USA > Michigan > Michigan as a province, territory and state, the twenty-sixth member of the federal Union > Part 16
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farms as shown by the same reports was, in 1884, five hundred and seventy-one million four hundred and forty-three thousand four hundred and sixty-two dol- lars; in 1894, five hundred and twenty-eight million two hundred and forty-nine thousand five hundred and three dollars, and in 1900 four hundred and twenty- three million five hundred and sixty-nine thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars. The average value per acre in 1884 was thirty-eight dollars and forty-eight cents; in 1894, thirty-four dollars and fifty-four cents, and in
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1900, twenty-four dollars and twelve cents. This indi- cates an astonishing reduction of farm land values. No explanation of it will be attempted, except to say that the farmer seems naturally inclined to a pessimistic view, especially when the tax assessor is abroad. How the above figures can be reconciled with the value of farm productions, gathered from the same sources, remains for some one else to demonstrate. The value of these productions is given by the census of 1884 as seventy- nine million four hundred and eighty-nine thousand three hundred and seventy-three dollars; in 1894, eighty-one million two hundred and seventy thousand eight hundred and forty-eight dollars; in 1900, one hundred and nine million seven hundred and eighty-six thousand two hundred and eighty-one dollars. The increase of something like thirty-five per cent. in the last period appears phenominal, and indicates highly prosperous conditions for the tillers of the soil. The percentage of improved land in farms in 1900 was a fraction over sixty-seven. The average number of acres per farm in 1894 was about eighty-six acres, which was about eight acres less than ten years before. The number of farms cultivated by their owners in 1894 was about eighty-two per cent. This number has been steadily decreasing, showing that while the farms are growing smaller more of them are cultivated by tenants, either for money rental or on shares. The tendency of young men to abandon the farm and flock to the cities explains these conditions in part. As generation succeeds generation the farms are divided among the heirs, and some of these latter prefer to rent the land to cultivating it themselves.
Wheat and corn have always been staple and reliable crops, but the variety of crops successfully grown in Michigan has always been a strong point in favor of its
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farmers. The latest to be cultivated on an extended scale is the sugar beet. It had long been the main scource of sugar supply of Germany, where machin- ery for the manufacture of sugar has been greatly per- fected. The first experiments with the beet in this country began in 1890 in Utah and California, where it proved both practicable and a source of valuable wealth. This industry was practically unknown in Michigan prior to 1898, but it developed with astonishing rapid- ity. It was found that the soil of the state contained the elements particularly essential to the successful grow- ing of the beet. Within two or three years after the success of the industry had been confirmed no less than thirteen large sugar factories had been put into opera- tion, and others were planned or in process of erection. These factories had a daily capacity of nearly seven thousand tons of beets and employed upwards of two thousand men. Their operation consumed an average for each factory during the season of about six thou- sand five hundred tons of coal, mined in the Saginaw valley, and two thousand six hundred tons of limestone, mined at Alpena and other northern points. The by products are valuable, some portions being utilized by chemical factories in the distillation of alcohol, and others by farmers as feed for cattle. As indicating the relative magnitude of the industry in Michigan, it may be stated that California is the only state which leads her. By the census of 1900, the number of pounds of beet sugar produced was as follows : California, eighty- six million seven hundred and forty-one thousand seven hundred and thirteen pounds of a value of three million four hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-six dollars; Michigan, thirty-three million seven hundred and eight thousand two hundred and eighty-three pounds of a value of one million six hun-
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dred and two thousand two hundred and sixty-six dol- lars; all other states forty-three million eight thousand and seventy-nine pounds of a value of two million two hundred and twenty-one thousand five hundred and ninety-five dollars.
