Bay County, Michigan - Chapter 1: A Brief Sketch of Early Michigan, 1905

Just one hundred years ago, on January II, 1805, Congress passed the bill for the organization of Michigan Territory. Thus was created, from the then scarcely known and seemingly boundless Northwest Territory, a distinct community, which in the century to come was destined to develop and prosper, as one of the brightest stars in the constellation of our sisterhood of States.

To understand the history of ^lichigan, one must go beyond the territorial period and take a fleeting glance into the hazy mists of past and unknown ages. This period is entirely within the realm of scientific research. Prehistoric upheavals, the glacial period and the great floods, have given Michigan her present geological formation. Isolated rocks and the rich al]u\ian deposits on our soil indicate the action of floating ice and great floods. The Great Lakes, which bound Michigan on almost all sides and give to her unsurpassed transportation facilities, are the deep pools whicli lay too low to be drained by the great upheavals which laid bare the land. Thus do the scientists account for the wealth of our mineral resources, the boundless fertility of plain and prairie, and the towering forests. Truly Michigan has been blessed with the richest gifts of Nature.

Prehistoric relics found all over the State show plainly that these blessings were appreciated and enjoyed by the aboriginal people who inhabited the \\'estern Hemisphere. In scattered mounds and nooks and caves we find a nuiltitude of signs, of crude utensils and fossils, that speak to us in a voiceless language of a past out of which no other tidings will ever come.

Ages have passed since then and a new era has dawned, - tiie aboriginal period. Dense virgin forests, trackless swamps, and lakebound prairies form the background, and the only living beings are the savage red men and the wild beasts of the jungle. The great

So pass otlier untold ages. But in tlie East "the morning h'ght is breaking, tlie darkness disappears," and the rays of advancing ci\'ihzation penetrate the gkiom. Savage wanderer and prowhng beast hear the footstep of tlie pioneer, and tlie known history of this great Xew \\'orld begins. The rude civilization of the copper-colored children of the forest, extending undisputed from ocean to ocean, is gradually but surely receding \\'estward before the older civilization of the pale faces. The hatchet, bow and arrow give way before the musket and flintlock. The wandering triljes are displaced by the founders of homes, the builders of cities and States.

From this point the history of ^Michigan is identical with that of all the American Colonies. Advancing civilization devoted itself to certain things, and when the desired results were accomplished, the genius of the age changed and historical facts assumed a different character. These tides in the affairs of nations are our historical periods, and in the course of events we now find Michigan in the period of voyage and discovery, - 1634 to 1760. Explorers and adventurers went everywhere but settled nowhere. To make new discoveries was the uni\ersal passion, but only a few colonies were planted.

The first white man known to have visited the territory now embraced in the State of Michigan was Jean Nicollet, who was in the service of Governor Champlain, of Canada, then under French control. He skirted the western coast of Lake Huron and explored most of the large rivers entering there, including, without a doubt, an excursion up the greatest of them all, the Saginaw River. His first prolonged stop occurred at the present site of Sault Ste. Marie, in the summer of 1634, where he raised the standard of France, and had some friendly interviews with the Indians, many thousands of whom made the shores of Lake Huron their hunting grounds. He visited Mackinaw, and retraced his steps to report the results of his explorations.

He was followed by the Jesuit missionaries, Ra}-mbault and Jogues, who visited the Indians at Sault Ste. IMarie in 1641, performed suitable religious ceremonies, and returned to their Eastern missions. In 1660, Pere Rene Menard resolved to start a mission in that neighborhood. He spent the winter with Indians near Keweenaw Bay. Accompanied by a single Indian guide, he started for what is now Portage Lake Ship Canal, and was never more heard of. In 1665, Pere Claude Allouez started the first mission west of Lake Huron at La Pointe.

