Past and present of Shiawassee County, Michigan, historically; with biographical sketches, Part 7

Author:
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Lansing, Mich. : Hist. Pub.
Number of Pages: 580

USA > Michigan > Shiawassee County > Past and present of Shiawassee County, Michigan, historically; with biographical sketches > Part 7

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"The county of Shiawassee shall belong to the second judicial circuit and the terms of the circuit court shall commence on the first Mon- day of June and December of each year."

The first term of the circuit court of Shia- wassee county, in accordance with the provi- sions of the above act, convened on the 4th day of December, 1837. There were present the Hon. Alfred L. Williams and the Hon. James Rutan, associate judges. No circuit judge was present. The sheriff was ordered to appoint constables, and he selected Noah Bovier and Mason Phelps. Sanford M. Green was ad- mitted as an attorney and counselor-at-law. There being no prosecuting attorney in the county, the court appointed Mr. Green to act in that capacity for the term.

The following are the names of the grand jurors in attendance at that term : Daniel Ball Daniel Gould, Horace Hart, Robert Crawford Thomas P. Green, Elisha Brewster, Stephen Post, Samuel Brown, M. Bradley Martin, Ira B. Howard, Ephriam Wright, Cornelius W.

Miller, James Van Aukin, Joseph Parmenter, Josiah Pierce, John Smedley, Samuel W. Harding, and S. N. Whitcomb. Daniel Ball was appointed foreman. The grand jury found one indictment, charging a man with perjury, and they were then discharged.

The records show the following entry : "John Knaggs vs. Phillis, his wife. On motion of Sanford M. Green, counsel for said Knaggs, the court ordered that said Knaggs have leave to present a petition for a divorce from Phillis, his said wife, at the next term of the court; and that said Knaggs shall cause a written notice to be served upon his said wife at least thirty days before the said term of the court of his intention to present such petition and of the hearing thereof." This was the first proceeding in the county to obtain a divorce. The court adjourned on the second day of its session.

The next term of the court was held on the 4th day of June, 1838, by Hon. James Rutan, one of the associate judges. The grand jury were impanelled but reported that they had no business before them, and the court at once adjourned, no other business having been transacted.

The next term commenced November 25, 1838, and was held by the associate judge, the circuit judge not being present. The first petit jury ever summoned in the county was

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY

present at this term. The grand jury found five bills of indictment, but no further business was transacted. The first term of the court at which a circuit judge was present began on May 7, 1839, when the Hon. Charles W. Whipple, circuit judge, and Hon. James Ru- tan, associate judge, presided. At this time George W. Wisner and Alfred H. Hanscomb were admitted to the bar, and were for many years thereafter distinguished lawyers at Pon- tiac. The first trial ever held in this court was at this term. It was a criminal case and the jury did not agree.

At the May term, 1840, the first civil case was tried in this court, a verdict being ren- dered for the plaintiff for seventeen dollars and fifty-five cents damages. Moses Wisner, afterward governor of Michigan, was ad- mitted to the bar at this term.

At the term commencing May 3, 1843, Hon. George Morrell, then chief justice of the su- preme court, presided.

The next circuit judge of the county was Hon. Edward Mundy, who held his first term in August, 1848, and his last term in June, 1850. Judge Mundy was the first lieutenant governor of Michigan under the first state constitution, in 1835 and 1836, and again held the same office from 1837 to 1840.

Sanford M. Green was elected circuit judge and held his first term in the county in May, 1852, and continued so to preside until May, 1857, when he was succeeded by Judge Jo- siah Turner, who was successively re-elected to that position for twenty-five years.

Judge Turner was succeeded on the bench by Judges William Newton, Charles H. Wis- ner, Luke Montague, Stearns F. Smith, and Selden S. Miner, the present incumbent, who was elected in April, 1905, and commenced his

first term of court in the county, January 22, 1906.