Next to farming the most important industry of the state has been lumbering. Practically the whole of the lower peninsula was covered with a dense forest growth. Of the southern counties two or three tiers were charac- terized by hardwoods, of which there were more than four score varieties. These were all in their natural environment and grew in perfection. The most com- mon and valuable, such as black walnut, maple, beech, elm, oak, hickory, cherry, whitewood grew to immense size and furnished the highest grade of clear lumber. The early settlers found the task of clearing this heavy timber from the land to make it ready for agricultural purposes a difficult and arduous one. In the beginning they simply slashed the huge trees and burned them where they fell. This was a destructive process, but it seemed the only thing to do, if the land was to be laid bare for cultivation. Fortunately most of the pioneers left large timber tracts, uncovering no more land than es- sential for growing crops. Later the farmer found the timber land more valuable than the cleared land. Many a one reaped a rich harvest from the sale of certain varieties of hardwood trees which could be taken out without injuring the remaining standing timber. These woods have been the origin and source of supply of the furniture manufactories which have flourished in a mar- velous degree. They have carried the name of Michi- gan to the uttermost ends of the earth, and the fine texture and beautiful grain of the woods have caused them to be admired by all lovers of the beautiful.
A very large portion of the lower peninsula and
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practically the whole of the upper peninsula were densely covered with pine. This was the most valua- ble of all woods for building purposes. The cork pine ranked among the best, while the white and Norway pine were but little less desirable. In 1854 one of the leading lumbermen of the state made the first estimate of the extent of operations of Michigan lumbermen, whose activity was then chiefly confined to the valley of the Saginaw river. He reported the existence of sixty- one mills, many of them using water power, and placed their annual product at one hundred and eight million feet of sawed lumber. In 1872 it was estimated that the sawed pine lumber reached two and one-half billion feet. The number of saw mills then reached fifteen hundred, employing twenty thousand persons and rep- resenting a capital of twenty-five million dollars. By this time lumbering operations were carried forward on a large scale on all the large streams of Northern Michigan and their tributaries. These embraced not only the Saginaw, Black, Au Sable, on the east side of the state, but also the Grand, Muskegon, Manistee and Boardman on the west side. In 1879 Governor Jerome in his inaugural message estimated the value of the entire timber product of that year at sixty million dol- lars. In 1883 the lumber journals estimated the cut at four billion feet. It was then computed that the aggre- gate value of the forest products of the state already marketed amounted to more than one billion dollars. No other state or country in the world of like area had produced so much.
Naturally, perhaps, this immense harvest had been improvidently gathered. The men concerned in it had sought to make the most for themselves. They had gone through the forest and cut only the best and most valuable trees, leaving the inferior. This would have
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been well if there had been any protection to the stand- ing timber. It would have developed in a few years into marketable size. But in the dry seasons fires ran through these timber slashes and destroyed everything. In this way millions of dollars of value was wiped out and the land was left practically worthless. From about 1885 the lumber production of Michigan began to decrease. New and more remote sections were invaded by the lumberman, and attention was turned to the upper peninsula which up to that time had been neglected. Operations were first carried on along the larger streams and their tributaries down which logs could be floated during the freshet season to the mills near their mouths. Then came longer hauls by teams from the interior forests to the banks of the streams. Then logging railroads were built into the woods for the purpose of either hauling out the logs or the sawed lumber. The expense was naturally increased, but as lumber became scarcer prices of it advanced and so the lumberman could still operate at a profit.
Long before these forests had disappeared it became certain that their end was approaching. The subject of reforestation began to be agitated. As far back as 1876 Governor Bagley established by proclamation arbor day, and vigorously advocated its observance. But popular movements are slow. In spite of urgent appeals and persistent efforts to awaken public interest it has not been until recent times that there has been legislation to protect forests and encourage tree produc- tion. A forestry commission has now been established. Instruction in the subject is given at the state university and there is a systematic effort to awaken the minds of the people to the necessity of doing something to replen- ish the forests so ruthlessly destroyed. It has been shown that climate and rainfall have been materially
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modified by the sweeping away of our forests, very greatly to the disadvantage of the agriculturist and the fruit grower. There were a variety of nut trees, such as hickory, black walnut, butternut, chestnut, native to the soil, whose products were commercially valuable. Although nearly all have been destroyed, they can be reproduced as easily and almost as quickly as orchards of the apple, peach and cherry. The exhausting of the timber supply led to the abandonment of the lumber mills until they have almost wholly disappeared. The gradual curtailment and final discontinuance of this industry was a serious matter to many localities. But the larger towns which had most at stake have managed to introduce other industries, and so save their popula- tion and their business.