In the 20 years that followed, the Jesuits continued their explorations with prodigious activity. Foremost among them was Pere Marquette, who thoroughly explored the western shore of Lake Huron^ traversing the Saginaw River, thence going north, and in 1668 he established the second mission at Sault Ste. Marie, which has e\'er since been inhabited by Americans and Europeans, and is the oldest permanent settlement in Michigan. The rnission was a square fort of cedar pickets enclosing a chapel and house of logs, with a clearing, bearing crops of wheat, maize, peas, etc. In 1 671, Father Marquette with a band of Huron Indians founded the mission of St. Ignatius, now St. Ignace. His grave is situated near the mission which he founded more than two centiu'ies ago.

In order to gain a better foothold on the Great Lakes, and to foster and perpetuate the spirit of friendship in which the Ottawas and Hurons received the early explorers and missionaries, M. Talon, Intendant of New France, sent messengers to call a great council of the Indians at the Saiilt in the spring of 1671. Fourteen tribes of the Northwest sent representatives to meet the French officers, who formally took possession of the country. Father Allouez was the interpreter, and after raising the cross and the lilies of France, he pronounced a glowing panegyric on his king, Louis NI\', pronounced the "chief of chiefs." Thrice was the chapel at the Sault burned to the ground in the next nine years, and thrice did Father Druilletes raise it from its ashes with indomitable energy.

The missionary was followed by the fur trader and trapper. In his frail birch canoe he skirted the shores of lake and river, penetrating the most .secluded spots of the wilderness, satisfying his keen relish for adventure and carrying on a brisk trade.

On August 7, 1679, LaSalle, the great explorer and missionary, sailed the "Griffin," the first schooner to traverse the Great Lakes, through the St. Clair Ri\er into Lake Huron. A severe storm carried him into what is now Saginaw Bay, and thus early were the fine harbor facilities of the Saginaw River discovered and appreciated. The "Griffin"' reached St. Ignace later that season and sailed up Lake Michigan to Green Bay, where the ship was lost in a storm.

On July 24. 1701. Antoine de la Motte Cadillac founded the first European settlement at Detroit with 50 soldiers and 50 artisans. The stockade fort was named Fort Pontchartrain, and log houses thatched with grass furnished ample protection to the settlers. Cadillac was recalled in 1710, and the colony grew but slowly in the next 50 years.

As a result of the disastrous French and Indian War. the district now embraced in Michigan was abandoned to the English, and in October, 1760. Maj. Robert Rogers took possession of Detroit witli a military force of 200 provincial rangers. With the raising of the English flag o\-er this the most important post in the Northwest, the colonial ])eriod begins for Michigan. Mackinaw, Sault Ste. Marie and St. Joseph, the only other French posts in this territory, were occupied by the English in the fall of 1761. These places were the meagre results of a hundred years of French colonization.

The English were hardly in complete possession of this new country before their neglect and ill-treatment aroused the dormant passions of the Indians. The French missionaries had a strong hold on the red men., and in the war just ended they had fought the English with all the ferocity of their savage natures. In 1 76 1 the Senecas and \Vyandots conspired to surprise and massacre the garrison of Delroit, with its 2,500 inhabitants. The plot was barely thwarted by Captain Campbell, the commandant.

Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas, occupying that part of Michigan lying between Lake St. Clair and Lake jNIichigan, a born leader, effective in speech, crafty and daring in war, a thoughtful and far-seeing general, probably the greatest man his race has ever produced, conceived the idea of uniting all the Indian tribes between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi in an overwhelming and simultaneous attack against all the English frontier settlements, and most of the tribes in that vast country agreed to the massacre.