Shiawassee county had not found it neces- sary for forty years to call a grand jury, but of late years certain irregularities had seemed to creep into the administration of county af- fairs and the expenses had increased to such an extent that considerable dissatisfaction was felt. The board of supervisors seemed unable or unwilling to cope with the situation, and finally, in response to a practically unanimous demand of the people of the county, Judge Stearns F. Smith granted the petition offered by Prosecuting Attorney Charles M. Hamper, and a grand jury was called to meet Monday, December 4, 1905. Judge Smith, having pre- viously arranged with Judge Howard Wiest, of the Ingham county circuit, to exchange work, the latter occupied the Shiawassee bench dur- ing the entire time of the November term of court, while the grand jury was in session. Hon. Gilbert R. Lyon and Hon. Owen Rippey were appointed assistants to the prosecuting attorney and the following named gentlemen constituted the grand jury : Thomas Cooling, foreman, Durand ; George T. Campbell, clerk, Owosso city; Frank O. Bement, Fairfield ; Charles Bolt, Shiawassee; Theodore J. Hicks, Bennington ; John F. Lee, Sciota; Elihu Ma- son, Owosso township; Theodore Mead, New Haven ; Myron H. Redmond, Burns; Martin T. Rourke, Owosso city; William Sawer, Jr., Rush ; Silas Scribner, Antrim ; Silas B. South- worth, Middlebury ; Frank A. Thompson, Cal- edonia ; Harry A. Watson, and Arthur C. Young, Corunna city.

The jury was in session for seven weeks and gave a careful investigation into the sev- eral matters brought before them, with the result that forty-five indictments were issued,

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forty-four for circuit-court misdemeanors, and one being a criminal indictment. The effect of the investigation was to at once greatly re- duce the expenses of the offices complained against, resulting in much good to the county.

PROBATE COURT

The first session of this court of which any record is extant was held, at the village of Owosso, February 13, 1838, Elias Comstock, probate judge, presiding. The first proceed- ings were "in the matter of the estate of Sam- uel Carpenter, deceased." On the same day application was made by Isaac Thompson, of Ionia county, for letters of administration on the estate of Daniel Barker, of the county of Clinton.

The first will (that of Orrin Perry) was offered for probate June 12, 1838. Letters were issued April 25, 1839, to Ralph Williams as guardian of Violetta Carpenter, a minor, and a daughter of Samuel Carpenter. Lewis Lind- ley was appointed, April 1, 1839, guardian of Lucinda Phidelia Bedell, a minor, daughter of Kilburn Bedell. The will of Moses Kim- ball, one of the proprietors of the Shiawassee Company, was presented for probate. It was dated Norwich, Huron county, Ohio, Septem-

ber 18, 1837, and recorded in the county of Shiawassee in 1838, as part of the property mentioned in the will was in this county.

Judge Comstock served as probate judge until 1841, when he was succeeded by Ira B. Howard. The probate judges succeeding Judge Howard have been Amos Gould, elected 1844; Luke H. Parsons, 1848; Robert R. Thompson, 1852 ; John B. Barnes, 1856 ; Hugh McCurdy, 1860; Sullivan R. Kelsey, 1864; Amasa A. Harper, 1880; and Matthew Bush, elected 1888, and still incumbent of the of- fice.

COUNTY COURT

The county courts which had existed in Michigan prior to April, 1833, were abolished by law at that time, but were re-established by an act of the legislature in 1846. Under the law last named the first session of the county court of Shiawassee was held at Co- runna on the 5th of April, 1847, Judge Robert R. Thompson presiding. During the continu- ance of the county court, Judge Thompson presided until the end of the year, when, by a limitation embodied in the constitution of 1850, the county courts ceased to exist and their business was transferred to the circuit court.

THE SHIAWASSEE RIVER

THE SHIAWASSEE'S SONG

There's a song that stills my heartache With its wondrous, golden chime, Cures my soul of all its sadness With the magic of its rhyme, Frees my past from every sorrow And defeats the world's sharp stings; 'Tis a mystic, mellow measure That the Shiawassee sings.

A song of woodland places, of home and happy faces,

A song of clover-bloom and fields of rye; Of hearts the angels keep while they lie in dreamless sleep,

Where the Shiawassee sings their lullaby.

Shiawassee-winding river,

Your sweet song brings back to me

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY

Cherished fancies of my childhood, Mingling with its melody.

Dreams the years had carried from me On their swift, resistless wings, Are recalled and echo ever In the song your current sings.

With the song there comes sweet incense Floating backward on the breeze,

Fragrance from the fields where May flowers Gleamed beneath old forest trees,

Fields where flame of Indian blossom Rivaled lily's saintly glow- Oh, a thousand mem'ries mingle With the Shiawassee's flow.

A dream of woodland places, of home and happy faces,

A dream of days that come no more to me Of summer's golden sheaves, of autumn's crimson leaves

Drifting with the Shiawassee to the sea. MARY CARRUTHERS.