The most important and successful of these industries was furniture making. In 1890 there were reported in Michigan one hundred and seventy-eight such fac- tories, of which forty-five were in Grand Rapids, twenty in Detroit, three each in Owosso, Muskegon, Big Rap- ids, Manistee, with a less number in Saginaw, Grand Ledge, Newaygo, Allegan, Holland, St. Johns, Char- lotte, Sturgis, Niles, Ann Arbor, Buchanan, Northville, etc., altogether sixty different cities. The total capital- ization was nearly ten million dollars. There were employed in these several factories upwards of seven thousand persons and the amount disbursed for wages alone exceeded three million dollars, while the wholesale value of the goods manufactured was nearly eight mil- lion dollars. This extensive industry developed from insignificant beginnings through the foresight and enter- prise of the leaders engaged in it. They appreciated the advantages of an abundant supply of beautiful hard- wood lumber; they had the ingenuity to invent new tools and new machinery for working it; they had the
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shrewdness to devise new styles and set the fashions in furniture, and they had the energy and persistency to push their wares into the markets of the world.
Grand Rapids was one of the first cities to carry this industry to a high state of perfection. There it began in the infancy of the town when in 1849 Abraham Snively opened a cabinet shop. This was followed shortly after by William T. Powers and William Hal- dane who built a little factory with machinery for doing the work which had hitherto been wholly done by hand. At that time the only furniture factory in the country operating machinery was at Cincinnati. Pow- ers transferred his interest in the little factory to Win- chester Brothers, who a few years later built a new and larger factory at the foot of Lyon street. This passed into the hands of C. C. Comstock in 1857, and in the course of a few years it became the factory of Nelson, Matter and Company. The Widdicombs, father and sons, Berkey Brothers and Gay, Ball and Colby, Pow- ers, Eagles and Pullman, the latter of palace car fame, were among those to be identified with the beginning of the business. Most of these men were practical cab- inet makers and worked in their shops along with their men. In some instances at least the father instructed his sons and they grew up with that training which they found useful as successors later on. No little share of the success of the industry was due to the fact that the goods were made upon honor. Having established a reputation for the excellence of their products the modern proprietors are wise to follow the example of their predecessors. They do not rely wholly upon the beautiful Michigan woods, but import the choicest to be found in Cuba, Central America, Mexico and Canada for the making of veneers. Great skill and taste are shown in the combinations of patterns of the natural
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wood and in the finishing of the same. The art of carving is also carried to its highest perfection. The best talent to be found anywhere is employed without regard to cost to bring out new and artistic designs. Grand Rapids furniture has a world wide reputation and has made its name known in the remotest corner of the civilized globe.
The manufacture of agricultural implements is an industry of considerable magnitude. According to sta- tistics of 1900, forty-one firms were engaged in the business, located in thirty-three cities and villages. These include two factories each in Adrian, Battle Creek, Bay City, Greenville, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Pontiac and Saginaw. In Albion, Alma, Ann Arbor, Clare, Detroit, Dowagiac, Eaton Rapids, Grand Haven, Hudson, Imlay, Ionia, Jackson, Lapeer, Lyons, Milford, Mon- roe, Mt. Clemens, Mt. Pleasant, Port Huron, St. John, Traverse City, and other places there were also such factories of greater or less dimensions. Their average years in the business was sixteen years. Their aggre- gate capital was four million four hundred and thirty- eight thousand six hundred and twenty-six dollars, and their average one hundred and eight thousand two hun- dred and fifty-nine. They employed three thousand two hundred and seventeen workmen, an average for each factory of seventy-eight. Among the implements turned out were threshing machines, plows, harrows, culti- vators, horse-rakes, hay presses, feed cutters, harvest- ers, grain drills, tedders, etc., etc. The value of the product amounted to seven million one hundred and thirty-eight thousand three hundred and forty dollars, of which five and one-half millions came from ten firms. The business is reported in a prosperous condition.