On April 27, 1763, the Indians held a great council of war on the Ecorces River near Detroit, where arrangements were made for attacking the posts early in May. On May 7th, Pontiac, accompanied by 60 apparently unarmed warriors, entered the fort at Detroit for a powwow with Major Gladwyn. This was at once one of the most dramatic and romantic incidents in llic early liistfjry of Micliig-an. 'Ilic love of an Ojilnva Indian maiden for a pale face soldier foiled Ponliac's plot, and stopped a massacre, which if consummated would have retarded for years the advance of civilization. 7"he [nrlian maiden warned Major Gladwyn oi impending danger. J'ontiac found the soldiers all under arms and ready for action when he entered, and the prearranged signal for the beginning of the slaughter was never given. On May 9th the savages ])roceeded to besiege the fort, and several white .settlers outside of .stockade were ruthlessly murdered. On May 30th the Indians waylaid 23 batteaux, laden with stores and ammunition for the garrison, at I'oint Pelee. At daybreak the crew;; were massacred ; one officer and 30 men escaped in a boat to Sandusky. In July, Captain Dalzcll succeeded in bringing needed supplies to the besieged fort. On July 31st, Ca])tain Dalzell tried ,'i foolhardy sortie; I'ontiac ambushed the party (jf 250 on I'arent's Creek, now known as Bloody Run, killing the leader and 70 Englishmen and wounding 40 before they could regain the stockade, b'amine com- ])elled the Indians to go hunting in October, and during their absence the stores in the fort were renewed. General Bradstreet relieved the fort the following spring. Fort St. Joseph was captured l>y Pottawatomies May 25, 1763; iMisign Schlosser and three men alone escaj^ed the massacre. On June 2, 1763, some Indians were playing ball near the gates of I'ort Mackinaw, and the officers and soldiers, unsuspicious of danger, were looking on. 'i"he ball was thrown into the fort and the <lusky warriors rushed after it through the gates; squaws handed to the warriors tomahawks they had concealed under their blankets, and another bloody massacre was enacted. Lieutenant Jamet and C><) men were killed and 2j were

I'ontiac captured eight out of 12 posts he attacked, hundreds of pale faces w^ere killed, but his endeavor to drive the English from the interior of the continent failed. In August, 1 764, Pontiac gave up the struggle. The warwhoops ceased to terrorize the valleys of Michigan, the outposts of civilization were rebuilt and the pioneers again look their axes and ])lows into the wilderness to create new habitations.

The War of the Revolution caused but little stir in this maze of wood and sw'amp, far removed from the scene of actual conflict, and by the Treaty of Paris, in 1783, England surrendered all this vast territory to the United States, wdi(j took possession in July, 1796, which marks the beginning of our territorial period.

The charter of this great new Northwest Territory was passed by Congress in 1787, and was framed with much wisdom, being the model of all future territorial governments in America. It provided for freedom of worship, a bill of rights, inviolability of contracts, encouraged schools and general education, proclaimed all waters free to commerce, and the sixth and last article declared that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should e\er 1)6 allowed in the new Territory. Thus at the very dawn of our ])olitical existence this \'ast region was pledged to education, freedom and equal rights for all. Gen. Arthur St. Clair, farfamed as an Indian fighter, was the first territorial Ciovernor.

In 1802 the Lower Peninsula became part of the Territory of Indiana. In 1804, Congress passed an act pro\'iding for the disposal of public lands within the Territory, to which the Indian title had been extinguished, for the

On January 11, 1805, Congress passed the act creating the Territory of ]\Iichigan. "It was to comprise all that portion of Indiana Territory lying north of a line drawn east from the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan, until it intersected Lake Erie, and lying east of a line drawn from the same southern extreme of Lake INIichigan to its northern extremity, and thence due north to the northern boundary of the United States."

In June, 1805, Detroit was destroyed by fire, and when General Hull, the first territorial Governor, arrived, he found tlie people camped in the open fields with scanty food and clothing. L'ndaunted by misfortune, these pioneers erected a new city on the old site, and Detroit became the territorial capital. Instigated by Tecumseh, another noted Indian chief, the redskins again took the war-path in 181 1, but the battle of Tippecanoe on November 7th of that year quieted this region.

