USA > Michigan > St Clair County > St. Clair County, Michigan, its history and its people; a narrative account of its historical progress and its principal interests, Vol. I > Part 44
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A SECOND STEAM SAW MILL
In the fall of 1848 Justin Rice, who had had considerable experience with the Black River Steam Mill Company at Port Huron, and had been operating the Palmer mill for Truesdail for a year, bought, together with his son-in-law, Henry Whiting, and Willard Parker of Detroit, property on St. Clair river just south of the old Palmer mill, and in the next spring began putting up a new mill. In the midst of the work Mr. Rice was taken suddenly sick while at Detroit and died in April, 1849. Messrs. Whiting and Parker completed the mill and oper- ated it and a store for about three years, when they divided the busi- ness, Mr. Parker taking the mill and Mr. Whiting the store. Two years later Mr. Parker sold the mill, which had a capacity of three million feet, to Oakes and Holland, and soon after removed to Detroit, where he acquired wealth as a packer.
Still another steam saw mill was located at St. Clair. This was the mill operated for more than ten years by William Oakes and Nelson Holland, who bought it in March, 1856, from George N. Fletcher. Fletcher bought the mill from Grant P. Robinson, who built it in 1849. It had two saws and an annual capacity of three million feet. George N. Fletcher, who owned the mill about six years, took it over because Robinson was unable to pay a loan of $5,000, which he had obtained from Fletcher for the building of the mill, and moved to St. Clair, building the home afterwards occupied by John L. Agens. After
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selling out his mill Mr. Fletcher went to Alpena, where he subsequently became through his timber operations. one of the millionaire "pine barons" of the state. He owned considerable pine land in the town- ship of Kimball and as a means of getting out the timber he built a wooden track logging road from St. Clair river to the land and after its abandonment as a log road, it became a highway. generally known as the Wooden track.
A short distance below St. Clair was the mill of Elisha Smith, who came to this county from Amherst. Mass., in 1836, and together with B. B. and A. Blodgett and Benjamin Bissell, built this mill, which in 1845 passed into the possession of Eugene Smith, his son, who operated it for a number of years, and later leased the Truesdail mill on the north side of Pine river and operated that for some years in cutting his own timber. The Smith mill was run by steam, had one saw, and an annual capacity of 500,000 to 700,000 feet. Mr. Engene Smith not only made a comfortable fortune ont of pine timber. but also built several boats, one of them-Margaret R. Goffe-named for his wife, whom he married in 1858.
In 1836 Franklin and Reuben Moore bought a considerable tract of timber land in the county, mainly in the townships of St. Clair and Kimball and the following year they built a saw mill on St. Clair river a short distance above Yankee street, and later put in and operated : tannery at the same place. Franklin Moore retired from the business. which was condneted by Renben until his death in 1857. The mill had three saws with an annual capacity of three million feet. Renben Moore was the father of Charles F. and Franklin Moore of St. Clair.
Mr. Z. W. Bunce after operating a water saw mill on Mill creek for Judge Abbott of Detroit from 1831 to 1843, returned in the latter year to his old place on Bunce creek, where he built in that year a water mill near the mouth of the creek, which he changed in 1846 into a steam mill, which was rather small, having a capacity of less than one million feet.
At Marysville, or Vicksburg, as it was then generally called. E. P. Vickery, the first syllable of whose name had been used in giving the name to the settlement. had built a steam saw mill abont 1843 which he later enlarged until it had a capacity of one million feet. A short dis- tance below, Williams and Mills built, in 1855, a steam mill of two million feet capacity, and this. together with the Vickery mill, which in the meantime had been bought by Lewis Brockway, were acquired by Williams and Mills, and later by Nelson and Barney Mills, who also pur- chased in 1878 the mill above their upper mill. which had been built in 1871 by William Sanborn and brother (James). This mill was a fine modern mill with a capacity of seven million feet, and was erected to saw timber brought from north of Saginaw bay.