The manufacture of stoves, ranges and furnaces has assumed considerable magnitude. The city of Detroit
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is the greatest stove manufacturing centre in the world. The business began in that city in 1864 with the estab- lishment of the Detroit Stove Company, which was fol- lowed a few years later by the Michigan Stove Com- pany, and still later by the Peninsular Stove Company. These three concerns employ upward of three thousand persons and turn out two hundred and fifty thousand stoves annually. Outside of Detroit probably the lar- gest establishment is that of E. Bement's Sons at Lansing. Another extensive plant is that of Beckwith estate at Dowagiac. Twenty-one factories were reported in 1900. Of these eight are located in Detroit, and others, beside the cities mentioned above are operated at Adrian, Alma, Chelsea, Coldwater, Grand Rapids, Marshall, Millington, and South Haven. Five of the twenty-one firms manufacture furnaces exclusively, and two make furnaces in addition to stoves. The aggre- gate capital of all is three million three hundred and seventy-eight thousand six hundred and thirty-two dol- lars, but seven of the largest have all this but about three hundred thousand divided among the remaining fourteen. At the date to which these figures apply these factories had been in existence an average of fifteen years. In the aggregate they gave employment to upwards of forty-five hundred persons and the value of their annual output was more than six million five hundred thousand dollars.
The number employed in 1897 in the various kinds of vehicles manufactured in Michigan was upwards of seven thousand. These people were employed in one hundred and thirty-four establishments, and in forty- one cities and villages. The cities where the largest vehicle manufactories were located are shown in the order of number of employes engaged in the work as follows: Kalamazoo, Jackson, Grand Rapids, Detroit,
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Flint, Pontiac, Lansing. These seven cities employ more than three-fourths of the total number. The aggregate wages paid amounted to about three million dollars. The value of the raw material used was three million six hundred and seventy-four thousand dollars, and the wholesale value of the product eight million dol- lars. Under the term vehicle is included all kinds of carriages, wagons, sleighs, bicycles, carts, wheelbarrows, hand sleds, etc. Some establishments manufacture only parts of a vehicle, such as spokes, hubs, springs, etc. The quality of Michigan manufactured vehicles is unsur- passed either in material or workmanship. These goods are the standard and find a ready market in all parts of the country, as well as abroad. It should be said also that in almost every village and hamlet in the state the local blacksmith adds wagon and sleigh making to his trade and supplies much of the rural demand of his neighborhood in that line.
Fine cut tobacco, snuff and cigars have for many years constituted one of the most important industries of Detroit. James M. Miller began the manufacture of fine cut tobacco about 1846. This form of chewing tobacco was then a novelty. But Miller seems to have mastered the problem of supplying a toothsome and satisfying quid and his business rapidly expanded. Among those who learned the secrets of manufacture in the Miller establishment were John J. Bagley and Daniel Scotten. Both of these men afterward set up in the same line of business for themselves and in the course of their life time each became millionaires and had built manufactories of chewing tobacco not sur- passed in magnitude in this country. Three other almost equally extensive factories also sprang up in Detroit- the Banner Tobacco Company, The American Eagle Tobacco Works, and the Globe Tobacco Company,
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which were likewise successful. It was always claimed that there is something in the atmosphere and climate of Detroit, or what is more likely in the methods of manufacture, which gave to Detroit made tobacco a flavor and standing of its own, not approached by any rival maker. The same may be said probably of cigars, of which there are many very extensive manufactories in Detroit. Some of these are not surpassed in magni- tude in this country. Many millions of cigars are turned out annually, and employment is provided for a great number of women and girls, who mainly furnish the labor. There are also factories of lesser magnitude in Grand Rapids, Jackson, Lansing and other cities of the state.