Then came the second war with England. On July 17, 1812, the English captured Fort Mackinac, garrisoned by only 67 men. On August 16, 181 2, General Hull surrendered Detroit to the English without a fight, and only his good record in the Revolutionary War saved him from being shot for cowardice and criminal neglect of duty. General Winchester, advancing to the recapture of Detroit, was surprised by the English and Indians under General Proctor at River Raisin, January 22, 1813, and compelled to surrender. The following night the Indians butchered all the wounded Americans and the helpless inhabitants of Frcnchtown. Commodore Perry's victory over the English fleet at Put-in-Bay, September 10, 1813, opened the way for the recapture of Michigan. General Harrison's campaign in Canada caused Proctor to leave Detroit, to fight the disastrous battle of the Thames, where Tecumseh was killed, and for the last time a foreign foe was driven from the territory. On September 29, 1813, Col. Lewis Cass took possession of Detroit, and on October 9th of that year he was made Governor of Michigan Territory.

The population of Michigan was small, less than 7,000, and confined to a few settlements on the eastern border. The great interior was an unknown wilderness, inhabited only by wandering Indians. The first steamboat on the Great Lakes, tlie "Walk-in-the-Water," reached Detroit in the summer of 1818, and after that Westward-bound pioneers came to Michigan in large numbers. Governor Cass made treaties with the Indians, secured the cession of their lands and proved to the outside world that the interior was something better than an unhealthy, impenetrable swamj), as it had previously been regarded. The lands were surveyed and opened to settlers. The building of public roads, and the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, stimulated trade and commerce in the Territory, and by 1835 Michigan had more than 60,000 population, and clamored to be admitted into the Union as a State. A boundary dispute with Ohio, involving land on which the city of Toledo is situated, delayed the admission to statehood, and caused the exciting but bloodless "Toledo War." Governor Mason called out the Michigan militia and marched to Toledo, determined to prevent Ohio from organizing Lucas County. Congress hastened to pacify both parties, by giving Michigan the extensive territory comprising the Upper Peninsula while Ohio retained the disputed strip. Time has revealed the rich mineral contents of that Upper Peninsula and Michigan has never regretted the settlement.

troit during ]May, 1835, and in October, Stevens T. Alason was elected Governor, Edward Mundy, Lieutenant-Governor, and Isaac E. Crary, first Representative to Congress. The Legislature in November, 1835, elected John Norvell and Lucius Lyon, United States Senators from Michigan. Finally, by act approved January 26, 1837, Michigan was admitted as the 26th State of the Union.

Internal improvements were the crying needs of the hour, and one of the first acts of the State Legislature provided for a loan of $5,000,000 to construct and operate the Michigan Central and Southern railways. This work was begun in 1835, ^"-'t by 1846 the State authorities were ready to dispose of the railroads to private corporations and the two partially completed roads were sold for $2,500,- 000. which was much less than the State had expended.

Equally unsatisfactory was Michigan's experience with "wild-cat" banking. Fifteen banks were doing business in Michigan, when admitted to statehood. Among the theories of the times was the notion that banking, like farming or storekeeping, should be free to all. In 1837 a law was passed allowing any 10 freeholders to organize a bank with capital not less than $50,000 nor more than $300,000. The provisions for the security of the public were loosely framed and utterly worthless. Banks were started by mere adventurers. When the bank commissioners were making their rounds of inspection, the 30 per cent, of specie demanded by the law was carried from bank to bank during the night, so that on each day the commissioners counted the same coin, but for different people. Banks were located anywhere and e\'erywhere. One was located in an old sawmill, and it was humorously asserted that a "hollow stump" to serve as a "vault" was all that was needefl to start a bank. Bv

1839 most of the "wild-cat" banks were put out of business, but more than a million dollars worth of worthless bills had been put in circulation. In 1844 the general banking law was revised, and the State's finances placed on a safer basis.

In 1837, Governor Mason appointed Rev. John D. Pierce, a Congregational clergyman, engaged in missionary work among the pioneers of Central Michigan, as the first Superintendent of Public Instruction, not only of this State, but of the entire country. "Father"' Pierce, as he was affectionately called, was the founder of the Michigan school system, and his plan, passed Iw act of the Legislature in 1837, contained most of the essential features of our present school system, a living monument to the wisdom and foresight of the founder of the Michigan schools. He placed the primary school money within the reach of every child in the State, and provided for the establishment of a State University, for the higher culture of advanced students.