It is to be regretted that the exact signifi- cance of the name Shiawassee has not yet been definitely established. A number of meanings have been ascribed to the word, some without satisfactory authority, and others which are so inapplicable as to preclude acceptance until further testimony is submitted. The latest of these is found in "Shiawassee County Illus- trated," a supplement to the Corunna Journal published December 21, 1905. The meaning there given is "rolling, or sparkling waters."

In Franklin Ellis's "History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties," there is a brief note by the author (page 144) stating that the word Shiawassee is a Chippewa term for "straight running river." This is somewhat astonishing

information to one acquainted with the river whose best known characteristic is its disin- clination to run in a direct line. Without ap- plying to an official survey for verification of the statement, it is quite safe to assert that there is not a straight half-mile in the whole length of the stream. This also seems a sin- gular exception to the appropriateness usually expressed in the names bestowed by the Indi- ans upon rivers and localities.

A more convincing statement, and one in some degree explanatory of that offered above, is found in Lucius E. Gould's account of Bo- lieu, the trader's, first journey up the river. It is as follows: "It is now eighty-six years since Henry Bolieu first paddled his birch-bark canoe from the headwaters of the Saginaw into the river that flows through the country of which we now write. Henry had heard of the great salt springs which were to be found in a wonderful country far up the river, and he was on his way to visit them. In his jour- ney up the Saginaw he came to so many rivers both great and small that he was puzzled to decide which was the right stream to follow. * To be sure of the matter, he called out to his friends, the Indians, who were not far off in another canoe, "What was-see (run- ning water or river) will best float Sho-mok- e-mon's canoe to the was-see of the Keche- wondaugoning?" And the answer shouted back to him was this: "Shia (straight, or straight ahead) was-see." Shiawassee, or "the river straight ahead," while subtracting some- thing from the supposed poetical quality of the name, is at least coherent and preferable to "straight running river."

As words become altered by the circum- stances of their use, so the meaning of a name may be changed with the sense in which it is

PAST AND PRESENT OF

applied. This may be a reason for the accept- ance by many of the inhabitants of the Shia- wassee valley, of "winding river," as synony- mous with the name of their beloved stream. In support of this may be quoted the introduc- tory paragraphs of a story of pioneer life, which are in the nature of a commentary on the names found in this region.

Among all the dainty lakes and streams with which southern Michigan is so richly embel- lished, there is no lovelier bit of nature's work than the Shiawassee river. From its source among the hills of Livingston to its merging with the larger Saginaw, it is a tangled rib- bon of beauty, stretching "sinuous southward and sinuous northward" across the county that shares its name. Always flowing in a curve from the graceful sweep of a mile to its famous "Ox Bow" bend, it ranges far and wide. Here it swings between broad fields of grain, there steals swiftly through the shade of walnut, maple and oak; now rushing noisily over the "riffles" to meet the running redfin, then dropping slowly past the high banks in almost enchanting silence; but everywhere the same delightful stream, and dear to the hearts of thousands of children, as only such a stream can be, with its lily ponds, its swimming holes, its stretches of flags where the muskrat builds in fancied safety his tell-tale house of reeds, and its incurves, where, through loitering drift- wood, first lines were dropped for bluegill or bass. It was surely a poet tongue that named this stream "Shiawassee-winding river."

In many a legend, grave or gay, the river is connected with the settlement of Shiawassee county. Along its banks, in three score years, villages have had their rise, a few have grown to cities, and some have had their fall. The names they wear are a curious commingling

of the classic and the aboriginal, which attests the culture of some of the early inhabitants. Burns, Byron, Venice, Caledonia, and Corunna mix oddly with the sibilant Chippewa names, Owosso, Shiawassee, and Chesaning.

The principal waters of the county are the Shiawassee, Maple and Looking Glass rivers, and their tributary streams. The Shiawassee is formed of an eastern and a southern branch, which, taking their rise in the lakes of Oak- land, Livingston and Genesee counties, join their waters in the southeast corner of Shia- wassee, from which point the main stream flows in a general northwesterly and northerly course through nearly the entire length of the county, crosses its northern boundary nearly at the center of it, and thence flows northward through Saginaw county into the Saginaw river. The Shiawassee river in traversing the county, passes the cities of Owosso and Co- runna (the villages of Byron and Vernon, and what might be called the deceased villages of Newberg, Shiawassee, and Knaggs Bridge, or Burns, as the postoffice established for a time at that place was called).

