine; the single small cylinder boiler, to the monstrous tubular or thue in large batteries: the upright saws in a gate, to the muley and the circular; the two saw gang, to a forty saw: the rag wheel, to the steam feed, adding countless possibili. ties to the ability of the circular saw to ent up logs; the single buzz saw, to the double edger: the rough end lumber, to the well trimmed; the vast piles of worthless slabs, to a useful arti cle of lath and pickets: and the final debris, in many localities, to usefulness in the manufact- ure of other commercial articles. The pioneer knew nothing of lath and shingle manufact ure: live rolls had not entered his noddle: gang slab cutters would have been by him pro-
462
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
nounced an invention of the devil to feed the flames of his insatiable furnace. Endless chains would have had no use in his mill economy; saw sharpeners and gummers would have had no value in his eyes, for he could cut all the lumber he expected to, and find plenty of time for dressing his saws by hand.
The modern saw mill is indeed full of improvements, down to the last device for sorting by machinery. The production in one day, by one saw, of more lumber than was accounted the work of a year in former times, is not only the result of the genius of invention such as marks the spirit of the age, but has rendered possible the remarkable development of the young- est in the sisterhood of nations, forming no unimportant factor in the influence of this country among the people of the earth All hail to the modern saw mill, and the wise intelligence of nearly every man who is connected with it, either in the production of logs from the forests or the manufacture and sale of lumber, for each progressive step in the march of improvement has reduced the cost of manufacturing lumber, keeping pace with the inevitable increase in the cost of timber, due to the gradual decadence of the forests.
In other pages reference will be made to the lumbermen of St. Clair-to the Harringtons, Beards, Morans, Farrands, of Lakeport, Babys, Brockways, Howards, Sanborns, Whites, and the hundred others who built the saw mills of the county.
Patrick Sinclair's lumber industry at St. "lair, in 1876-80, must be considered the first in this section. Among the first manufacturing industries of Michigan was Baby's mill. This was located six miles below Detroit, on the Rouge. The primitive manufacturing con- cern was afterward purchased by Knaggs. Mr. Peltier's mill on the Savoyard, near Detroit, was another important industry of the time. The traders were Joseph Campeau, Robert Gonier, George Moniot, Jean Baptiste le Duc, Gabriel Coté, Jacques Allaird, Conrad Ten Eyck, Hugh Martin, Meldrum & Parks. Such is the whole list of traders who flourished at De- troit in 1799.
In 1827, Allen and Burt built a mill for Alphens Wadhams, six miles from Port Huron, returning to their homes after its completion by taking a course across the country through the woods.
There were in the county, and in operation, the following saw mills in October, 1847:
TOWNS.
Water. Steam.
Naws.
TOWNS.
Water. Steam.
Naws.
Polk
4
6
St. Clair
3
4
1
3
Burtchville
3
Algonac
Clyde
Port Huron
1
13
Totals
22
12
The following is, independent of shingles, logs, square timber, staves, etc., which are ex- ported from the county to a large amount, the statement of lumber manufacture in 1847:
TOWNSHIPS.
OWNERS.
POWER. SAWS
AMOUNT.
TOWNSHIPS.
OWNERS.
POWER.
SAWS
AMOUNI
Polk
J. Bird
Water.
1
200,000
Clyde
Alverson
Water.
1
200,000
Polk
Clice & Adams .. . Water.
1 300,000
Clyde .
D. B. Harrington Water. . .
3 700,000
Polk
Mason & Co ..... Water.
2
600,000
Pt. IIuron
Steam Mill Co .. Steam.
4 2,700,000
Polk
Davis & Westcomb Water.
500,000
Pt. Huron
Clark &
. Steam.
1 3,000,000
Lexington .
Hubbard & Lester Steam.
4 3,000,000
Pt. Iluron'
Davis & Tucker .. Steam.
1 1,000,000
Lexington .
Davis.
Water.
200,000
St. Clair. .
A. Bartlett
Water.
400,000
Lexington .
N. B. Chase.
Water.
600,000
St. Clair. .
1. Smith .
Chamberlin & Co. Steam,
3
2,000,000
Burtchville!
S. M. Robbins.
Water.
8 800,000
St. Clair. .
R. More .
Steam.
3 2,000,000
('lyde
J. & J. Beard
Water.
800,000
St. Clair. .
Steam.
1,000,000
Clyde
R. Wadhams ...
Water.
3
700,000
St. Clair. .
Steam.
1 500,000
Clyde
J. Abbott. .
Water.
400,000
Newport .
Rust & Co ...
Steam.
3
2,000,000
Clyde
Chase & Evans ... Water.
600,000
Clyde
J. 1I. Wesbrook .. Water.
1
300,000
Clyde
IHill.
Water.
2
400,000
Algonae .. Algonac
Brooks & St. Clair Steam. ,Steam. D. Daniels. .
'Water.
450,000
Burtchville J. Burtch .
Water.
300,000
St. Clair. .
W. Truesdail ..... Steam.
G 3,000,000
Burtchville
J. II. Titus ...
Water.
1
100,000
St. Clair. .
Pt. IIuron E. P. Vickery ... Steam.
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