In 1847 ^ colony of Mormons, led by James J. Strang, located on Beaver Island. By \-igorous proselyting the colony of five families was increased to 2,000 persons by 1856. In that year internal dissensions arose, and Strang was assassinated. Soon after, the colony was dispersed by an armed l.iand of fishermen from neighboring shores, and the Mormons were given only 24 hours to leave the State.

From 1 70 1 the capital of the Territory and later of the State had been at Detroit. In 1847 the capitalsite was selected by the Legislature at Lansing, then covered by a dense forest, and 40 miles from any railroad. The selection was generally condemned and ridiculed at the time, but experience has proven the selection a happy one from every standpoint. A constitutional convention at Lansing in 1850 drew up a new constitution, providing for the election of all heads of departments direct by the people, and this was ratified by the voters.

\\'hen Michit^an was admitted to the Union, the Democratic party was in power, and the Governor was a member of that party. Dissatisfaction with the existing financial mismanagement brought the ^\'hig-s into power under Governor William Woodbridge, 1839- 1840. From 1 84 1 to 1854, the Democrats were again in power. In 1854 the Republican party, on the anti-slavery issue, was organized "under the oaks" at Jackson, and elected its candidates, and with the exception of two terms - 1883-85 and 1891-93 - when the Democrats prevailed on free trade issues, the Republican party has continued in control of the political destinies of the State. Roosevelt carried the State by over 250.000 plurality in 1904, carrying every Republican with him.

Michigan, under War Governor Austin Blair, during the four years of the Civil War, furnished 93,700 men. of whom 14.855 died in the service of the nation. Few States were more prompt in furnishing financial and moral support to the United States government in its hour of direst need. When the late lamented President McKinley issued his call for 125,000 volunteers to serve in the war with Spain in 189S, Michigan furnished five regiments of infantry, the 31st, 32nd, 33rd, 34th and 35th, consisting of 5,376 enlisted men, and 235 officers. The 33rd and 34th regiments, Michigan \'olunteer Infantry, served with General Shaffer's army before Santiago, and the Michigan Naval Reserves, detailed on the auxiliary cruiser "Yosemite." saw service at Guantanamo and San Juan de Puerto Rico.

and prairies showed few signs of human industry. Wagon roads were scarce and poor corduroy, and there was no completed railroad. Postal arrangements were inconvenient, and correspondence was an expensive luxury. Cities there was none. Schools, churches and newspapers were few in number and crudely equipped. The privations of pioneer lite were many and severe. The passing years have changed the wilderness into more than a hundred thousand farms, in a high state of cultivation. Eight thousand miles of good railroads afford good market and traveling facilities. The Federal census of 1900 and State census of 1904 show a population of nearly 2,500,000 people, having 12,000 schools, 10,000 churches, hundreds of modern newspapers, city and rural telephone and mail lines, and miles of new electric transit lines. Hundreds of fast and commodious passenger and freight boats ply the Great Lakes and the rivers of Michigan.

Well-kept highways and an excellent county and State drain system have helped to develop and enrich the agricultural possibilities of the "Peninsular" State.

Lying in the very heart of this great State, the annals of Bay County are inseparably linked with the fortunes of ^lichigan. To understand the recital of local- events, one must know and comprehend the varying historical periods of the State at large. Certain it is, that even as the vast country comprised within the confines of Michigan has provided many interesting and instructive records for the pages of our national history, and just as the achievements of Michigan's favorite sons have quickened our national life, and by deeds of valor and self-sacrifice, by industry, enterprise and culture, left their imprint on the "sands of time," even so has Bay County contributed its might to the greatness and prosperity of our beloved commonwealth. Hence it is fitting and right that a review of the main events in the creation and government of the great "Peninsnlar" State, should precede the more detailed sketch of the "Garden Spot of Michigan," - Bay County.