The Maple river, taking its rise in the cen- tral and southern parts of the county, flows thence in a northwesterly direction into Clin- ton. The sources of the Looking Glass river are in the northwest part of Livingston county and the extreme southern part of Shiawassee. . Its course through this county is first nearly north, and afterward generally west, to the point where it crosses the west boundary line into Clinton county. Neither the Looking Glass nor the Maple become streams of much size or importance until after they pass out of Shiawassee county. The northeast part of the county is watered by the head streams of the Misteauguay river, which flows north-

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY

ward into Saginaw county and enters the Flint river five miles above its mouth.

In the first half of the present century, be- fore the days of railroad communication, the people of Michigan, like those of other states, were disposed to place an extravagantly high estimate on the importance and value of their rivers for purposes of navigation, and to favor bold and often visionary projects for the im- provement of the streams, in the expectation (which was seldom if ever realized) of secur- ing great advantages from the utilization of these waterways. Such projects were con- ceived and their prosecution commenced with regard to the rivers of Shiawassee county.

The state, at the regular session of its sec- ond legislature in 1837, adopted an internal- improvement system and appropriated twenty thousand dollars for the survey of canals and railroads, and fifteen thousand dollars to be applied to the construction of a canal to unite the waters of the Saginaw with the Grand or the Maple river, if the board of commission- ers should "decide that it is practicable to con- struct a canal on said route." After an official survey a route was adopted running from the forks of the Bad river westward to the Maple, at its "Big Bend," in Gratiot county. After considerable work had been done and the sum of twenty-two thousand dollars expended on the "Saginaw & Maple River Canal" the pro- ject was abandoned. Ten years later the "Saginaw & Grand River Canal Company" was incorporated, with a capital stock of two hundred thousand dollars, and hope was re- awakened that the Maple river was at last to become part of a navigable waterway be- tween the two great lakes; but no work was ever done by the company and the enterprise was finally abandoned, never again to be re-

vived. At about the same time a project was started for the construction of a canal along the Looking Glass river between DeWitt and Wacousta, in Clinton county, but the work was never accomplished, or actually commenced.

On the Shiawassee a more practical plan was inaugurated and to some extent carried out. An account of this work published in 1880 read as follows :

"The improvement of the Shiawassee river, so as to form a slack-water navigation from the Big. Rapids of that stream northward to the 'Saginaw was a project which had been contemplated by the founders of Owosso from the time when the first settlements were made at that place. Between them and the outside world there were no roads practicable for heavy transportation, and the obstacles to the construction of such for a distance of more than fifty miles (to Pontiac) were at that early day regarded as almost insurmountable. It seemed to them, therefore, that their settle- ment must continue in its isolated condition and that very little improvement as a village could be expected until they could secure com- munication with Saginaw by making the river boatable. These were the considerations which gave birth to the idea of improving the Shiawassee, and but a short time elapsed be- fore they moved toward the execution of the plan by procuring the necessary authority from the legislature.

"The 'Owosso & Saginaw Navigation Com- pany' was incorporated by act approved March 21, 1837. By this act Daniel Ball, Al- fred L. Williams, Benjamin O. Williams, Lewis Findley, William Gage, Gardner D. Williams, Norman Little, Samuel G. Watson, Ephraim S. Williams, Elias Comstock, Al- exander Hilton, and Perry G. Gardner were

PAST AND PRESENT OF

appointed commissioners to receive subscrip- tions to the capital stock, which was authorized to the amount of one hundred thousand dol- lars. * * * The company commenced the work in 1837 and continued it during that and the following season, expending several thou- sand dollars on the river in removing fallen timber, driftwood, and other obstructions (principally between Chesaning and the mouth of Bad river), erecting dams, and construct- ing tow-paths above Chesaning.

"The river was thus made navigable for flat-bottomed boats or scows, several of which were built with foot-boards at each side, on which men walked forward and aft in 'poling' the craft up the stream. This poling process was employed on that part of the river which is below Chesaning, but above that place horses were used. . At some points the tow- path was made on the east side of the stream and at others on the west for the sake of econ- omy in its construction, the horses being crossed on the boat from one side of the river · to the other as occasion required. Larger boats were afterward used for floating produce down the river from Owosso. One 'Dur- ham' boat, built at that place by Ebenezer Gould and others, carried a cargo of two hundred barrels of flour from Owosso to Saginaw.