In 1851 Mr. B. C. Farrand. who had been a practicing lawyer, bought a considerable tract of fine timber land in Burtchville and Grant town- ships and built a steam mill at Lakeport, which village he laid out and platted upon the site of a paper city-Milwaukie City-which had been laid out by .Jonas H. Titus during the speculative fever of 1836. A small water mill on Milwaukie creek had been built by Titus and Casper K. Conger. a relative of Omar D. Conger. also had a mill upon the same
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stream. Mr. Farrand's mill was one of the largest in the county, having a capacity of four million feet, and was supplied by logs brought in on a logging railroad, one of the carliest constructions of that kind in the country. After running for several years, and meeting with some losses, the panic of 1857 compelled Mr. Farrand to make an assignment and the mill was dismantled. At the north end of Burtebville, Mr. Jonathan Burtch had a water mill which he bought in 1834 from T. S. Knapp of Detroit. This mill he operated until about 1850. when he built a steam mill of much greater capacity, which he sold out in 1857.
At Marine City there were at various times three saw mills of con- siderable capacity. The first mill was built in 1837 by Henry Folger and the second mill was built in 1842 and was owned by Samuel Ward and Aloney and David W. Rust. This mill was run alternate months by Ward to saw oak lumber, for his shipbuilding, and by the Rusts to saw the pine logs brought to them down Pine and St. Clair rivers. It had a capacity of two million feet, which was later increased to three mil- lion feet and was operated until 1858. The Rusts then moved to the Saginaw and rapidly became wealthy out of pine lumber.
In 1848 Albert Gilchrist, the father of Frank W. Gilchrist, came to Newport as it was then called, and bought the Folger mill, which was increased to about two million feet capacity, and was operated until 1856 when it burned. His son went to Alpena in 1867 and made a large fortune from the pine in that region.
Dr. L. B. Parker, an excellent physician and man of high character, evidently thought that the lumber game was a good one, and about 1851 he built a steam mill on Catholic point at Newport with two million feet capacity, and operated it for several years, when it was turned into a stave plant.
At Algonac Dan Daniels built in 1845 a steam saw mill at the lower end of the village. This mill afterwards passed to Ripley and Butter- field. It had a capacity of over two million feet and was operated for more than twenty years.
Nathaniel Brooks and William M. St. Clair, under the firm name of Brooks and St. Clair, built a steam mill at Algonac in 1845 having a capacity of three million feet, which was sold to Buttles and Chase in 1853, and by them sold in 1855 to A. and S. L. Smith, who operated it for several years. Nathan Reeves and Miron Williams were interested in this mill for a time before it was sold to Smith.
In addition to the foregoing there were a number of smaller mills at different places in the connty, and it is estimated that the total amount of white pine lumber eut from land in St. Clair county aggregated three billion feet.
ILAARDWOOD TIMBER MILLS
While the pine timber formed the most valuable natural asset in this county, the hardwood timber made a good second. There were orig- inally large quantities of the finest white oak which, especially during the deeade from 1860 to 1870, were converted into staves and shipped east. This method of using the timber was very wasteful as only the
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very best part of the tree was used. Much oak was also used in ship- building, which industry was created and maintained by the presence in the county of a large body of the finest quality of such timber. Toward the lower and western part of the county in the townships of Ira, Casco, and China, there was much ash, elm and other timber suit- able for hoops and staves and William and Edwin Jenney, who lived in the village of New Baltimore, built in 1852 a mill at Fair Haven and a logging railway north to the township of Casco. This mill passed from Jenney to Ralph Sackett, and finally in 1864 to Henry C. Schnoor, who continued the business after the timber in this county was exhausted, bringing his timber from Canada.
At Memphis, Capac and other places mills were erected for sawing hardwood timber and operated for many years. What was probably the last piece of hardwood timber within the county of importance, was located in the township of China and belonged to the estate of the late Thaddeus Bacon of St. Clair, and was sold and cut during the present year, 1911.
SALT AND ITS MANUFACTURE
Salt seems to be one of the universal needs of mankind. From the earliest records the possession of supplies of salt has meant power or wealth. In addition to the store of wealth in the form of timber which rapidly grew less and has long been practically exhausted, St. Clair county possessed another resource of great value in the form of salt, of which it knew nothing until its supply of timber was gone.