From before the time of the admission of the state into the union the manufacture of boots and shoes has been an important industry in Detroit. H. P. Bald- win and Company were among the earliest in the field and built up an extensive business. A. C. McGraw and Company began business in 1832 and expanded with growing resources and demand for their goods into one of the largest establishments of the kind in the country. H. S. Robinson and Burtenshaw, though later in the field, built up an immense business and had a long and honorable career. Later still came the firm of Pingree and Smith which helped to sustain the reputation which had been one of the distinctions enjoyed by Detroit. All these added to the volume of business and increased the prosperity of the city and state.
Chemical laboratories have been an important item in the aggregate of manufactoring industries of the state. The firm of Parke, Davis and Company began in a small way in 1867 the manufacture of pharmaceutical preparations. They seemed to fill a long felt want and their business grew. They expanded year after year,
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removing to a larger site and erecting new buildings until they became one of the largest establishments in the world in their line of business. The same is true almost literally of the establishment of Frederick Stearns and Company, which began about 1870. Man- ufacturing pharmacists has been their business. No patent or secret remedies were made, but in all the for- mula is distinctly shown on the label. There are a large number of other manufacturing chemists in Detroit, chief of which in the magnitude of operations are the Solvay Process Company, Frederick F. Ingram and Company. Michigan Alkali Company, Ray Chemical Company, Seely Manufacturing Company, Grasselli Chemical Company and others.
That Michigan has the most productive fresh water fisheries in the United States is explained by its geo- graphical position. Four-fifths of its borders are washed by the great lakes or their connecting straits. All the important towns on the shores have been formerly cen- ters of a fishing interest which used many vessels of various descriptions and employed thousands of men. The market was found in all neighboring parts of the United States, particularly in the eastern and central portions. The catch is principally confined to white fish, lake trout, sturgeon, bass, pickerel and herring. Oil is also obtained in considerable quantities from the offal and unmarketable fish. Formerly the industry was pursued with such vigor as to threaten complete exhaustion of the supply. In fact, white fish, the most delicious and popular of all fresh water fishes, has almost entirely disappeared. Stringent laws have been passed by the state for the protection of fish and to regulate the methods of catching them. Thousands of dollars are spent annually by the state of Michigan and by the general government in artificial propagation. The
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results are not particularly apparent, so far as con- cerns the food fishes of the great lakes, but in the game fishes of the interior lakes, which make Michigan a paradise for sportsmen, the supply is still maintained abundantly. In recent years the fishing industry, like many another industry, has passed into the control of a trust, which is able to control the market and suppress all individual operations not subservient.
As bearing upon the industries of the state the atti- tude of organized labor is important. There have been strikes and serious disturbances among the miners of the upper peninsula and among the employes of some of the railroads. But there has not been a strike of much con- sequence among those employed in the various indus- tries enumerated above. It is creditable alike to employ- ers and employed that they refrained from open warfare, and by mutual concessions and forbearance harmonized whatever differences may have arisen Strikes are uniformly wasteful for both sides. The state labor bureau and the state board of arbitration have undoubt- edly contributed to the peaceful situation in the indus- trial field.
The state has maintained an excellent commercial record. Detroit has always been the metropolis and chief commercial city. Here every branch of trade has been carried on from the earliest days of interior settle- ment. The enterprising merchants of the city have been quick to extend the area of their business, and though conservative and careful in their methods they have not been neglectful of opportunities. Wholesale jobbing houses have flourished here from the days of the pion- eers. Transportation facilities have much to do with the distribution of merchandise. Before the days of railroads communication with the interior was slow and difficult. The dealer in the country village was obliged to haul
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