"The company was reincorporated under the same name by act approved May 15, 1846, Amos Gould, Alfred L. Williams, Benjamin O. Williams, Elias Comstock, Ebenezer C. Kimberly, Lemuel Castle, Isaac Gale, George W. Slocum, George Chapman, Edward L. Ament, Anson B. Chipman, and John B. Barnes being appointed commissioners to re- ceive subscriptions to the stock, which was authorized to the amount of one hundred thou-

sand dollars. In addition to the powers grant- ed by the incorporating act of 1837, the com- pany was now authorized 'to construct a canal from some point on Bad river as they may hereafter determine upon, and to make such improvements on said Bad river as will render the same navigable.'

"After this reincorporation there were some further improvements made on the river by the construction of a lock at Chesaning, the building of several weir dams, and in other ways; but the company never availed itself of the authority conferred to build the canal be- tween the Bad and Shiawassee rivers. Boats continued to be run on the river at favorable stages of water for some years, and in fact this navigation was never wholly abandoned until the opening of the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad suspended this unreliable and uni- satisfactory means of transportation. It was then entirely discontinued, after having been used to a greater or less extent for some fif- teen years, during which time it is doubtful whether its advantages ever compensated for the outlay incurred in the improvement of the river."

More practical among these early attempts to utilize the waters of the Shiawassee was the establishment of water powers and the erec- tion of dams and saw mills. A number of mills were built in the year 1836,-one at Owosso, one at Shiawasseetown, one at Byron, and one at Newburg, which was the first erected in the county. At nearly every settlement on the river's banks the entire length of the stream, saw mills were built in the next few years, and later, when wheat became one of the staple crops of the country, flour mills, or "grist" mills, as they were more commonly called, were added at nearly every point where rights

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY

to the water privileges had been granted Some of the latter are still in use, although steam has almost entirely superseded water as a motive power. The saw mills did a thriv- ing business for a little more than half a cen- tury, in which time the country's timber supply was practically exhausted. The old water powers, though, still have a value, being made use of to some extent for running electric light and power plants. That at Shiawassee- town has recently undergone extensive repair and improvement for this purpose, and others

doubtless will soon be utilized in the same way.

The river's fall between the Old Exchange and Owosso is about one hundred feet, as shown in Bulletin No. 160 of the United States Geographical Survey. Owosso's altitude taken at the crossing of the Michigan Central and Ann Arbor tracks at the Junction is seven hun- dred and fifty-five feet above sea level. The altitude of Bancroft is given as eight hundred and fifty-seven feet; of Corunna, seven hun- dred and seventy-four ; of Vernon, seven hun- dred and eighty.

MILITARY RECORD OF SHIAWASSEE COUNTY

Shiawassee county has no military history dating farther back than the beginning of the war between the United States and Mexico. At the breaking out of the "Black Hawk" war, about fourteen years before that time, the en- tire territory of the county was but a wilder- ness, containing less than ten white inhabit- ants ; and its condition was nearly the same. when, three years later, the quarrel known as the "Toledo" war caused the mustering of a considerable number of troops which were furnished by the older counties of the state.

At the outbreak of the Mexican war, the cir- cumstances were different. The total popula- tion of the county had increased to nearly five thousand people, and included about seven hundred men liable to do military duty, but still there were not many who were in a con- dition which made it possible for them to leave their families and farms to become soldiers. Of these a few volunteered in the Michigan regiment, and some probably in other com- mands, and served honorably through the war.

A part of the names of those who so volun- teered have been found, and are given in this chapter. .

On the 18th of May, 1846, was issued the requisition of the president of the United States, calling upon the several states for troops to serve in the war with Mexico. Under this requisition the "First Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment" was organized and placed under command of Colonel T. B. W. Stockton. From the roll of Company C of that regiment, as mustered at the Detroit Barracks, .Decem- ber 22, 1846, are taken the names of those who enlisted in Shiawassee county, as follows :

Charles Baker, Timothy W. Brown, Charles Curl, James Culbert, Charles Harpe, J. Jingall, Lewis Lyons, William H. Lovejoy, Andrew H. Letts, Elisha A. Morgan, enlisted at Co- runna ; William R. Chapman, H. P. Murray, enlisted at Owosso; Daniel Phelps, Nathan M. Smith, Matthias Schermerhorn, Bartley Sie- gel, Levi Prangley, enlisted at Caledonia ; George W. Ormsby, enlisted at Burns.

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Past and present of Shiawassee County, Michigan, historically; with biographical sketches, Part 7

Author: Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Lansing, Mich. : Hist. Pub. Number of Pages: 580

Author:
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Lansing, Mich. : Hist. Pub.
Number of Pages: 580