It is true that within the county there were several places known as deer licks, where a weak brine oozed to the surface and attracted wild animals and became the favorite resort of the hunter, and that just west of the county line at Macomb county there was Salt river, so called be- cause of the salt springs upon it, and from which Meldrum and Park actually made salt, and to which is probably due the Indian name of Lake St. Clair-Otsiketa-which means salt water, but none of these gave indications of the existence of available salt of commercial value.
The existence of salt springs in the early days was, however, re- garded as important, and as it was known that several existed in the territory, congress in the act which admitted Michigan to the union, appropriated twelve sections of the public land for the development of each of not exceeding six such springs, and when Michigan had become a state, one of its first acts was to provide for a state geological survey and to appoint Douglass Houghton geologist with instructions to sur- vey and examine especially for salines as they were called. He put down a well at Saginaw, but nothing practical resulted, and his untimely death in 1845 put an end to further state investigation.
The existence of brine became known and in 1859 the legislature passed an act to encourage the manufacture of salt in the state and offered a bounty of one cent per bushel. This stimulated the Saginaw people, and in 1860 a few hundred tons were made, and from that time the industry grew rapidly, as salt could be made cheaply in connection with the saw mills, because of the cheapness of the fuel. Michigan
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soon became the first state in the union in the amount of its salt manu- facture.
Salt blocks were established in Huron and Sanilac counties, and finally in 1865 a company was formed in St. Clair to put down a well and manufacture salt. This company was called the St. Clair Salt Com- pany, and bought from George Palmer a traet of land upon which the Oakland hotel was afterwards erected, and put down a well 1,195 feet deep. Brine was found which tested well, and a plant was put up and a process devised by a man named Chapin of Saginaw was put in opera- tion.
Under favorable conditions the plant had a capacity of about fifty barrels per day, but such conditions seldom existed, and as fuel had to be purchased it was soon found that the hope of making St. Clair a sec- ond Saginaw must fade away. The plant was abandoned as a salt mak- ing proposition and a part of the company's property sold to the rail- road and a part platted into lots and sold. And yet with a little more knowledge and such courage as was exhibited a few years later by Mr. McElroy, the former dream would have been realized.
Hope had not been entirely given up, but it was realized that there could be no competition with the Saginaw valley so long as the latter had
DIAMOND CRYSTAL
SALT WORKS.
DIAMOND SALT BLOCK, ST. CLAIR
an unlimited supply of cheap fuel in the waste from the saw mills. In 1880 it was thought that the time had come when coal from the Ohio fields could be used at a low cost, and a public meeting was held in St. Clair to consider the matter, and as a result $1,200 was raised by public subscription to repair the well and re-establish the business. Fortun- ately the matter was put in the hands of Mr. Crocket McElroy, who after an honorable and active life had come to St. Clair to live, although his chief business, the Marine City Stave Company, was located at Marine City. Mr. McElroy employed Mr. Matthew Porter of Petrolia to clean
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out the well, and through conversations with him over the conditions in Canada at Goderich and elsewhere, became convinced that a solid bed of salt underlay the eastern part of St. Clair county at a depth of about 1,500 feet.
Enough capital could not be obtained at St. Clair to make the experi- ment of boring to the salt rock and putting up a plant, so Mr. MeElroy brought the subject before his directors in the Marine City Company and by dint of enthusiasm, knowledge and logic, he induced the com- pany to permit him to go ahead and in 1882 he made a contract for a deep well at Marine City. Many troubles and difficulties were expe- rienced, but in July. 1882, at a depth of 1,633 feet, rock salt was strnek and the boldness and judgment of Mr. Me Elroy were justified.
It had been evident to Mr. McElroy that the ordinary form of pump would not work satisfactorily here. Water must be introduced to dis- solve the salt and when saturated it must be brought to the surface. The problem was solved by extending a pipe of smaller diameter within one of larger diameter to the salt rock, and then forcing water down the space between the two pipes.
In May, 1883, a modern salt block was begun and in October of the same year salt was first made in the state of Michigan with coal as fuel. and this most necessary and important asset in the resources of the county was established forever as one of its great industries. Since then modifications and improvements in process have been made. costs have been reduced, but it is only justice to Mr. MeElroy to say that to his firmness. ingennity, persistence and judgment is due the establishment of the salt industry in St. Clair county.
When the success of Mr. MeElroy's plant became evident, others followed and property fronting on St. Clair river rapidly increased in value. In 1884 there was but one salt block in St. Clair county which was inspected by the state salt inspector. but two years later twelve blocks were in existence producing salt. Over production and resulting competition, together with the inability to ship salt in winter owing to lack of railroads. however. so reduced the price of salt that the number of plants began to decrease. Some were abandoned. others burned and not rebuilt until at the present time (December, 1911). there are but four plants in operation-Port Huron Salt Co., Diamond Crystal Salt Co., Davidson & Wonsey. and Michigan Salt Company-with two other plants-Port Huron Salt Company, No. 2. formerly Thomson Brothers. and the Walton Salt Company -- which could be put in commission.
At various times the plants producing salt were: At Marine City : (1) Marine City Stave Company, which later passed to the Sicken Salt and Stave Company ; (2) J. A. Wonsey & Son, later Davidson & Won- sey : (3) Marine City Salt Works; (4) Marine City Salt and Briek Works; (5) R. B. Baird : (6) Excelsior Salt Works; (7) Germania Salt Company ; (8) Toledo Salt Company; (9) Lester & Roberts; (10) John- son and McHaney; (11) National Salt Company; (12) Michigan Salt Works; (13) St. Clair Salt Company, later Crystal Flake Salt Company.
At St. Clair: Thomson Brothers, later Port Huron Salt Company ; Diamond Crystal Salt Company.
At Algonac : Algonac Salt Company.
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Below Algonac : Walton Salt Company.
At Port Huron : A well was put down for F. L. Wells, but no plant erected. A well was also put down for the Morleys at Marine City.
In the township of Port Huron the largest plant in the county was erected, the Port Huron Salt Company, with a daily capacity of 2.500 barrels, and having a record of actual manufacture of about 700,000 barrels in one year.
In 1884 the amount of salt manufactured and inspected was 74,677 barrels, in 1910, exclusive of a large amount of dairy and table salt, the amount was 1,296,605 barrels, and from the small beginning in 1884 up to the present time not less than twenty million barrels of salt have been made in St. Clair county.
FISHING INDUSTRIES
The Indians were wont to congregate along St. Clair river and es- pecially near the entrance of the river because of the great abundance of fine fish, and when the white man came this abundance still existed, and it furnished the means of living to a considerable number of people. The fish, and especially the whitefish, which were very plentiful in the early days, were caught mainly by the seine and salted both for home consumption and for sale in the eastern markets.
Evidently there were persons engaged in the business who pursued it without regard to the rights of others or of the public, and numerous petitions were sent in to the first legislative council in 1824 praying the business of white fishery in St. Clair river be regulated, and on April 21, 1825, an act was passed which prohibited seines of greater lengtli than forty-five fathoms, that no fishing should be done on Sunday, that the natural running of the whitefish should not be diverted, and that fishing should be done only in the river channel and not by using the land of other persons.
In 1833 each person using a seine or net for the taking of whitefish was required to give a description under oath of his seine to the town- ship clerk for registry. Large quantities of fish were caught and dried. It was estimated in 1837 that the value of fish taken on the lakes and straits was $125,800, much of the actual work being done by the French- men, then living around the principal places.
The ownership of land properly loeated for the purpose of operating seines for whitefish was considered a matter of value, and when the Huron Land Company in 1837 bought their property around and in what is now the city of Port Huron, they acquired all the sections in the township of Fort Gratiot along the lake shore extending from the light house to the north town line, a distance of over five miles. In that year they laid out a highway from the town line south, substantially parallel with and a short distance from the shore line, and divided the space be- tween the road and the lake into what they denominated "fisheries." each one about a mile in length, and numbered them beginning from the south. It was in connection with fishery number one that the long continued and expensive litigation arose between the city of Port Huron and John M. Hoffman.
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Robert T. Holland, from whom the Holland road is named, bought a lot on the west side of the Lake Shore road and leased fishing rights as early as 1840.
The whitefish gradually disappeared, either owing to their being ex- hausted in this vicinity, or to their moving to other localities in the lakes and rivers, and while many fish are still caught in the river, the amount is small compared with the early days of the county. There was also a considerable amount of pickerel and herring caught, salted and shipped. In 1836 there were reported 3,100 barrels of these fish caught at Fort Gratiot, and the following year 4,000 barrels, worth from $6.00 to $8.00 per barrel.
CHAPTER XXIV
AGRICULTURE AND LIVE STOCK
CHANGE FROM TIMBER TO FARMING LANDS-GREAT HAY COUNTRY-BEANS, SUGAR BEETS AND ALFALFA-FARMERS' CLUBS-THE FARMERS' IN- STITUTE-PROGRESSIVE FARMERS-LIVE STOCK.
By A. E. Stevenson.
The agricultural interests of St. Clair county in the days of early set- tlements were considered but very little, as the early settlers of this country were either interested in boats and the rivers and Great Lakes, or lumbering, and on account of the conditions little thought was given to farming and agricultural pursuits. The men interested in the great lumber operations of the county commenced to make some clearings and improvements so as to furnish feed for the live stock used in lumbering. So it can easily be seen why in the early days the farming and agricul- tural interests were greatly neglected and not given the attention and consideration that was given by the early settlers of the southern counties of the state where they had no pine forests to derive their living from and amass great fortunes.
The men working in lumber woods of this county depended on that for a livelihood and only took up farming for a short time in the summer, and then only to grow a few potatoes and vegetables to help them through. These men, for a number of years, left their homes in this county and would go further north to work in the woods and earn money to keep their families, and it was only after most of the great pine timber of Michigan was removed before the agricultural interests of the county were given that attention necessary for the proper production of erops. It is true that some of the early settlers were very good farmers, but the proportion of the inhabitants engaged in agricultural pursuits was com- paratively small.
CHANGE FROM TIMBER TO FARMING LANDS
As the timber disappeared and proper attention was given to agri- cultural pursuits, it was learned that the soil in St. Clair county was very productive and on account of the great variety of soil it was soon learned that this county could produce all kinds of crops of the finest quality-some of the sandy soil producing the finest quality of potatoes
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and fruits; the heavier soils, wheat and other grains as well as hay in great quantities.
GREAT HAY COUNTRY
In fact St. Clair county for a great number of years has been pro- ducing for shipment large quantities of the finest of hay and today nearly every four corners has a hay buyer and while farmers have made money with the hay crop it is to be regretted that so much fertility has been taken from the soil and shipped from the county.
BEANS, SUGAR BEETS AND ALFALFA
While at first the farmers produced potatoes, hay. wheat and oats and seemed to think these crops were all there was to farming they now are producing beans in large quantities, and of the finest quality.
The same is true of sugar beets, as some of the townships of this county, such as Berlin, has ideal soil for sugar beets and the farmers are realizing big money from this crop. In other townships, such as Co- Jumbus, Werles and Kimball, beans are being produced in great quanti- ties and they are such a paying crop that less wheat and oats are grown, than formerly. Emmet. Kenockee and the northern townships of the county are great hay producing townships. as well as grain-growing seetions.
In some parts of the county we are meeting with considerable success in growing alfalfa and in a short time our farmers will have solved the peculiarities of this great crop and it will be grown in quantities.
FARMERS' CLUBS
Among other agencies to bring St. Clair county to the front as one of the best the state of Michigan has been the organization of Farmers' Clubs. These clubs were organized in different parts of the county over twenty-five years ago and are still doing good work today. They were and are composed of the better farmers and their wives of the different localities. They meet in these clubs and discuss many important topics relating to farming interests and in this manner improve a whole com- munity.
THE FARMERS' INSTITUTE
Another great agency for the improvement of the agricultural in- terests of the county has been what is known as the Farmers' Institute conducted by the state through the Agricultural College at Lansing. Local officers are selected in the county and two or three state speakers visit the county for ten days in the year and discuss with the farmers the most up-to-date methods and crops.
PROGRESSIVE FARMERS
In this way St. Clair county farmers, taking advantage of these in- stitutes, are progressive and up to the times. In fact, Prof. L. R. Taft,
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY
president of these institutes at Lansing, says he has to select the very best men in the state for St. Clair county as they are the most intelligent and progressive farmers in the state.
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